What is minimum amount of water needed?

[edlegault]

I was looking at an ad for a piece of land (20 acres) that had a deed restriction for water withdrawal of 5 gpm (5 gallons per minute). Doesn't seem like much water at first, but that is 300 gallons per hour and 7200 gallons per day at that pumping rate. Does that sound too restrictive?

[dmccarty]

I was looking at an ad for a piece of land (20 acres) that had a deed restriction for water withdrawal of 5 gpm (5 gallons per minute). Doesn't seem like much water at first, but that is 300 gallons per hour and 7200 gallons per day at that pumping rate. Does that sound too restrictive?

Interesting that the deed has a 5 GPM water restriction...

In my area, many homes are lucky to get a well that produces 5 GPM. We have 15 GPM and a neighbor has over 30 GPM but we are both very much the exception. The other neighbors are in the 5 GPM range. Best I can tell, our pump is rated at 5 GPM.

Our shower and kitchen faucet use less than one GPM. I have measured it. The toilets are low flow, the front loading clothes washer and dishwasher use around 10 gallons for a load. I figure, worst case, we use 200 gallons a day for the house. We will water the garden if we need too though but we have not had to water very often.

How would anyone know how much water you are using? That would concern me more than actually using 5 GPM.

Later,
Dan

[whistlepig]

I can't comment about the 5 gpm but I do know that when they drill wells in our area they drill deep enough so that the well flows 50 gpm.

[whistlepig]

We bought a new water softener this fall and it has a digital flow meter on it. We average about 135 gallons a day. Me, the wife, two dogs, and two horses.

[MBTRAC]

All depends on what you want to use the water for :-
- Domestic use a family of 4 with all mod cons (dishwasher etc) with go through c.1200gallons/week
- Agricultural irrigation 5GPM sure isn't going to water 20acres constantly

Often water restrictions are applied to preserve the water source quality,flows & volume as water isn't an infinite resource, &/or to limit the salt table rising & devalue the viability of the land through over irrigation........................either way I'd be doing the research to find out the reasons, though it wouldn't necesarily dissuade from purchasing good acres

[whistlepig]

On the flow this is what you may getting into: If you are taking a shower and someone flushes the toilet you may get scalded. If the washer is filling all bets are off for water anywhere else in the house. Not saying that 5 gpm isn't sufficient. But we have lived at a place that had a poor flow of water. These were the issues that we dealt with.

[IndyIan]

On the flow this is what you may getting into: If you are taking a shower and someone flushes the toilet you may get scalded. If the washer is filling all bets are off for water anywhere else in the house. Not saying that 5 gpm isn't sufficient. But we have lived at a place that had a poor flow of water. These were the issues that we dealt with.

I put in a large pressure tank and have 3/4" pipe leading to a manifolds with 1/2" outputs don't really have a problem with water temps changing with flow rates and our well can only sustain 5 gal/min.
5 gal/minute can fill up quite the reserve tank if the OP has uses that need more than 5 gal/min instantaneous flow for some reason.

[edlegault]

in regards to the 5 gpm water max restriction -- It is my understanding that all new wells (and most old wells) in that area of that state have flow meters on them.... I could always pump 24x7 as necessary to keep big water tank filled...

[MBTRAC]

On the flow this is what you may getting into: If you are taking a shower and someone flushes the toilet you may get scalded. If the washer is filling all bets are off for water anywhere else in the house. Not saying that 5 gpm isn't sufficient. But we have lived at a place that had a poor flow of water. These were the issues that we dealt with.

Poor water volume can be readily overcome by the addition of c.1000+gal tank that auto fills from the well, maybe even plumbed into your rain gutters too & then is either gravity fed or pressure pumped to the house - used this for many years, just like mains water pressure only tastes better.

[dave1949]

It also depends on how that restriction is measured. If it is truly a 5 gal. per minute limit, or does it mean average use that doesn't exceed 5 gal/min?

We lived on a well rated at 7 gal/min for 12 years with no problems, but I'm sure the pump was pulling more than 5/gal per min. when it refilled the pressure tank. It's really comparing two different things unless you know exactly how the 5 gal/min is meant.

The well driller told we wouldn't have any problems, just don't do lots of lawn watering in summer. That advise held up.