Acceptable Residential Well Flow Rate ?

[dmccarty]

You're right Dan. If the volume is "in the well" as you describe, then it is available to use at the pumping rate. I read his note as the volume "in the pipe" which I took as the inventory between the pump and the pressure tank which is not accessible with a submersible pump system that I have. In your example, if the well stops producing water how do you get that 750 gallons from the pipe to your faucet? If oldpilgrim has a jet pump system then it would be available but it wasn't mentioned so I assumed it was submersible. It is true that you could consider the well itself to be a tank which is accessible with a pump but the water in the pipe is accessible only with a pump and water in the well.

One thing my wife insisted on when we built our house was the ability to use the toilets when the power goes out -, so I set up a capability to run my portable generator into our electrical system during outages. It works great and only takes a few minutes to change in and out. I can run everything except air conditioning (heat is propane). The generator us 7500/5500 which I converted to propane so it ALWAYS starts.

Jim

If the well stops producing they are screwed. :laughing: If the pump stops working they are screwed.

Certainly a large above ground tank is a good idea, I wish we had one, but the OP's issue was having a low producing well rate, which is very common in my area. However, the low producing well is not that big of a deal if you have a deep well and the static water level is high enough so that the well itself is a large storage tank. Now if you loose the pump or power U B screwed. No way around that one.

We lost power for about three hours yesterday when a tree took out the power lines about a mile from our house. I was surprised the power company moved the downed tree and and put the lines back up so fast. The tree blocked a house's driveway and the power company cleared the driveway which they did not need to do. :thumbsup: We had other storms in the area with lightning and I figured the power would take until 6:00 to come back on but the power was on at 5:00 as they power company said. Usually they beat their estimate. :thumbsup:

Thankfully, we did not need water but it was getting close. :shocked: Unfortunately for us, even if we had a above ground tank, we would still need a pump to get the water to the house and thus need power. If we did have an easily accessed above ground water tank, we could at least use buckets to fill the toilet tanks but we have been lucky in that our power has not been out for too long. Very lucky. We do have a generator but we have never needed it. Knock on lots of wood. :laughing:

Later,
Dan

 

[toppop52]

My GOD!! Charlie - do you & I live in the same country and under the same government??? Required drywells to dispose of roof water. What if you decided to not have rain gutters?? I have NEVER heard of a government requiring a sprinkler system in a private home. A sprinkler system in a business is a different matter. And why do you assume the new wells would need any kind of treatment?? It is good advice to get the water both bacterially & chemically checked but I would hope some sort of treatment would be required in only the most unusual of situations. Your sewage fee is obviously not a flat fee. Who is required to read, report and maintain the water meters? It is good to know that you will be happy with the new homes - - enjoy.

In the county I live in, if you have a modular home, not a mobile home or stick built, but a factory built home such as Berecah, you must have sprinklers. That's why we stick built, we were going to have it factory built. That is the dumbest rule I've ever heard of. You can have a single wide/double wide mobile home without sprinklers, but not a modular. That would have required me to put in a 4" well where my perfectly good 2" is now and a storage tank of 300 gallons in the attic in case of power failure, to offer 30 gallons a minute for 10 minutes. What could possibly go wrong with 300 gallons of water in your attic? Say it's winter, you're gone for a week and the heat goes off in weather like we had this year at times 12 below zero...

 

[Xfaxman]

I have a 400 foot well with 1-2 GPM, plus two 40 gallon pressure tanks under the house. As others have said with a well that deep I'm storing plenty of water and shouldn't ever run out with normal use. Now, stupidly forgetting to turn off the hose to the pasture water troughs is another thing altogether. :confused3:

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I had the same problem with the horse tank faucet getting left on. Here is what I did, installed an AC Current Switch on one of the two 240 volt wires going to the pump. Whenever the pump is running, the light is on.

View from the house, with the light on.


Inside the breaker box.


Switch and wiring diagram.

Is has been hooked up for over a year now and alerted us to toilet valves not shutting off, toilet flappers leaking and horse tank faucet left on twice! :thumbsup:

 

[turnkey4099]

I am in the same area as dmccarty. We have 5 to 7.5 GPM at 260 feet cased. No water problems with 3 of us and wife and kid take long showers. The only thing you can not do is water lawn or fill a swimming pool. Run well wide open for 45 minutes or more and it will die plus fill your filters with sand. Back when we had swimming pool I bought a 500 gallon tank and would fill from local town supply, cost was cheap for water not so much in time or equipment. Kid got older and we removed pool. I can fill 7 person hot tub that replaced it in 3 sessions from well with 1 hour rest or break between fills.
Also you never know I have 2 neighbors within 1/4 mile. One has 15 GPM the other has 32 GPM. The guy next door had 3.5 GPM and his went dry a few years ago.
Hope this helps
Scott

I am directly across a highway from my neighor, he is on one side of a drainage, I am on the other. I hav 24gpm, he has about 4gpm. That difference holds all the way up the creek, one side has fabulous flow, the other a dribble.

Harry K