Running long water/power line...need suggestions

[bigballer]

i recently ran 350ft of 1" 200psi poly and it went in so easy, unfortunately i couldn't find anything more then a 300ft roll so had to splice it. It's ok though because I decided to put in a T and run a leg to the barn. For splicing I used a brass barbed tee with 2 ss rings on each side. i considered using the pvc or some other options out there but with the poly roll it goes in so fast there's no glue and very minimal joints which reduces the potential for leaks down the road.

cheers,
bigballer

 

[Highbeam]

"You will also gain some pressure when you neck it down from 2" to 1" to go into house."

This is false. Good ol' bernoulli's equation.

 

[CurlyDave]

Stump:

What is the elevation change for each thin line on the topo map? There really isn't any way to tell from the section you posted, but I make out that the elevation difference from the well to the house is ~ three minor lines.

On most of the topo maps I have, minor lines represent 20 feet of elevation change, which would only give you 60 feet of head between the well and the house. This is not really enough for good water pressure in the house.

I would think about a booster pump at the house.

I am in the process of building right now, and unfortunately have to be in CA most of the time while my contractor is in OR. I have the opposite situation as you, my well is 150-170 feet below the house site depending on first or second floor.

The plumber just go through running 2" PVC pipe for 700 feet, and was backfilling the trench before I got there. I am very concerned about a failure here. I have about 75 psi of static head, plus the pressure tank at the wellhead. Maybe 125 PSI. I would have been a lot happier with 1" or 1 1/4" pipe which has a much higher pressure rating.

Oh well, this is the price I pay for not being at the site.

 

[stumpfield]

Stump:

What is the elevation change for each thin line on the topo map? There really isn't any way to tell from the section you posted, but I make out that the elevation difference from the well to the house is ~ three minor lines.

CurlyDave: Each line represents 50' elevation change on the topo map. The elevation difference between the well and building site is somewhere around 100'-110' ...my best guess. (what's the best method to get a more accurate measurement of the elevation difference???).
It goes down ~120' then rise again for ~10' or so at the building site. It should give me roughly 45psi. I could put the tank up another 10-20' above the well to gain a bit more pressure and make up for the pipe lost. What's the ideal water pressure for a home?

 

[3RRL]

Tom,
You can get an inexpensive GPS that has an altimeter in it and check your elevations all over your property. I have a Garmin but I also have an old analog Thommen which is very accurate.

Wow! you ran 1600' to your camp? Is your well closer to the home site? How long did it take to do trenching? Did you run it along your road?
I didn't trench it and ran it along the property line then spray painted it brown. The homesite is less than 200' from the well, and only 20' to 30' lower than the well.

 

[kmdigital]

50-60 psi is a very good water pressure to have. I never recommend setting any well pressures over 40/60 psi, where 40 is the cut-in pressure and 60 is the cut-out pressure. Anything over 70 psi is getting excessive and will tend to cause issues like water hammer and a greater potential for leaks. 45 psi is more then adequate if water lines are properly sized and clean. Many old shallow wells in this area run pressure from 20/40 psi, as many old pumps can't develope more then about 40 psi of pressure.

 

[Highbeam]

I've gauged homes at 106 psi and my home is at 50 psi. The city I work for uses full gravity and all our water mains run at 70 psi.

I have noticed no issues with 50 psi, good showers and good hose action when washing tractors.

I envy your ability to use gravity as your domestic pressure source. That provides a good uninteruptable source for a required utility.

 

[Westonium]

I would strongly reccomend buying 2" 200PSI rated poly pipe instead of PVC. It is flexible (relatively speaking) and resists cracking from expansion/contraction and is pretty thick so physical abrasion from freeze/thaw is an unlikely issue.

For your length, 1000' rolls might be ideal (if you can find them), but considering how heavy the stuff is, 300' is the largest you'd probably want to go.

I went with the steel barbed connector to do my 600' length (2 pieces of 300') and have been very happy with it so far. I would reccomend against using the grey plastic connectors as they seem to deform and have leakage issues compared to the longer very sturdy looking steel connectors.

Going the flexible route will help limit performance losses due to angled connections etc.

I would have a hard time sleeping at night with PVC. If you DO go PVC, please go with Schedule 80. 1500' of line= lots of "opportunities" to have to dig up and repair your line. Make it as ramrod straight as possible. Paint mark your trench before you dig. The previous ditch dug by the prev owner meandered all over the place. If you can position the trench such that you can easily find it later is a plus. Ideally you should run a copper wire in the trench with the ends exposed in the well house, and wherever it connects to your house so you can connect it to sensing equipment for finding it. I didn't bother because I made mine precisely paralell with a road and a fence and is therefore easy to find.

The poly pipe is flexible to a point. If you are working with a short section of it, you may literally want to use a bottle jack braced against something to bend it.

I used a MAPP gas torch to heat up the ends that I was trying to *pound* the steel barbed connectors into. If you connect as you go, you can connect the ends together above grade, and then push into the trench later.

With PVC you'll want to personally make each and every glued joint as strong as possible. Use primer - primer well. Use the industrial grade glue. If the piece you are gluing on isn't trying to back off without you holding it in place for a 30 seconds, you may not have a really strong glued joint.

The poly will undoubtedly be harder to lay out - you'll need 2 strong people at a minimum - more is better. Don't worry about getting it straight and true when you unroll it - just close enough. A come-along and rope can straighten things out. We wasted too much energy on the unrolling part.

One thing I thought would make the unrolling waaaaay easier is if I clamped/attached/rope tied a big strong 10' steel pipe with a short L at the end pointing up to my FEL. I could put the roll on that, tie the free end of the pipe to a stake/fence/fixed point and drive the tractor away thereby unrolling it and saving two guys from a lot of cursing. I'd probably oil the pipe surface to all the unrolling pipe to move freely if it needed it.

300' of 2" poly pipe stands 4-6' tall.

Let us know how this goes.

 

[kmdigital]

Yeh, and if you REALLY want to go big, you can get 300' rolls of 3" poly pipe. This is HEAVY, and stands about 8' high, and is hard to unroll. Ask me how I know!

 

[bigballer]

Speaking of poly, one hint, if you can roll it out a couple days before hand to let it relax, also sunshine helps warm it up. I waited until late in the afternoon to lay mine in the trench. I also used a torch to warm up the ends and heated the barbed splice as well. It went on very easy. I also tightened down the ss ring clamps right away as the poly was still warm.

cheers,
bigballer