Float system from low flow well to cistern

[Kelly Brownson]

Hi there,

I’ve tried searching the forums and came up with a lot of useful information but have not completely answered all of my questions for our exact scenario.

We’ve been having water supply issues in our shallow dug well for awhile and we’re lucky enough that our neighbours let us fill up from their amazing well 30 feet away but we’re getting very sick of this and also hate the noise of the jet pump downstairs.

We also have a cistern that we haven’t used since we bought the house 2 years ago because the pump for it has been broken.

The well is about 12 feet to the front/side of our house and the cistern is closer to the back of our property just over 100 feet from the back of our house. So there is nearly 200 feet between the well and cistern.

My questions:

My husband has talked extensively about our situation to a plumber at his work who said we need to trench between the two and add piping, put electrical to the well, add a submersible pump with a float system so every time the well has enough water it fill the cistern, which also needs electrical so we can have a submersible pump in there drawing water from there for our household supply, thus eliminating the noise inside. I’m assuming we will also need some type of shut off system for the wells submersible pump so that it stops filling the cistern should it be full?

Is there any way to avoid trenching and use the existing system or add on to it in an easier way?

We are planning on doing majority of this ourselves, and while I can relay all of your replies through my dad who was a contractor years ago with extensive plumbing and electrical knowledge (in a more urban setting though) I would greatly prefer you put everything in terms I would understand, so as simple as possible! Feel free to let me know if we’re way off too, I feel like most of our live input comes from people with more knowledge of municipal plumbing systems, which is still valuable, but want to make sure we get this right.

Thanks!

 

[LLigetfa]

First off, Ontario Canada or California? In Canada you need to trench below the frost.

Rather than a float in the well to turn the pump on and off and then also need to be concerned about overfilling the cistern, you could turn the pump on from the cistern with a float switch and then monitor the well pump for a run-dry condition with a Cycle Sensor.
https://cyclestopvalves.com/collections/cycle-sensor-pump-monitors

The cyclestopvalves.com site has a lot of examples of pump systems for cisterns.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[PumpMd]

Float switches are good use on a cattle troff that needs to stay full all the time. A cistern can hold more water than you could use in a house, so no reason to keep it full all the time. This is where BW controls are better to where you might not need to run the submersible pump in your well feeding the cistern every other day(depending on how many gallons you use daily to activate the bottom sensor and how much water your cistern can hold in gallons). You can place the sensors where you want them in the cistern. You can run a overfill pipe away from anything that could cause damage from the water.

Edit: The submersible pump in your low producing well, will might need to keep pumping the well dry around the clock 24/7 on very low producing wells to fill a cistern.

 

[Valveman]

Normally you would want a dedicated water line from the well to the cistern storage tank like this.

 

[Valveman]

But by staggering the pressure switch settings with the well pump at 30/50 while the supply pump in the cistern is running at 40/60, you maybe able to use the existing plumbing. The check valve labeled D in the following drawing would need to be between the well pump feeding the storage tank and the mail line going to the house.