Second building on one well/tank

[Samuel Newman]

Hi all,

I am a general contractor here in Vermont. I have a question about serving two buildings with one well and pressure tank. We are building a house for our customer; it is the second house on the property and the goal is to supply water to both houses from one tank (if possible).

We have redone the plumbing so that it goes from the well to the original house (about 20 feet of 1" poly pipe), which is where the new pressure tank is. Then, coming out of the tank we have a tee and (1) 1" line serving the old house and (1) 1" line serving the new house. The new house is about 300' feet away with a slight downhill slope from the tank to the new house. Water pressure at the old house is great, but we just turned the water on to the new house, and the pressure is really weak, barely more than a dribble. I assume that this must be because of losses over that long (300') run of pipe. Is that correct? If so (or if not), what is the fix?

I don't have exact specs for the well but it is a drilled well and is prolific (well over 10 gpm).

Thanks very much for your help and advice,
Sam

 

[Reach4]

At 7 gpm, 350 ft of actual 1 inch straight pipe will give about 7 psi of drop. http://www.pressure-drop.com/Online-Calculator/ Let the extra 50 feet be to compensate for elbows. 7 gpm is a pretty large flow for a house.

You appear to have a blockage after the pressure gauge and tee in house 1. Is there a cartridge filter in the path? You may have a kinked pipe.

 

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[VAWellDriller]

I agree sounds like you've got a blockage somewhere. Not your problem now..but hope you didn't run 1" pex because that will have a lot have a lot higher headloss.

Put a gauge at new house and report back...it should be same or little higher than old house since its downhill.

 

[Samuel Newman]

Hey all, just as you said, there was a blockage, right at the faucet that I was trying to use. It was an old utility sink and had a ton of calcification on it. I unhooked that, stuck the supply line into a bucket, and right away had great pressure. What a relief! Thanks for your quick responses. (Also the pipe in the ground is 1" black polyethylene pipe, not 1" pex).

Thanks!
Sam