Heating Well Pit

[Willl]

Stock tank heaters ?

Tractor Supply Company - Stock Tank Heaters

 

[bearhawk]

...I did see that at the northern web site, do you have any experience with them. I like the idea of not heating the pit more than necessary...

I used a similar setup to control my torpedo heater when building my house.. It will work fine.

I do like the idea of having a spare bulb on the photocell.

 

[KWentling]

My well house is a concrete tank about 8'x4'x6' high and has about a foot of dirt cover over it. It has a 60 gallon pressure tank and a jet pump in it. In the 11 years it's been there, I've never had it freeze up. I'm in NE Wyoming and we see -20-30˚F here. No insulation.

Kim

 

[blueriver]

I don't have a pit ... my dad did and when underground like that your plan to cover it with straw bales is good ... the dround temp will keep it above freezing and the straw will make an excellet R value ... a 100W buld should do well.

 

[zzvyb6]

Home Depot near me has some low cost plug receptacles that switch a device on at near freezing and off when above freezing. Not sure how much current they will pass, but its a cheap way to run a light bulb down there. I'd line it with some insulation board as well as the top. Something fireproof.

 

[daybreak1998]

How do you guys keep your well pit from freezing? This is the first house I have owned that has a pit. My other houses I had, the pressure tank was in the house.

I plan on getting some straw to put over the top of the pit. I did see the previous owner had an extension cord running to the pit, not sure if he had a heater down there for when it got real cold or not.

BIL and his friend are up deer hunting this weekend, both electricians, one a master, one journeyman. To show their appreciation for letting them hunt on my property they wired in a outlet down in the pit to plug a heater into.

Howdy,
Just leave it alone.

Mother earth is taking care of it. It does not freeze. It might get cold, but it will not freeze.

Well Pits, and water works pits are built that way for a reason. No electricity needed. This works the same way a freeze proof hydrant works, or a thermal tube cattle waterer.

The only thing I would mention is.... you you absolutely do not use any water for about 3 weeks, and its -40 degrees, then maybe.

People talk about building a water works shed, (shed with pressure tank etc) then you have to spend money on heating it. Problems again when the power is out. I put a new ag well in and put in a 1000 gallon cistern tank with custom fitting made into the cement cast (2 2.5" pvc pipes cast into each side for water pipe and electric) 32" hole on top with a 36" piece of pipe on top. Into the ground with pump switch and 80 gallon pressure tank. No problem here.

 

[Egon]

Heat tape with a thermostat in it.:thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

[turnkey4099]

Very good diagrams. Never saw them before and I reallyi like the "not recommended" for the 'pit'. Noone who has ever worked in one of those would _ever_ make one for himself.

Harry K

 

[dmccarty]

We have a well house. Well, it is a well box. :laughing:

The Well Box is insulated and I have kept it from freezing for years with two low watt light bulbs. I used two since one seemed to be enough to keep the space above freezing. The second was a backup. A couple of years ago I replaced the bulbs with CFLs. This worked until one of the CFLs died. A single CFL did not generated enough heat so we had a problem. I added a THIRD CFL for backup. I think the CFLs are only about 10-20 watts each. I think the old bulbs were 30/60 watts each.

I have an old electric heater with a thermostat that seems to work but it seems like overkill compared to 30 watts of power. I also worry about the thermostat failing as well as the exposed heating elements causing a fire. Light bulbs are cheap, reliable, redundant.

There are heat tapes with a thermostat but the ones I saw where expensive compared to a simple light bulb and they have not redundancy.

Later,
Dan

 

[jimmyj]

We have a similar pit to what you have, except our pump and tank are in it. I put p. t. plywood on top and glued styrofoam insulation to the inside of the walls and "celing" being the underside of the ply. The ply is just exposed to the air above. Then I leave a light bulb on all the time. It's never come close to freezing, -40 or whatever the temp.