Well water supply?

[Kayos]

I know we have a few off grid people on here

I'm taking over quite a large renovation project and I'm looking for real world experience of pumping water from a well to use in a property, I have the basics covered; pumps, break tank and controllers etc but the customer wants to drink the water as well.

I've been given a link for a very expensive UV filter, but reading through the bulbs need replacing every 6 months! My concern is that it goes wrong and someone gets ill, who's to blame?

For once cost is not an issue, if it's whats needed and it will work they will pay

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

I know we have a few off grid people on here

I'm taking over quite a large renovation project and I'm looking for real world experience of pumping water from a well to use in a property, I have the basics covered; pumps, break tank and controllers etc but the customer wants to drink the water as well.

I've been given a link for a very expensive UV filter, but reading through the bulbs need replacing every 6 months! My concern is that it goes wrong and someone gets ill, who's to blame?

For once cost is not an issue, if it's whats needed and it will work they will pay

Sounds like a perfect opportunity to sub the work out to a specialist and let them take the responsibility for failure.
I'm assuming you have the rest of the plumbing on site to make the job pay.

 

[Kayos]

Sounds like a perfect opportunity to sub the work out to a specialist and let them take the responsibility for failure.
I'm assuming you have the rest of the plumbing on site to make the job pay.

It's finding someone, everyone is ok until I say "they want to drink it"

I'm taking over so a fair bit has been done, It looks like it may have only been first fixed to feed the toilets and washing machine, if that's the case I will blame the first fix, lime plaster everywhere so no way of running new pipes (cant patch lime plaster)

 

[Migmac]

I can ask my mate, he has just built a house and the water isn’t mains supplied. I know he has a uv system in his garage.

 

[Migmac]

Just messaged him, awaiting reply

 

[Kayos]

Just messaged him, awaiting reply

Cheers

 

[Kayos]

This is from the customer, whoever wrote it has confused break tank with attenuation tank

For the well a single drop system/self priming pump system was planned:
A pump sited external to the well (in the services cupboard) will draw water into an attenuation tank (in the services cupboard) Tank dimensions for a 300 ltr approx. 600mm sq by 1000mm high. The attenuation tank will also have a cold water mains feed. Should there be insufficient water in the well, a flow switch/sensor detects a call for water and kicks in to use the cold mains to replenish the tank. There will be x2 pumped outlets; 1 direct to wc and wm, the other to potable/cw drinking tap/s – this one being via the UV filter.

The proposed filter is below. It comes with parallel or off set ports. I assume it depends on how the filter is connected to the rest of the equipment - to be decided? The filter is supplied with a 5 micron particle filter, so not sure what the purpose of the straining valve would be.
https://www.silverlineuk.co.uk/ultr...tic-range/uv-system-30-watt-uv-ds30-ss-pp-658

 

[frank horton]

I had a well in South Africa...best water I ever tasted......
most water companies will test ur water foer a modest fee......seem to remeber £50.......
A friend in Crete did the same, offered the guy a free holiday for his trouble.....again perfect......
so long as there's no industrial run off it should be ok, apart from farming pestasides I supose.....

 

[500e]

Get a water test done first then you know what you are dealing with, I have 2 friends with bore holes both have UV filters & some sort of sediment traps
One in a really Hard water aeria has water softener as well, both have contracts for service of the systems.
One has used https://www.checkatrade.com/OnTapWaterTreatment/ for years don't know about the other one
I now know why I just want to turn on a tap
Tests include
Aluminium, Ammonium, Arsenic, Cadmium, Calcium, Chromium, Colour, Conductivity, Hardness, Hydrogen ion (pH), Iron, Lead, Magnesium, Manganese, Mercury, Nickel, Nitrate, Nitrite, Odour, Sodium, Sulphate, Taste, Organic Carbon, Turbidity.

 

[Kayos]

Water test will be suggested as will subbing it out (again), I think the area is the issue, finding a local expert would suit me but no one is interested in the drinking water part

 

[armalites]

If the people have young children then the water test is free.

We had ours done about 10 years and the only thi9ng they pulled up is that water shouldn't be boiled twice due to levels of sulphates or nitrates can't remember which.

We basically have a pipe into the well with a none return valve on, a pump with a pressure switch and an expansion vessel which provides the initial surge while the pump spins up and keeps the system primed. We don't have a UV filter or a sediment trap.

Even if the water is only used for drinking it's worthwhile as it's a world apart from mains water.

If it's not been used for a while then probably would want a few litre pumped out to refresh.

 

[pedrobedro]

A retired friend of mine used to do this kind of work, water storage and filtration and he always used to get a sample tested to see what kind of filtration was needed. I remember a lot of what they found was faecal coliform in remote country areas where mains water was not available.

 

[sasquar]

@HughF is off grid with a well, has been his whole life.... im sure he'll elaborate, but broadly speaking the water usually looks hateful but tastes fine. Makes a far better brew than the normal water main thats for sure....

 

[Pete.]

When I was a kid we used to just crank on the pump handle and drink what came out of the spout.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

Our supply used to come from a hill loch, it was light brown tinged because of the peat filtration but tasted wonderful.

Then the Water Board installed a hugely expensive water filtration plant and until they got the dosages sorted it smelled and tasted like a swimming pool, full of chlorine. But, when we got a really hot spell, they discovered that the pick-up pipe didn't extend far enough into the loch, so bottled water was made available until they could fix that.

Seems OK now though.

 

[Gareth J]

Seems odd to me that no-one in your locality will install/maintain this system. It's commonplace here in southwest. We have own supply/s and the company we use will organise as much as we require. Including but not limited to; annual (required for us) water test, plant commissioning, maintenance and breakdowns, UV and filter servicing.... basically as much as we request/require.

First port of call has to be to get a test. Empty the well and let it refill (time how long it takes too to get an idea of supply rate) test the fresh(ish) water and see whats in it.

Too grotty or pH too far out and the kit and running costs start to rise. For low usage can make mains look cheap.

A good company should help advise what your options are and what they might cost/cost to run.

Manganese, iron ochre, wild pHs, too many nitrates (runoff fertilisers/poos), bacteria e.t.c all not good.

Good news is whoever dug the well probably did so to tap into a bit of a spring. Likely reasonably naturally well filtered.

 

[Migmac]

Mate is using a calmag calultra 22 uv system, potable water passed tests no problem.

 

[8ob]

A friend has just had a bore hole and kit installed, ground conditions were chalk and they found water at 10mts but sunk the hole to 30mts. Not sure of the reason for the extra depth but I would imagine its for reasons @johnser has pointed out. The filters and uv wont deal with chemicals.

Bob

 

[Anguz]

We have a 100year old well at work... 10feet diameter 176 deep, all hand dug
Cast iron lining
Still in use

 

[Gareth J]

I think that they dig boreholes extra deep to help get a decent supply. The hole end ups only 4-6" so if you don't go very deep, the pump empties the reserve really quickly. Dig it deeper and the groundwater pressure helps it fill up. Furthermore, when it inevitably silts up, you can lift the pump up a bit and go again.

Not had much luck with boreholes to be honest! If you get lucky, you get lucky but the quality we had was pants. Much better from near the surface springs.