Generator power for water well.

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Things are starting to fall in place for me to build my country home. No city water so I will need a water well. My neighbor was telling me what a problem he had trying to run the well water on generator power. At first I wanted to use a 5kw generator but I think that will not start a 1 hp pump. I was thinking of having a smaller pump ready to go next to my regular pump and give up volume during hurricane power outages. Those with water wells what size gen and pump hp you are running.

If it serves as any kind of marker. I have a 1/2 hp pump 300' down. When putting in my generator panel, the electrician measured 1900 watts at start up and 1400 w continuous on his meter. Of course that's to say his read and meter were correct. Do not know the draw on a 1 hp motor or if it would necessarily double the wattage to start up. Depth run and wire gage would be just as important a determining factor in my mind as to how much generator I would need. I have run the furnace, the well, living room lights and the washer all at once with my 5000 watt continuous generator.

 

[RobertN]

My Uncle lived for 10 years out in the boonies. Had phone, but no power. He ran his well off a 5500W generator. Even when the house was done, and solar was in, he still ran the generator to pump water.

I bought a 5500W generator some time back to run our well if we lose power. Once we were without for about 18 hours is all. Since getting the generator, we have lost power for a couple of hours; nothing I needed to start the generator for.

We had to put a new pump in our well. Water production was really down. So, we added a 2500 gallon tank. It has its own pump. Well, now we have 2500 gallons of reserve. Turns out, the new well pump pumped water very well.

The small pump on the water tank does not take much power.

I like having the reserve. The two engines from our fire station have 500 and 800 gallon tanks; I can fill them each 3 or 4 times just from the tank.

We are on one well, but have two houses(2nd is granny flat). The granny flat is about 50' up the hill from ours; my Mom in law had hardly any water pressure, especially if we were using water. We added a 300 gallon tank and booster pump at her house a few years ago. Works great. And, she has reserve water...

Things are starting to fall in place for me to build my country home. No city water so I will need a water well. My neighbor was tellling me what a problem he had trying to run the well water on generator power. At first I wanted to use a 5kw generator but I think that will not start a 1 hp pump. I was thinking of having a smaller pump ready to go next to my regular pump and give up volume during hurricane power outages. Those with water wells what size gen and pump hp you are running.

 

[BobRip]

Why not make your large holding tank your pressure tank, only elevate it so you can gravity feed during power outage, or pump failure, that's what I did in S AZ. 1000 gal steel tank 8 feet up.

You could do the same thing on a smaller scale with two of the large size air bladder pressure tanks and end up with 2 to 3 hundred gallons of water in reserve.

good luck

I have about 40 gallons of air bladder tank (two tanks in series). If I suspect a storm is coming, I make sure the tank is full. This can give us many hours of water if we are careful.

 

[whistlepig]

Things are starting to fall in place for me to build my country home. No city water so I will need a water well. My neighbor was tellling me what a problem he had trying to run the well water on generator power. At first I wanted to use a 5kw generator but I think that will not start a 1 hp pump. I was thinking of having a smaller pump ready to go next to my regular pump and give up volume during hurricane power outages. Those with water wells what size gen and pump hp you are running.

I just went through the generator/well pump thingy. We bought a place and the previous owner had not a clue to the size of the well pump. Dedicate 3500 watts of your generator to the well pump. 3500 watts will start and run a 2 HP 220 volt well pump easily. From what I have read a 2 HP well pump is on the high end of well pumps for homeowners. A 5500 watt generator is more than enough for just a well pump. Our generator is 6500 watts. We can run the well pump, pellet stove (200 watts), fridge, freezer, some lights, and the TV. I think a 5500 watt can do all this and a little bit more. We bought a 6500 watt just to be safe.

 

[jas67]

At first I wanted to use a 5kw generator but I think that will not start a 1 hp pump. I was thinking of having a smaller pump ready to go next to my regular pump and give up volume during hurricane power outages. Those with water wells what size gen and pump hp you are running.

I used a 5 KW generator (box-store Troy Bilt w/ briggs engine) to run my 1/2 HP (240V) during an ice storm induced power outage a few years back. I have since acquired a 4.2 KW diesel generator (yanmar clone -- got it for $200 used!), but haven't tried it with the well pump yet.

