Lake source water scheme

[3D Artist]

A year round tiny house is to be built on the shore of a lake with pure water. It is a big lake in the northern Adirondacks, and is the water source for the town of 6000 people. It's deep freeze country, and in the coldest winters the lake ice can be a foot or more in thickness. The depth to the rock bottom near the dock, where the source can be, is over 8 feet. The water is beautiful, clear and clean.

One bathroom with shower, a washing machine, and a kitchen sink, is the list of water needs.

We envision a submerged pump with the PVC supply line heated inside with one of the smart cable products that protects from freezing, as the trench from shore to house is across rock terrain and the line depth will be shallow. A small emergency generator, propane fired, will be on a pad adjacent the house to get through the very very occasional outages.

A well driller has outfitted a couple of recent projects for us in the last year with well-sourced water for which the in-house equipment is a tiny 2g expansion tank and a control module for the well pump that ensures constant pressure.

Could such a setup be the inside-house end of the lake water coming in via the submerged pump? Same small arrangement, 2g expansion tank, control module the size of a box of cereal? We've designed in a mechanical closet, but it's a small space.

If so, how would the pump be specified? We envision an underwater stand of some type to keep the pump elevated off the bottom.

 

[Reach4]

A big consideration in selecting a pump is the altitude rise from the lake surface to the house.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Valveman]

Sounds like you have and SQE type pump with the CU301 control box. That is one of the best of the variable speed type pumps, but we still retrofit a lot of them with Cycle Stop Valves when people get tired of replacing the expensive CU301 variable controller. I think I would want something more reliable under the ice and in such a cold environment. The SQ pump is expensive but fairly reliable. It is the CU301 controller that cause most of the problems. The SQ pump will work fine without the CU301 controller and can be connected to a simple and reliable 40/60 or higher pressure switch. Then by adding a much more dependable and simple Cycle Stop Valve it will work at constant pressure like with the CU301, which will allow you to keep using the small pressure tank. You can see it here. https://cyclestopvalves.com/pages/vfd-repair-kit

However, you may want to consider using a larger pressure tank with the pressure switch and/or the CSV. The larger pressure tank can be set up to deliver water for long enough to let the line fill back up from the lake each time the pump comes on. A drain back system would then let the water drain from the house to the water level each time the pump shuts off.

Electric heat systems work well until there is no electricity. It maybe best to just drain the lines and not count on being about to keep it warm.