Posted: 3/9/2009 3:12:06 PM EDT
| My parents have a 110' deep well on their property. I'm thinking of either a hand pump or something solar powered for if/when the SHTF and the electricity goes out. What do ya'll think and where can I get a good price? Thanks guys!!! |
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this pump will work to 350 ft. its a hand pump with the option of attaching a DC motor http://www.solar4power.com/solar-power-water-pump.html |
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You can get a dc power submersible and run it off solar. Here is some info
http://store.solar-electric.com/sodcwapu.html |
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A handpump that pulls water up from the top, one with the cylinder in the pump itself, will pull it about 33 feet up. That means your feed pipe has to be below the lowest , year around, level of the water in the well, and still be less than 33 feet long.
Otherwise, you have to put the cylinder at the bottom of the feed pipe. A cylinder at the top of the assembly uses air pressure to lift water, and at 33 feet, additional pressure difference won't help. A cylinder at the bottom of the assembly uses water pressure to push water up, and water will not compress like air will. I think a bottom mounted cylinder will work to just about any reasonable depth, at least the physics says it should. One nice feature my hand pump is a nipple that would allow me to hook the handpump to the house main water pressure tank. Normally, the pressure tank triggers the electric well pump when the pressure drops a pre-determined point, and cuts the electric pump off when the pressure rises to another predeterined point. With the proper nipple on a hand pump, you can simply pump up the pressure tank, then use your toilets and shower and faucets as normal, until the pressure drops too far, then you'd have to manually pump they system back up again. Something to think about. On mine, that nipple is at ground level, so i'd have to address freezing temperatures some way or else the pump and house feed line might burst. I installed the handpump, a cast iron bohemouth I expect to last 200 years, about Thanksgiving, and haven't done much with it since, due to the cold snowy winter we've had. After the 3 month hiatus, the pump drew a full slug of water after only 4 strokes of the handle, same as last fall. But...the water started out pretty rusty, and then went all the way to near black with rust. I figured it was one of two things, either the galvanized feed pipe sitting and rusting for three months, or else the standing water in the well collecting rust. Thirty two pump handle cycles brought me all the way to crystal clear water, so I'm assuming that the brass cylinder did NOT foulf the well itself, just the galvanized pipe had a problem. It would take a LONG time to clear a 4 inch well casing 87 feet deep of rusty ater after long dis-use, but that turns out not to be the case. My setup cost $1200, installed, for handpump,bottom mount cylinder, 21 feet of feed pipe and install into an existing well. It's worth every penny. Constant, even obsessive calculations as to how long this or that sized stockpile would last, or how long that much chlorine, liquid or powderd, would last, and how many months the pond would yield n a wet year, or dry year, are now ALL a thing of the past. I'm still keeping my pond and stockpiles, still rotating, still maintaining large filters, but now I am CERTAIN I will have water, on this property, safe and easy to drink, pretty much forever. I'd happily pay double what I did for that kind of peace of mind. |
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Quoted:
I dont think a hand pump will pull from that far down - I would check with a well drilling company to see what they say about the max depth for either a hand or solar. brian actually there are a couple of companies that make pumps that will pull (er push) from deeper than that. bison makes a hand pump that will fit your existing well casing (unless it's uber small) and draw from down to 200' link fordguy installed one of these and had a thread here on it a week or so back. |