Guidance re: selecting pump for new well install

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chrismid

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Our neighborhood of 180 homes in eastern Massachusetts has been receiving water from a private well company for over 30 years. This well company is going bankrupt this month, forcing us all to have no choice but to dig wells. We've been used to a constant supply of filtered water with good pressure, and want to maintain that with our new individual wells. As you can imagine the drillers and pump companies are marketing aggressively to our neighborhood!

My new well has yet to be dug, but I'm guessing it will be somewhere between 300-400' deep based upon the experience of my neighbors. There are 2 people currently living in my home, but I'd like to size the system for 4 people. Now that we won't be paying for water usage, we're considering installing a lawn sprinkler system. Otherwise, we don't use a lot of water outside the home.

Our well driller has been talking to us about constant pressure pumps, which are a $900-1200 upgrade. Is this necessary? What HP is required?

I want to maintain a similar experience to what we've had with a larger quasi-public water supply...but I don't want to overbuy or overspend on the pump...especially considering the unexpected cost of digging the well at all!

I appreciate any suggestions you should offer - either on what we need, or what we should be asking our well driller/pump installer.

Thanks,
Christine
 

Thatguy

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100 gals per person per day comes out to 400 gals/day, average 0.3 GPM in a 24 hour day.

400' + 50 PSI is a 520' head, at 6 GPM comes out to 1.6 hp, give or take 40%.

The average US well may be 200' deep, the deepest I've heard of is 1200'.
 
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chrismid

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Thanks for your help...I'm not familiar with the terms that you used -- how do I calculate this for myself, once I know the GPM flowing from my well?
 

Thatguy

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The GPM from the well is the big question mark.

Here's quotes from some dude in your area
"
The shallowest well in the study is 33 meters deep while the deepest well is 380
meters;

The average depth of the studied wells was 179 meters.

Therefore wells are most likely to produce sustainable
groundwater in the upper 100 meters. Many wells drilled in this bedrock unit will be low
yield (between one and five gallons per minute) and very few will be high yielding (more
than 100 gallons per minute). Additionally, the rate of recharge into the Nashoba terrane is
not known. Serious consideration of the cost and potential benefits should be undertaken
before any well is drilled deeper.

From
http://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1349&context=theses
"
Congrats if you don't fall asleep reading this.
Usually these guys leave an e-mail address so you can contact them directly. I'm sure he'd be glad to advise you before he starts charging real money for what he knows.

I can probably help you decode some of this report, and the guys on this forum can come up with their real-world experience.

Here's a link for the formula
http://www.gemi.org/waterplanner/calc-horsepower.asp
There is hp, GPM, head and efficiency. If you know any three you can calc. the fourth. The efficiency is less than 10% [0.1] for a pond pump and up to 90% for larger pumps. Head in feet = 2.3 x pressure in PSI.

It looks like none of the risk is assumed by the driller.
http://www.sawyerwelldrilling.com/contract.htm

I'd get enough bids so that they cluster together at some central value, usually at least 5 bids. All the bidders may sound credible and confident.
 
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Valveman

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Aggressive marketing and “constant pressure pumps” go hand in hand. NO, constant pressure pumps are not worth the extra money. As a matter of fact they should pay you to install a constant pressure pump, because you will have to repair and replace it often and numerous times. I would give you a constant pressure pump, if you would guarantee that I get to charge for and do all the repairs and replacements for the next five years.

And efficiency goes out the window if you use a constant pressure pump. You will always be using more energy per gallon produced compared to a constant speed normal type pump.

Any pump man still using constant pressure or variable speed type pumps is just 20 years behind the times. In my opinion, variable speed pumps were made obsolete in 1993 with the introduction of the Cycle Stop Valve. Read the sticky thread up top about constant pressure pumps.
 

Masterpumpman

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Valveman said it all! Stay away from constant pressure or variable speed type pumps. Install a regular pump and a Cycle Stop Valve http://www.cyclestopvalves.com/index2.html.

180 people on a bankrupt community water system. Ever thought of forming a community association and buying and managing you own community system. If everyone invested $5000.00 or less in the system and a monthly water charge, I'm sure they could have a working system for many years. You buy it and I'll run it :)^).
 

Ballvalve

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That's right; buy out the bankrupt guys and make it all work with the existing infrastructure - unless its all shot. Make it a non-profit org. Insane to drill individual wells.
 

Thatguy

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Ever thought of forming a community association and buying and managing you own community system. If everyone invested $5000.00 or less in the system and a monthly water charge, I'm sure they could have a working system for many years. You buy it and I'll run it :)^).
Yes. The odds of getting several usable wells [which water will be shared by all] goes up and the costs/risks of unusable wells is divided by 180.
 
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