My well is only 75 feet deep, so 1/2 HP is plenty. I'm sure you can find a chart on any number of well pump mfg's sites to determine what sized pump you'd need.

The big thing with any induction motor (or any inductive load for that matter), is providing enough start-up power, which can be 3X the running power. A 1/2 HP motor should only need about 550-600W to run, but my 1/2 pump still causes the lights to dim briefly when it comes on (using the 5 KW generator), but if I connect a 500W work light and turn it on, the generator barely notices this.

 

[jas67]

If you get frequent power outages, and, like many of us on this forum, you have a diesel tractor, or fuel-oil heat, consider a diesel generator, instead of a gas-powered one. Diesel fuel can be stored for about 5-10X longer, and you probably already have a good supply of it on hand for your tractor and or furnace (#2 fuel oil and diesel fuel are the same thing).

Also, be sure to have motor oil on hand to change the oil in the generator during any extended outage. Most Briggs-powered (and similar) generators require oil changes every 50 hours (they do not have a filter, or pressured lubrication).

 

[tommu56]

I have a grunfus sq flex down 450ft and it runs on a 120v 2500 w inverter.

The difference is in the pump it is expensive but do you want to pay for fuel for a life time or a one time for a better pump.

This pump will actually run on dc or ac it doesn't have a surge on start up.
has dry well protection all built in to pump.

Most well drillers and plumbers put the most economical pump in but don't look at the start current because of 98% are grid fed


link http://www.grundfos.us/web/homeus.nsf/Webopslag/85A210EAD5DF90C786256B7D005AF12F
tom

 

[RonMar]

To add to Jas67's comments about oil, air cooled engines consume oil. Your typical air cooled generator with a briggs or honda engine has about 4-4 1/2 days run time before they shut down on a low oil alarm(if so equiped)...

Wistlepig. Other than the demands of your large wellpump, it sounds like you have a lot of excess power. I run all the same things you mentioned, with a 1/2HP well pump, on 3KW

 

[BobRip]

To add to Jas67's comments about oil, air cooled engines consume oil. Your typical air cooled generator with a briggs or honda engine has about 4-4 1/2 days run time before they shut down on a low oil alarm(if so equiped)...

Wistlepig. Other than the demands of your large wellpump, it sounds like you have a lot of excess power. I run all the same things you mentioned, with a 1/2HP well pump, on 3KW

I agree, but go a step further. Stock a spare air filter, oil filter (maybe two of this), and spark plug. You cannot get any of this stuff during a power outage even if you can get to a store. I had an air filter go bad from oil evaporating from the foam filter and clogging the paper filter. There were very few hours on. This is all cheap insurance. Also you should have a torch to heat up the plug in case it gets saturated with gas or it's cold out. Starting and running your generator on a load is very important. I start both of mine twice a month and run electric heaters on them for 20 minutes or so. If you don't do this, don't bother to buy one. You are just wasting money. You did want it to work during a power outage, not just for bragging rights?

When you get the generator and at least once a year you should actually connect it to the house and run the loads you need to run. A friend found he had the wrong connector during a power outage.

 

[whistlepig]

To add to Jas67's comments about oil, air cooled engines consume oil. Your typical air cooled generator with a briggs or honda engine has about 4-4 1/2 days run time before they shut down on a low oil alarm(if so equiped)...

Wistlepig. Other than the demands of your large wellpump, it sounds like you have a lot of excess power. I run all the same things you mentioned, with a 1/2HP well pump, on 3KW

I think you are right about me having excess power. I don't think I have a well pump as large as 2 HP but have no way of knowing with out digging it up. The people we bought the place from were going through a divorce. We quickly and unknowingly became the enemy and information on this place was hard (impossible) to get. I do know the pump is 220 volt and 30 amp. We don't need to go whole house generator here. After two years here we haven't had any power outages to amount to anything. We do live out in the boonies with four horses and two dogs. No power equals no water for the horses and no way to flush the toilets. No place to take the dogs. A generator out here is a necessity.