Well Water System - How To Check Pressure Tank?

JATO_RaT · Apr 22, 2003

Don, a 1/2 HP pump for the pool is pretty small so I assume your probably in an above ground pool. Folks with in ground pools generally are running 1.5 HP to 2.0 HP pumps and a second 3/4 HP booster for the pool sweep, Thats where the extra cost for them is, You pump water for your irrigation, that can always be a major cost factor, farmers know this well. It will dictate often times what kind of irrigation and crop your going to use. I realize this is for your home, but it points out just where some big issues are with pumping and water. Obviously your AC unit will be a real electricity consumer, an increase in house size can make a huge difference. Your geographic location can too. Here in CA it can get hot but it doesn't get humid like some areas of the country, that makes a difference on the AC on time as well. For us, we found using an evaporative cooler to be ideal. There are perhaps a few days to a week where it would be nice to use AC instead but even thats not bad. The evap cooler costs a fraction of what a AC costs. We are on a well for domestic water, irrigation is gravity fed from an irrigation ditch which gives us about 120 PSI. Our monthly bill is about $70 to $80. We not only get charged per kilowatt which is not to bad price wise, but also get a transportation cost, that is the wires, poles etc. split out from the bill. The bulk of our electricity is coming from hydro here in Northern California.

Anonymous Poster · Apr 22, 2003

RaT, I bought this house about 3 years ago simply because it had a large Mother-in-law suite and we werea bout to undertake the care of my wife's Mother, now 99 years old. The pool was in, it was clean, and I never really looked at the pool pump. After 21 years of caring for the pool myself at our old house, I decided to take it easy on this one and hire a pool service. They come in weekly and vacuum, check to water, add the chemicals, clean the filter as needed, and ever make small repairs, all for $65/month including the chemicals. Since the chemicals can run almost hald that, I think it's a bargain - and the pool has never looked better.

(There really is a point to this story /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif) So, the other day, when I responded to the posts above and guessed about $30, that's because I was basing it on my old house - where I had a horse and a half pump. I was shocked when I went out and looked at this pump (for the first time since I moved in, remember!) and discovered it was only a half horse. The pool is 14 x 30 inground concrete with screen enclosure, running through a DE filter. I don't have a pool sweep - the service charges $5 extra/month to clean if you don't have a sweep, and that's only $60/year - it would take ten years to break even with a pool sweep, and my experience is they won't last that long (I went through 3 or 4 in the 21 years at the old house)(maybe my pump was too strong! /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif).

So, yeah. The $10 is for a little pump. As I said above, double it for a 1 horse pump, up to $40 (at my rates) for a 2 horse pump. Still, for Spence's pump to be causing his bill to go up $40, it would have to be running at least 10 hours/day - and that was what I was trying to point out to him.

Here in Florida, you'd think we'd have the A/C on all the time. My wife doesn't care for it, though, doesn't even use it in her car, and so I've gotten used to having the house very open and having lots of paddle fans. Our bill stays low, I'm comfortable (I've gotten used to it after 31 years in Florida), and my wife is happy doing her bit to conserve energy. Our new house will have high ceilings. wraparound porches, and cross breezes in every direction. It's styled after the old Florida Cracker houses which were comfortable before A/C was invented. The fight we're going to have is getting it through building codes that assume everyone is going to shut the house up tight and run the A/C, and limit the total area that can be opened up, because that's where A/C leaks out.

JATO_RaT · Apr 22, 2003

Don, I suppose your right. My sister has a pool with a cleaning system called a Caretaker. It needs more HP to run what is essentially a bunch of sprinkler heads on the bottom of the pool. They have a pool service do the pool service. The cleaning guy always sets the pump up for 8 hours of use to help lessen his work load. Problem is, its a 2 HP pump and takes all the electricity it can get. I think they would be better with off your setup. What is your irrigation setup like? Florida, a place I have always wanted to visit and hope too.

