Well pump electrical setup

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ActionDave

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Bump``````

Been on vacation.

You can change the voltage on your jet pump and use the double pole switch to send power to either the well pump or the jet pump and turn either on with the pressure switch or the float switch.

Wires leave the breaker and series through the float switch and the pressure switch then to the common on the double pole, double throw switch. Switch up send power to well pump, switch down send power to jet pump. Is this what you are trying to do?
 
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prayingmantis287

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Been on vacation.

You can change the voltage on your jet pump and use the double pole switch to send power to either the well pump or the jet pump and turn either on with the pressure switch or the float switch.

Wires leave the breaker and series through the float switch and the pressure switch then to the common on the double pole, double throw switch. Switch up send power to well pump, switch down send power to jet pump. Is this what you are trying to do?


Awesome, I think this is exactly what I needed to know. Thanks for bearing with me on this. I don't feel comfortable enough tackling it myself, but I think it may help the electrician I hire to understand what I'm trying to achieve. Hope you had a good vacation. Thanks DonL for for all of the info and the link you provided, too.

-Tim
 

ActionDave

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All's good.

I focused on the electrical side of your question. I'm confused about the plumbing side. You need the well pump to fill your pressure tank or the well pump to fill the cistern and the jet pump to fill the the pressure tank. I don't know how you can make the two independent .
 

prayingmantis287

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All's good.

I focused on the electrical side of your question. I'm confused about the plumbing side. You need the well pump to fill your pressure tank or the well pump to fill the cistern and the jet pump to fill the the pressure tank. I don't know how you can make the two independent .


Hopefully this diagram helps visualize it. To have the water fill the cistern and the jet pump fill the pressure tank, I would turn the three way valve to pump directly into the cistern and open the ball valve near the jet pump. To have the water pumped directly to the pressure tank, I would turn the three way valve to bypass the cistern and close the ball valve near the jet pump.


Well pump plumbing diagram.jpg
 

DonL

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Confusing

May I ask, Exactly what is the problem that you need this mod ?

I was confused from the original post.

What exactly is the method to your madness ? :confused:
 

prayingmantis287

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May I ask, Exactly what is the problem that you need this mod ?

I was confused from the original post.

What exactly is the method to your madness ? :confused:


I guess the main reason for doing this is that we actually don't have a problem anymore (knock on wood) which was an almost useless well. Currently, the cistern uses a float switch, but even being tethered as short as it can go it has to fill over three pressure tank cycles worth of water by the time it switches off. Another main reason is i really don't want to have chlorine in the water (would need to purchase an injection system as there currently is none. Speaking of which, thanks Dave for pointing out it doesn't need to be as concentrated as city water to still be effective.) There's also a kinda gross layer of algae coating the inside of the cistern because it's located near a window. A couple other reasons are to eliminate the need to pump the water twice (might save a bit of money on the electric after a while) and the only thing between the guest bedroom and the jet pump is a layer of sheetrock (that pump is mighty loud). One more bonus i just thought of is if the float switch ever got stuck in the on position, I might get the entire contents of the well in my house :p
 

DonL

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This is the confusing part;

"it has to fill over three pressure tank cycles worth of water"

What is "three pressure tank cycles" ?
 

prayingmantis287

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This is the confusing part;

"it has to fill over three pressure tank cycles worth of water"

What is "three pressure tank cycles" ?


What I mean by a cycle is where the jet pump turns on when the pressure drops to 40psi and shuts off at 60psi. Given that the draw down is approximately 10 gallons for the size of the tank, the well pump needs to pump at least 30 gallons all at once to recover the water level in the cistern instead of 10 gallons at a time to refill just the pressure tank. I think what I'm trying to get at is the cistern setup is actually working opposite of what it's intended for (letting the well recover slowly), because we don't use a whole lot of water. We may switch back over to using the cistern once we have kids though. I hear they get dirty a lot :D
 

DonL

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I think I got it now.

Why don't you just adjust the pressure switch for 50/60 ?, that would help but it will make the pump cycle more.

Or put a flow restriction on the output of the well pump. That may be a better option.

What controls your well pump ? Does it have a pressure switch also ?

I guess you have it on the float switch ?
 
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