Heating Well Pit

[brokenknee]

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.

 

[wykubotaguy]

If the pit is deep enough and decently insulated, use a 100w light bulb.

 

[brokenknee]

If the pit is deep enough and decently insulated, use a 100w light bulb.

About six feet deep, poured concrete no insulation.

 

[bearhawk]

If the pit is deep enough and decently insulated, use a 100w light bulb.

and use a simple thermostat to only run it when it gets really cold..

Portable Thermostat | Thermostats | Northern Tool + Equipment

 

[turnkey4099]

Well pits, houses. You will grow to hate that thing over the years. Why people build them is beyond me. Miserable place to work in, hardly any room, difficult to get in and out of.

I would move the tank at least into the house. It does not need to be at the well head and doesn't even need to be where the electronics are, e.g. the pressure switch can be in the pit along with all other electronics while the tank is 2 miles away...exageration but not by much.

Harry K

 

[brokenknee]

If the pit is deep enough and decently insulated, use a 100w light bulb.

It is not uncommon for it to get to 30 below here and was wondering if a 100 watt light bulb would be sufficient or if I should get a space heater

and use a simple thermostat to only run it when it gets really cold..

Portable Thermostat | Thermostats | Northern Tool + Equipment

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.

Well pits, houses. You will grow to hate that thing over the years. Why people build them is beyond me. Miserable place to work in, hardly any room, difficult to get in and out of.

I would move the tank at least into the house. It does not need to be at the well head and doesn't even need to be where the electronics are, e.g. the pressure switch can be in the pit along with all other electronics while the tank is 2 miles away...exageration but not by much.

Harry K

It didn't take me that long. I didn't like it when we bought the property, but liked the land. The house isn't even it that great of shape (but making progress),

 

[Gate Lavallee]

Few questions..... is the pump in that hole or just the tank,,just for this winter i would put one 100 watt bulb for energy consumption and as a back up if the bulb burns put another one in with a photo cell and it will turn on if the other burt. Done this for a few yes and it works well but changed the setup to in house tank and pressure switch.....submersible pump never freeze and it getｧ some days to -40 and below here. Good luck and stay safe.

 

[brokenknee]

Few questions..... is the pump in that hole or just the tank,,just for this winter i would put one 100 watt bulb for energy consumption and as a back up if the bulb burns put another one in with a photo cell and it will turn on if the other burt. Done this for a few yes and it works well but changed the setup to in house tank and pressure switch.....submersible pump never freeze and it getｧ some days to -40 and below here. Good luck and stay safe.

Just the tank, I do have a submersible pump. Not even sure how deep the well is.

Do you have your lights on a thermostat?

 

[Gate Lavallee]

Lights could be on thermostat....would save more energy.....my sugestion when gets warm next year is to take every thing out of there and just piteless adapter to the submersible pump ....easy if you have steal casing but cement would work but make sure to extend casing at least 6 inches above ground and just backfill the hole.( piteless adapter....thats how it is called but cant spell it to get pass the computer spell program) but check it out on you tube and thats the way to go next year. Salut

 

[wrooster]

piteless adapter

pitless adapter:

 

[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.