Replacing a jet pump with a submersible pump

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SchooBaka

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Hello everyone. New to the forums and hoping you all can help me with a few questions.

I've owned a house in the Santa Cruz Mountains for 10 years now. I've got a 1hp jet pump on a well that I think is about 80 feet deep, feeding a 40 gallon glass lined steel pressure tank. I intend to measure the water level to confirm depth before replacing the pump.
I want to replace my jet pump with a submersible so I can save some money on the power bill and be able to run it off a generator.
I needed a new generator so I bought the largest one I could afford. It's a generac gp8000e; 8000 running watts and 10,000 surge watts. Before trying to run the well I put an amp clam to one leg of the 240 volt line to the pump and found that at startup the pump is drawing 44 amps and 10 amps running, which puts me at 10,560 surge watts.
Any larger on the generator would run me another $1000 dollars, I looked into submersible pumps and can come close to that amount in materials to just replace my jet pump with a submersible.
My question is, if I have a 1hp jet pump, should I replace it with a 1hp submersible, or can I choose a lower hp submersible and retain the same gpm flow rate?
 

Reach4

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You will probably want a 1/2 HP submersible.

What is your well diameter, and how far down is the water? Also, what water pressure do you want?
 

SchooBaka

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Thanks for the replies. Looks like a break from the rain next week. I'm going to try and measure the casing and depth. I've got the cut in/out pressure at 40/60 atm.
 

Reach4

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Thanks for the replies. Looks like a break from the rain next week. I'm going to try and measure the casing and depth. I've got the cut in/out pressure at 40/60 atm.
That would be written 40/60 PSI or PSIG. :) 40 atm would be 588 PSI.:D

Size wise, if the OD is over 5 inches, the size does not much matter as far as selecting a pump. If you have a 4 inch ID steel casing as I have, that limits your choices.

Depth to water is used to select an appropriate pump. I was serious tho about probably wanting a 1/2 HP pump. If they offered much in the way of a 3/8 HP pump, you might consider that. Those a fairly rare. 1/2 HP is very common.

If you could put a storage tank about 100 ft up the mountain, that would be cool. You would have steady pressure to the house, and you would not have to start the generator very often. Unlikely situation, but it would be nice.
 

Craigpump

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We used to put in 1/4hp pumps 40 yrs ago, never heard of a 3/8, (suspect that was a misprint), haven't seen a new 1/3 hp pump in close to 20 yrs....

Most jet conversions we do we install 1/2-7 depending on the depth, application, tank size etc.. Everyone says they wish they'd done it sooner.
 
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