Pumping a lot of water from basement sump what to do with it? Irrigation?

[Joe Malovich]

I only have 2 thoughts, one good, the other probably bad. The good: Raise the pumps so they aren't at the bottom of the pit, there will be less height difference so less will flow in. The bad: What is your domestic well water height at? is the top below your shallow water table? Could you drain down into and contaminate sufficiently far enough away from your drinking well aquifer to be safe?

 

[bradm64]

I only have 2 thoughts, one good, the other probably bad. The good: Raise the pumps so they aren't at the bottom of the pit, there will be less height difference so less will flow in. The bad: What is your domestic well water height at? is the top below your shallow water table? Could you drain down into and contaminate sufficiently far enough away from your drinking well aquifer to be safe?

Maybe I am just thick today but I still struggle with consistently Pumping 25k gallons of water per day and not having massive power bills. I am 30 plus years removed from engineering school and have not done any pump calcs in many years. But 25 k a day is 200 k pounds of water. To get it out of basement is an 8 ft lift so 1.6 million ft lbs per day discounting other fitting and pipe pressure drop.

My conversions are rusty but I believe that would take over 2000 kilowatts per day of energy just to lift the water not even considering pressure drops for fittings, pump inefficiencies etc

Really need to measure flow out of pumps at discharge point with bucket and stop watch. My wife says I am **** stubborn (she is right) but something does not seem right.

 

[MossRoad]

.. then leave it open and let it fill. Then get a dragon. Or at least an alligator. Maybe Piranha.

:laughing:

I laughed hard at that one.

 

[rScotty]

Maybe I am just thick today but I still struggle with consistently Pumping 25k gallons of water per day and not having massive power bills. I am 30 plus years removed from engineering school and have not done any pump calcs in many years. But 25 k a day is 200 k pounds of water. To get it out of basement is an 8 ft lift so 1.6 million ft lbs per day discounting other fitting and pipe pressure drop.

My conversions are rusty but I believe that would take over 2000 kilowatts per day of energy just to lift the water not even considering pressure drops for fittings, pump inefficiencies etc

Really need to measure flow out of pumps at discharge point with bucket and stop watch. My wife says I am **** stubborn (she is right) but something does not seem right.

Yes, I think that we all sort of agreed to ignore those original numbers. They are probably way high. It would help a lot with final design if the OP would just do a bucket and stop watch test and get some real numbers.
My guess is that the original numbers were based on manufacture-supplied pump curvse and he used the zero heat specs instead of simply using a bucket and stop watch. That's easy to miss if you really are at zero head and don't realize that all the flow frictional factors are also measured in terms of head.

But either way,.... and whatever the real numbers.... he has a problem that needs a solution and I guess we are all trying to help by discussing possible ways to attack a solutoin. Whatever the solution he choses - either gravity drainage or mild pumping - all we are really talking about is the size of the components. That's when we need better numbers.
I'm thinking the only thing that would change with real numbers right now is whether or not a pond is a reasonable solution. And there we need real numbers now plus some more numbers later to get a feel for evaporation and inflitration back into the soil.

rScotty

 

[PILOON]

OK, follow up-----
I checked out that 12 volt pump (since earlier post) and find that it is rated at 2.5 gal/min at 0 PSI (moving free water = 0 PSI, or close enough).
My sump is about 1.5 cubic feet and with a cycle of once/hr or so that 12 volt will more than handle the average power outages. (rarely exceed 4-5 hrs)
Having a tractor and other power equipment I have a suitable battery on hand so I'm good to go!
Next problem will be a float switch of some kind but a micro switch might do the trick.(have a few in my 'go to' gadget bin).
Worst scenario might be micro switch activating a suitable relay to handle amperage.

I'll update once project completed but don't hold your breath.
I also have on hand a septic pump float switch but that is probably overkill.

 

[buickanddeere]

Need to pump the water away prior to it’s entering the house

 

[Deere Dude]

I have a tote system for fill totes with a sump pump from a pond for the garden.
1/2HP sump with 1-1/2 hose takes about 20 minutes (Never stop watched it) to fill the tote.
25k water will fill 71.43 (350 gallon) totes at 20 minutes each in 1428 minutes.
24 hrs a day at 60 per hour is 1440.
My pump is smaller that the OPs but it would be going flat out all day to make that much water and only rest 12 minutes.

This is just for my comparison, by I think interesting. The OP needs a tank or something to get a handle on the flow or even to see if the pump is restricted someplace.

 

[MossRoad]

I think the OP did a timed test back in post #40.

 

[JamesHW]

I went into the USDA Soil Maps for Urbana and while there is some areas where the water table is more than 80 inches, most of the soil types I looked at show the water table at 18-24 inches some even less than that. I would be interested if the OP could look and report his and neighbors soil types. The soil maps offer a lot of info on water retention, depth to restrictive features, what is below the surface, etc.

Looking at Google Earth you can see that man made ponds are a part of many of the newer subdivisions, apparently with the purpose of collecting rainwater and I guess accelerating evaporation. Looking at climate data you can see that January - April this year there has been something like 5 inches of excess rainfall from norms, Jan: 3.85 inch (normal: 2.05 inch) Feb: 1.9 inch rain, (normal: 2.13 inch), Mar: 5.09 inch (normal: 2.87 inch), Apr: 4.89 inch (normal: 3.66 inch). I have not found data for May-June which gets almost 5-4 inches year respectively. Add to the above snowfall totals for the period of around 13 inches to the 15 or so inches of rainfall compared 7.6 inches snow and less than 10 inches rain for the same period in 2018).

In the NE we are seeing similar excesses of rainfall and we are dealing with water getting into our rubble stone foundation and are taking measures to improve grading around the house and add gutters to an addition that does not have them. Fortunately our water table is at 20-25 foot down in sand, so we should be able to dry out the basement ultimately and take further measures such as installing a vapor barrier.

The big mystery is why a basement in an area with such a high water table...it stretches credulity.

 

[Diggin It]

I have not found data for May-June which gets almost 5-4 inches year respectively.

Go here:

National Weather Service Climate

Select Preliminary Monthly Climate Data, then Champaign, then the month. You'll see .41 over for May and .29 under (so far) for June.