Anonymous Poster · Apr 23, 2003

What is my irrigation setup like? Well, there's this guy named God... /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif Sorry, couldn't resist. But, while Florida is the Sunshine State, you should remember that a fair amount of our sunshine is in liquid form. I've never been to Calif, but my sister-in-law lives in Walnut Creek, and I know everything there turns brown a good part of the year, so an irrigation system is probably a necessity.

I do have neighbors with sprinklers. They usually have a shallow well (30' or so) which brings up water with a fair amount of tannic acid but good for irrigation. Sprinklers usually only run for a total of 1 to 2 hours per day, in the late evening or very early morning. A one horse pump is plenty because the systems are all zoned. I have city water in my present house, but I had a well for over 20 years. Generally, the potable water wells run a little deeper - 80' to 90'. A 3/4 hp pump will work, but a 1 hp pump has better system pressure. I had one or the other at various times.

A lot of the newer houses have the pop-up cleaning systems, and they use 2 pumps. I haven't looked at the power ratings, even though in my business (fabricating and installing custom outdoor kitchens) I spent a lot of time near them. On my first pool, I had a Polaris cleaning system for a while which used it's own pump, but the kids kept stepping on the cleaner robot and breaking it (runs around the bottom and has a float attached for balance - the float kept breaking off, and could only be repaired twice before the tube got too short to repair), so I got rid of that pump and went with a cleaner powered by the suction of the skimmer - one pump total. Worked great.

It's constantly amazing to me not only how much difference there is in utilities and rates around this vast country, but how different regions have totally different approaches to solving the same problem. Some of the grills I sold are made by fireplace companies. I remember talking to a tech person from Napoleon Appliances who told a story about a lady from Miami who had a technical problem with her gas log fireplace. She called up and said, "My new fireplace is beautiful, but could you send a technician to take the heat out?"

JATO_RaT · Apr 23, 2003

Wasn't it just last year your rainfall was a wee bit lacking? Maybe it was one of those states just north of you where everything was drying up including even the domestic supplies. Here in Northern California we pretty much have a complete stop to the rain by the end of May and don't see it again until October or so. I guess you could call us the "more Sunshine State", but the hills turn brown or as we say, golden. The Sierra Nevada mountains are our supply of water throughout the summer. Your sister-in-law lives in a nice area. A very mild climate.

Anonymous Poster · Apr 23, 2003

Must have been to the North. I live just below the line that is considered tropical, as in "tropical rain forest" (slight exxageration /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif ).

Everyone else in the family has visited my sister-in-law several times, but until recently I ran a small retail store (BBQ grills and propane dispensing) along with the custom fabrication work, and the only way the others could go visiting was for me to stay home. Now that I'm semi-retired, and after I get our new house built, maybe I'll finally be able to get out that way - unless some other project comes up. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

Boone · Apr 28, 2003

A co-worker had a few months of high elec useage, increases of $40 per month. Cause was a bad wire in his buried elec line running to his drilled well pump.

chrisjbell · Apr 30, 2003

<font color="blue"> The Sierra Nevada mountains are our supply of water throughout the summer. </font>

Indeed they are, and I'm sure glad I'm lucky enough to have gravity fed irrigation water.

And you're right - they don't turn brown. They are golden until they burn. Then they're black /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif...

JATO_RaT · Apr 30, 2003

How much static pressure do you have. We have about 125 PSI. Being on a party line we also have a combined total of about 114 GPM. On the flip side, if everyone gets to watering at the same time, the lowest and closest to the source is the winner. Rat...

Mrwurm · May 6, 2003

To resurrect an old thread, I've noticed lately that my pump switch turns on and off a bit too much while the water is being used. My limits are set to 'On at 40psi' and 'Off at 60psi'. Lately the pump kicks on around 58psi and off at 56psi. If I run a garden hose at full flow the pump will cycle on and off constantly between these two limits. (approximately once every two seconds). I have my theory, what is yours? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif