Looking at a lot with a 1004' well at 3 gpm

[Windward_coug]

The well was drilled back in 2004 and has never been used. The static water level is 19'. The well log says the hole is 6 3/4" with a 5" PVC casing going all the way down to 1004' and a 8 5/8" steel casing going down the first 20'.

I plan on building a pretty big home but with very minimal landscaping. I live in NM and we don't do big yards here. It'll probably be around 3500 sq/ft with 4 bathrooms with some xeriscaping and a few trees.

What kind of set up would you recommend? After doing some research it seems that some people with a low yield well like mine set up a storage tank/cistern with a submersible pump and pressure tank on the house side of the storage tank. Seems like a pain for a set up like mine where I'm doing a minimal amount of irrigation.

I was thinking of getting a Goulds 7GS15 at 650'. That would give me about 630 gallons of reserve water and I don't think I'd need anything more than 7 gpm for my house. With a CSV and a cycle sensor I'd be okay with this set up right? Any idea what CSV I'd need with this set up?

What would you do with such a deep, low yield well?

 

[Valveman]

It depends on how fast the well recovers and from what depth. If the well makes 3 GPM from 1000', but takes a week to recover to 19', you would need a pump that can deliver water from 1000'. But if you pump it down say 300', and it recovers most of the way in an hour or two, a much smaller pump can be set at a much more shallow depth. It also maybe more expensive to set a pump at 650' and use the casing for storage, than to set a smaller pump at 300' using a plastic storage tank with a booster pump. Your house will only need 300 gallons per day at most. The irrigation demand would need to be added to that. There are 1440 minutes in a day. Even if you set a small pump in the well at a shallow depth it might make 1-3 GPM, which would be 1440 to 4000+ gallons per day if you have a storage tank to utilize flow when and how you need it.

You need a well test. Anything else is a shot in the dark. Testing could also be a shot in the dark. I would just set the largest pump I had at the deepest I had wire and pipe to go, and see what happens. You may find that you can sip all the water you need from the upper 100', or that you need a larger pump just to test with.

If you have to purchase equipment to test with, what you describe would be a good guess as a place to start. I might start with a 10GS15 pump end on a 2HP motor set at 350' and see what happens. If the well recovers quickly enough to a higher level the 10GS15 with a PK1A and a 10 gallon pressure tank will do everything you want to do. Worst case scenario the well recovers slowly or from a deep level and you replace the 10 GPM pump end with a 5 GPM pump end making a 5GS20 and add a piece of larger wire to set it down to 1000'. If you have to go to 1000' to get 2 GPM, a 1000 gallon storage tank with a boost pump like a J10S using the same PK1A for control would put you in business.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Boycedrilling]

Will you need any type of fire protection? Fire flow for sprinklers or for the fire Dept to use. In some areas of the SW, this is why the home has a 5,000 gallon or larger cistern.

Did a Pump in a well for an RV storage facility one time. It had no restrooms, or drinking water facilities. The buildings had fire sprinklers. They had to have 75,000 gallons of stored water for the sprinkler system. They had to be able to provide 750 gpm for 100 minutes.

 

[Windward_coug]

It depends on how fast the well recovers and from what depth. If the well makes 3 GPM from 1000', but takes a week to recover to 19', you would need a pump that can deliver water from 1000'. But if you pump it down say 300', and it recovers most of the way in an hour or two, a much smaller pump can be set at a much more shallow depth. It also maybe more expensive to set a pump at 650' and use the casing for storage, than to set a smaller pump at 300' using a plastic storage tank with a booster pump. Your house will only need 300 gallons per day at most. The irrigation demand would need to be added to that. There are 1440 minutes in a day. Even if you set a small pump in the well at a shallow depth it might make 1-3 GPM, which would be 1440 to 4000+ gallons per day if you have a storage tank to utilize flow when and how you need it.

You need a well test. Anything else is a shot in the dark. Testing could also be a shot in the dark. I would just set the largest pump I had at the deepest I had wire and pipe to go, and see what happens. You may find that you can sip all the water you need from the upper 100', or that you need a larger pump just to test with.

If you have to purchase equipment to test with, what you describe would be a good guess as a place to start. I might start with a 10GS15 pump end on a 2HP motor set at 350' and see what happens. If the well recovers quickly enough to a higher level the 10GS15 with a PK1A and a 10 gallon pressure tank will do everything you want to do. Worst case scenario the well recovers slowly or from a deep level and you replace the 10 GPM pump end with a 5 GPM pump end making a 5GS20 and add a piece of larger wire to set it down to 1000'. If you have to go to 1000' to get 2 GPM, a 1000 gallon storage tank with a boost pump like a J10S using the same PK1A for control would put you in business.
View attachment 48811

Hmm I guess I didn't realize the recharge rate can change depending on different depths of the well. So at 500' my well may be yielding like 2 gpm and at 980 it might be 3 gpm. Yeah we're going to have a contingency clause dependent on the well inspection. Hopefully it has a decent yield at a reasonable depth because it seems like it would be a huge pain and $$$ to drop a pump that deep. Goulds' installation manual says that 5GS20 would require 6/3 wire which weighs .56 lb/ft and schedule 80 1 1/4 inch pipe weighs like .58 lb/ft. So you're dropping in like over 1100lbs of wire and pipe, I'm not sure how they would even pull that up even considering things "weigh" less underwater due to bouyancy. I'll report back here when I get the well inspection done. Thanks for all the info.

 

[Windward_coug]

Will you need any type of fire protection? Fire flow for sprinklers or for the fire Dept to use. In some areas of the SW, this is why the home has a 5,000 gallon or larger cistern.

Did a Pump in a well for an RV storage facility one time. It had no restrooms, or drinking water facilities. The buildings had fire sprinklers. They had to have 75,000 gallons of stored water for the sprinkler system. They had to be able to provide 750 gpm for 100 minutes.

No fire protection that I'm aware of. It is the law here that we have to have a rain catchment system that can be used for landscaping/irrigation.

 

[Valveman]

Hmm I guess I didn't realize the recharge rate can change depending on different depths of the well. So at 500' my well may be yielding like 2 gpm and at 980 it might be 3 gpm. Yeah we're going to have a contingency clause dependent on the well inspection. Hopefully it has a decent yield at a reasonable depth because it seems like it would be a huge pain and $$$ to drop a pump that deep. Goulds' installation manual says that 5GS20 would require 6/3 wire which weighs .56 lb/ft and schedule 80 1 1/4 inch pipe weighs like .58 lb/ft. So you're dropping in like over 1100lbs of wire and pipe, I'm not sure how they would even pull that up even considering things "weigh" less underwater due to bouyancy. I'll report back here when I get the well inspection done. Thanks for all the info.

Yes it will be heavy and installing by hand would be dangerous. But even the smallest pump hoist trucks will easily lift 3000 pounds. The well inspection needs to include a pump test to see what you have going there.