What is the best and large size retention tank for well water that will save energy?

[Terry]

What is the best and large size retention tank for well water that will save energy, meaning it will hold xx gallons and does not have to switch on frequently to fill the retention tank.

Connecticut has the highest cost for electricity and is second only to Hawaii.

I am 70-years & my wife is 68-years.

Our annual electric bill is around $6000 +.

I want to replace our retention tank with one that will hold more water and will not constantly turn on to fill our existing tank.

Donald

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Well, the advice you will get is to install a CSV but, the only disadvantage to a large tank is that as it sits the water can become tepid which may or may not be an issue depending on whether you like cold water at the faucet to drink. Otherwise, you can put the biggest tank that space will allow which will increase your run time.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[LLigetfa]

Unless you have a tiny tank and the pump is rapid cycling, there really is no ROI on a big tank. Get the biggest you can afford and that will appease your frugality.

 

[Reach4]

I had interpreted "retention tank" as cistern. If Donald meant pressure tank, I don't think anybody today will say that a CSV will save energy vs using a big pressure tank. You want a tank that will take at least a minute to fill. So if your pump pumps 10 GPM, you would want at a 44 gallon or at least a 34 gallon pressure tank . Well-X-Trol is the leading brand, but they are not cheap.

Dropping your pressure switch to 30-50 will let a given sized pressure tank give a bit more drawdown, and you will save a little energy. However for household use, electricity to power a pump is pretty small. Yes you are drawing considerable power for brief intervals, but only for a small part of the time.

 

[Craigpump]

Well X Trol is the leading brand because they last.

Compare a WX 250 for $688.00 that will last 20 years vs a comparable Water Worker for $230.00 that will last maybe 5 years. In 20 yrs you will spend over $900.00 plus installations for 4 junk tanks when you could have had one Well X Trol.

Like the Fram oil filter man used to say, pay me now or pay me later

 

[Valveman]

Without a CSV and just using a pressure tank, the pump is always pumping at it best efficiency when it is running. The only thing a larger pressure tank or a larger cistern tank will do is reduce the number of cycles and make the pump last longer. It will not reduce the electric bill. If you do not have any irrigation or a heat pump and the well only supplies the house, the electric bill for the pump should be no more than about $5 a month, even with high cost per KW. Houses don’t use much water so the pump should not use much energy.

If the pump is using a lot of energy, you should check for a leak somewhere. The pump should be one of the least energy users in the house. Maybe you should move from Connecticut or at least vote out the persons who have made our energy prices skyrocket, among other things.

 

[Texas Wellman]

Avg. home uses about 300-500 gallons per day. Take a (typical) 1-HP 10 GPM submersible pump. The motor is rated for about 1200 running watts.
300 gpd/10 gpm = 30 minutes of run time per day.
30 min x1.2 kw = .6 kilo watt hours per day.
.6 kwh/day x 30 days in a month = 18 kwh a month.
18 kwh x $.20 per kwh = $3.60 per month in electricity.
Works out to a little over $40 per year in electricity when you have those variables.
Even if you had a high kwh price for power (I figured $.20 in my math) you still don't use a lot of energy for your well pump unless you're irrigating.

You can change the math up however you like (1/2 HP 5 GPM pump or 1.5 HP 20 gpm pump) but the numbers will still show that unless you're irrigating or have an extremely deep water level you're not using much power for your well pump.

 

[Craigpump]

Valveman

Leaving Ct is tough to do, there is a long wait at the state line.

If we voted everyone out, there would be no one to misrepresent us.

 

[Valveman]

If we voted everyone out, there would be no one to misrepresent us.

That would be funny if it wasn't so true.

 

[Boycedrilling]

20 cents a kilowatt! And my customers complain about our rates at 4 cents.

 

[Craigpump]

Boyce, we get absolutely hosed in Ct., there is nothing that's cheap, except maybe well drilling....$8.00 a foot when it should be at least $12.00-$13.00

 

[Boycedrilling]

I think the domestic guys around here start around $26 per foot, plus materials. I drill irrigation wells, and my rates start on the north side of $100/ft

 

[Craigpump]

To be clear, 99% of the time the top hole is aired in with an 8" hammer and between 20-100' of 6" steel is set, then 6" hammer drilling through mica schist, quartz, granite, gneiss.... 600-700' a day is the norm.

Even $15.00 a foot is too cheap when you consider the investment....

 

[ajaynejr]

Cisterns (retention tanks not part of water softeners) are used mainly when the well has a slow gallons per minute output. Otherwise a standard pressure tank works just fine.

I would favor 60 gallons of pressure tank capacity as opposed to the usual 30 gallons. A second pressure tank will work just as well as removing the original and installing a larger pressure tank.

Note that a larger cistern installed in the same pressurized loop as the pressure tank has about 1/3 to 1/2 of its capacity usable as water storage, depending on pump turn on and turn off pressure settings. If somehow more water were stored in the cistern then the air cushion (head) in the cistern will lose all of its oomph when there is still a lot of water still in the cistern and that water won't come out. Then the pump has to turn on to deliver more water.

A two stage system, with two pumps, is needed to use almost all of the cistern capacity to hold water One pump is in or at the well and all it does is fill the cistern which is unpressurized. A float system similar to that in a toilet tank turns that pump on and off. The second pump raises the pressure in the household plumbing to the needed level and the pressure tank is downstream of this. (With a pressurized cistern you do not need another tank as a "pressure tank."