Posted: 6/21/2010 8:30:21 AM EDT
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I have a very good 3' wide dug well with about 15' of water. It has a submersible AC pump in the well and the pressure tank is my basement. We loose power from time to time and I always have Jerry cans full of water for drinking water and flushing the toilet, but I'd like to be better prepared. I'm looking for instructions to put a DC powered pump in the well or near the tank for backup or possible use solar power and use the AC pump for backup.
Thanks |
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Lehamns catalog has parts to stick a handpump on your existing line but it does depend on how deep your setup happens to be since hand pumps get rather expensive as you go really deep. Their setup goes in at the foot valve which is at the top of your well casing and a hand pump can pull through a pump because of how the valves are designed in the pumps. This would just give you a handpump that could pull water through your existing electric pump in the well. A lot of folks mount them outside on the well casing or right beside the casing but depending on distance some folks mount them beside their kitchen sink as well. I have no clue about sticking 2 electric pumps in line in a system and since more than a pump can fail I would run another system most likely and that way any issues for either system can be figured out since you won't have questions about how well a pump can run water through another pump. When I get around to having a well again I want an electric pump as well as a hand pump on that setup and then I might look at putting in another seperate well and complete system since that would be a complete backup setup. But right now I rent and while the house I rent has a well it is not mine and life goes on anyway. |
| We use the 12V DC sampling pumps in conjunction with a 12V Booster Pack (i.e used to jump start a dead car battery) all day long at work. Its a Whale Pump designed for a 2" diameter well and runs about $100. However, it is limited to about 40 ft of head so we also use the booster stage for it and that easily handles a 60ft well but at a low flow (~ 1 gpm) and it gets finicky with silt. The booster stage adds another $50 to the cost and the hose connection is a simple barb for 1/2" poly tubing. Not bad for a backup if your drawdown in the well is shallower than 60 ft. With silt, I'd recommend only deploying the pump when needed. |
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shurflo 9300 for the pump.
In the rural electric coop monthly magazine there used to be an ad for a 3 gallon and hour pump/panel kit for around 800 IIRC. but cant find the ad and emailed the magazine, no response and looked through their online archives but no luck |