Intermediate Storage for 2 low yield wells

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Theeplaymaker

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Hello all, I have been doing a lot of reading on intermediate storage and have decided that it is the right option for my home and the issues I have experienced here the last few months. I am looking to just clear up a few things so that I can be as ready to go as possible when the tank arrives. I'll start with my situation.

I bought the home 2 years ago and the previous owners didn't really know a lot about the property since they bought it at auction and were only there for 2 years. It has 3 wells on the property 2 that are plumbed into the home. The one that was hooked up when I moved in is in the pump room in my basement. The other 2 are out in the yard. I am not sure if there is anything even in the 1 because there is only 1 pipe coming in from outside.

1 year ago Pump 1 in the basement stopped working when I was doing a load of laundry (old style center agitator type washer that uses over 35 gallons a load, we just received our new HE front loader (12 gallons a load) yesterday since that same washer seemed to dry up both wells). I left it for dead after doing some test and hooked up Pump 2 that worked fine for the past year with no issues. I had done 2-3 loads of laundry in a row and also had 2-3 people shower in a row at times with no issues until the day before I was going on my honeymoon. Pump 2 stopped working when I was doing a load of laundry. I called a company and they determined it was something wrong with it and decided to replace Pump 1 in the basement that originally ran dry/died 2 years ago. This worked fine for about 3 weeks and then bam, doing laundry again and I lost pressure. Let Pump 1 sit over night and it pumped up to 50 psi the next morning and never got to 60psi. I decided to switch back to Pump 2 that I thought died 3 weeks before and now I have been using that one fine for the past 3 weeks. We decided to replace the washer though and haven't used it since.

Pump 1 (3/4 HP 7gpm Goulds) is set at 316' and the well they guessed is 350'+ (no markings anywhere to know for sure.) Unknown recovery rate (thought about dropping it an extra 15-20')
Pump 2 is set at 380' and the well is 400' - 1/2 GPM (I'm guessing it's a 1 HP since it draws about 10 amps.)
I also have a cistern with a 1/2 HP jet pump but I don't trust it for my water usage only use it to wash cars/outside things

Neighbor told me this property has always had water issues. So now onto my plan and I know not all the Pro's on here agree with intermediate storage but I figured if I sell the place I'll have to disclose the well issues anyways so that will explain the tank.

I ordered another 1/2 HP jet pump and a 165 gallon storage tank. I plan to run the 2 wells into the tank to keep it topped off and then run the jet pump to supply the pressure in the home. I have a dirt floor pump room in the corner of my basement where this will all be installed in, out of sight and once the door is replaced hopefully less noisy. I am planning on reusing my V140 pressure tank. I also have a sediment filter and then UV light but I plan on throwing some calcium hypochlorite mixture in the tank at regular intervals as well.

My big questions are with controlling the 2 well pumps that will supply the storage tank. I went to school for electrical and my dad is an electrician so we have an idea of what we want to do but I wanted to hear what the pro's have to say. I want to use 1 float to control the pumps but I also want protection incase one runs dry. I am guessing I'll have to get a CSV for each pump. I know this is a long post but hopefully someone can confirm or help me devise a good plan to keep the storage tank full and if there is anything else about anything I said that doesn't sound right. I have looked into hydro fracking but at this time I decided on a storage system.

Once again sorry for the novel and thanks for any opinions!
 

Craigpump

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You don't need a CSV on both pumps coming into the atmospheric tank, but you can put one on the booster coming off the atmospheric tank.

You can use floats to control when the pumps come on and go off and have them hooked to Pump Teks or some other type of run dry protection device.

Have you considered having the deepest well hydrofraced to increase the well yield?
 

Valveman

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It sounds like a storage tank is a good idea. I am not sure 165 gallons is large enough though. That would depend on how much storage is in the wells (from the static water level), and how fast they could replenish the 165 gallons. Maybe a couple of those 165’s would be better.

You don’t need a CSV on the well pumps, but I would put a Cycle Sensor on each. They wire in series with the float(s) and monitor the amperage of the motor. When the well is pumped dry the amperage drops, and the Cycle Sensor shuts off the pump. Then it has a timer that can be set from 1 to 500 minutes to automatically restart the pump after the well has had time to recover. This way the pump can come on every 20 minutes or so until the float in the tank is up and shuts the pump off.

You also don’t need a CSV on the jet pump with a 140 tank. If you want constant pressure or to use a smaller tank it would be different. But you probably don't do a lot of irrigation, or use enough water for a CSV to make the pump last longer.
 

Theeplaymaker

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Thanks for your replies and yes I meant a cycle sensor not CSV, got my terms mixed up. I was looking and didn't see any but was wondering if there are any out there that are 1 unit that can monitor/control 2 pumps? I agree that I would not need anything on the jet pump, it will be working directly off my pressure switch with low pressure cut off so if for some reason the tank runs dry it would shut off.

I have thought about the hydrofracing but I came to the conclusion that this would work best for me right now, I have read that it isn't guaranteed to increase the refresh rate even though I am sure it would help. Minus the cost of adding a sub panel for the 4 pumps this project is only around $1000-1200 with 2 pump tek's which I feel is reasonable if I don't have to worry down the road about water issues.

I live in Lancaster, PA and I don't do any irrigation or use my wells to supply anything other than:
1 full bath - shower, toilet, sink
kitchen - sink, dishwasher, maybe fridge eventually
basement - washer, furnace, hot water heater
bring back basement half bath that was removed in the future- sink, toilet
I use the cistern that collects rain water from the spouts for my car washing and any watering needs that do pop up. Also it is just my wife and I. We plan on kids but this is a 5-8 year home for us at least right now.

My thinking with the 165 gallon tank for 1 is I can fit it in the doorways that lead to my pump room and also I just need a buffer for doing a few loads of laundry in a row or if we take showers and do laundry in the same day. If I set the float so that it fills about 100 gallons I think the wells would be able to handle that together since they were both able to in the past handle 3 loads of laundry in a row from a 35 gallons per load washer. I also want to put a valve on the tank in case of power outages so that I can flush toilets and have drinking water. If we somehow use 165 gallons of water in a day it would be from showering and doing laundry and dishwashing which at that point wouldn't need done for a few days (not including the showering haha), so I am thinking as long as they have enough storage to fill it back up it shouldn't be an issue.

With that said do you still think that is to small?
Also how would you guys wire up the well pumps and floats? I have lots of ideas, I just don't want to over engineer it.

I want to try and post some pictures and make a drawing so that I can make sure I am doing it right.

Thanks again!
 

Theeplaymaker

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I know the wiring isn't the prettiest and/or up to code but i had to make this work with the parts i had since i was leaving for the mountains the next day when the pump ran dry 2 weeks ago. I am redoing this whole room correctly once the parts come in. The pipe on the left coming in is pump 2 and the line coming from the floor is pump 1. I plan on putting down stone and getting block to create a more stable platform for the pressure tank. I plan on putting the storage tank in to the left.
 
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