Water pump for a spring fed well?
Posted by No_Try1999@reddit | preppers | View on Reddit | 13 comments
I have a spring fed well that uses electricity to pump the water into a holding tank and into the house. How can I fix it where it can do that without electricity? We live up the hill from the spring, if that helps.
Country_bloke100@reddit
I'm fully reliant on tank water, we get bad enough storms in winter that losing power once every year or two is common. And of course living out of town means we are the last to get power back when theres power outages. So sorting out water
Unfortunately the house is positioned right on the uphill boarder of the property, so setting up a gravity feed tank is impossible.
The house is currently set to pump to a small pressurised tank under the house with a pressure cut off. We do have solar hot water so we would have limited water coming from the tank on the roof, but not much.
It was a real issue, if we lose power, we would also lose running water.
We ended up buying a generator that was big enough to essentially run our entire house. I intended to do a 32amp plug and switch to run the house off it. But the breaker board was that old, no electrician can legally install one without completely overhauling the entire switchboard. And we didn't have the 3k needed for that.
So my solution was extension cords. The house is on stilts so I put the generator on the decking, and drilled holes in the decking and kitchen.
I then did another whole near the outside chest freezer, and positioned another extension to run from there to the water pump.
Even ran another extension around the corner from the kitchen to the lounge.
Tested it all and I can run the fridge, freezer, water pump, and electric cooktop, big TV, NBN box, intenret modem, xbox, all simultaneously.
If definitely works and will do the job in any situation short of a full economic/societal collapse SHYF scenario.
In the event of a full collapse, i am working on an 12v electrical setup. Buying bits every now and again. I've for a 2000W sine wave inverter that I'll run off some lithium batteries and solar panels.
Also spoken to the wife about getting a full solar kit up prices. Might even turn out cheaper than doing it all 12v myself. Don't know yet.
Rip1072@reddit
Or, maybe, a generator with enough output to run the houshold electrical load.
kymmmb@reddit
This is what I did after researching both a solar-powered pump and a hand pump. It was expensive, but I got a home backup generator and a 500 gallon propane tank.
No_Try1999@reddit (OP)
Won’t we have to get gas/diesel for it? I’m wanting something that if SHTF we can still get water.
Rip1072@reddit
It's called preparedness for a reason. You prepare by storing fuel for the identified need. If you don't want to fulfil your destiny.....ok.
nak00010101@reddit
Solar Pump
Solar Pump it up the hill to your house, then into a tank on a 20’ platform. Then use an ac powered bump to feed a pressure tank.
Creative valving will give you water when the booster bump cannot fill the pressure tank
thomas533@reddit
Pumping water uphill requires energy. Non-electric pumps like a ram pump require flow which it doesn't sound like you have. Manual pumps require you to provide the energy. Everything else requires electricity and you need something to provide that.
Malezor1984@reddit
Look into hydraulic ram pumps. Uses some check valves and pvc piping and no electricity. Can pump uphill if needed.
Mala_Suerte1@reddit
There are manual well pumps, you can also use solar panels and batteries. Or you run the pump w/ a generator. The more options you have on hand, the better. Two is one, one is none.
agmccall@reddit
Look into Simple pump
Anonymo123@reddit
2nd. I helped install one for a friend in his well alongside his normal pump. Wasn't cheap but very well made.
Unique-Sock3366@reddit
I’ve always worried about water security. Nothing ever seemed sufficient.
We moved to a small homestead in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains two years ago and have a well. My husband installed a transfer switch for our generator, which was a tremendous step forward for us for preparedness in general, but especially for our water security.
I still keep AquaBricks filled and ready and several cases of bottled water. I’d also like to add rain barrels and a Bison pump in the future. But the transfer switch has eased my mind considerably.
https://www.bisonpumps.com/
Ryan_e3p@reddit
If the well is under 25' deep, you can use a manual pump to bring it to the surface. Deeper than that, and it won't work, since the vacuum created by the pump is strong enough to essentially vaporize the water (similar to the minimal atmosphere on Mars vaporizing liquid water on its surface). That's why deeper wells need water pumps lowered down to push water up.
Pump it into a cistern, then if your house is under 25' height from the cistern, you can manually pump it up from the cistern to the home.