Connecting well to home

[richardrb]

We are building a new home in Krabi and have a deep well drilled with a Franklin 1 HP pump. I'm surprised by the number of different designs I've gotten for connecting this well to our house. Most involve a large (2000l to 5000l) storage tanks and additional pumps like a Hitachi, Mitsubishi or Grundfos.

Normally in rural areas of the USA, people with a deep well just plumb their well pump into a small pressure tank with bladder and run their house from that. The well in Krabi ran all during the dry season and provided the water for our construction, I can't really see the need for a large storage tank. Or am I missing something?

Yes, I understand that if you are connected to unreliable public water it makes sense to store you own water in a tank. But in my case do I need a storage tank and an additional pump to my submerged pump?

I've attached a drawing of two typical installs here. I will have a whole house filter and an additional filter for drinking water, but the basic connection should be similar to these.

Unfortunately I am here in the USA right now, so I can't go around and talk to different water specialists or even see the details of the well that is in place. It's frustrating.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance,

Richard

[Crossy]

The issue is flow rate, both what your well can provide without dropping below the pump inlet and what your pump can provide.

Using a buffer tank filled slowly over a relatively long period allows the well to recover and also allows a beefy pump for those power-showers.

If your baby Franklin can lift from your well and still provide enough pressure at a satisfactory flow rate then go for it with a simple bladder tank and pressure switch.

One other advantage of having a tank, should your well run dry, or the deep pump fail you can get the tank filled by truck so you still have water

[pigeonjake]

crossy mate,

ive just put the hatachi pump into the hole strait to our house no tanks, been working fine for over 3 years,,!??

auto pump strait to our taps,shower ect

jake

[Crossy]

ive just put the hatachi pump into the hole strait to our house no tanks, been working fine for over 3 years,,!??

Great, glad it works for you.

But one must point out reasons that it may not work for our OP and provide alternatives in the event it doesn't.

[richardrb]

Thanks to both of you, I do like hearing the pros and cons and also other readers personal experience.

There us some info on the US government EPA website which showed how to size a well pump. Since my Franklin deep well pump should put out 8 GPM, it would be enough for the use of our house when it is JUST my wife and myself, but maybe not enough when we have house guests. So most likely I will go ahead and get a smallish auxillary storage tank and an automatic pump (Hitachi or Mitsubishi) for the house. Our house is right on a klong so I don't expect our well to go dry during the dry season, so we won't need the 5000l tank one person recommended. My brother in law lives next door and never runs out of water with his shallow well.

Our house is two stories with 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms and a laundry room. I am going to plan for about 15 GPM (55 LPM). That would be two people taking a shower, the washer running and someone using the Kitchen sink.

http://www.watersystemscouncil.org/VAiWebDocs/WSCDocs/2567958WSC_INST_20.pdf

[Crossy]

Don't forget the max flow rate stated for pumps is at minimum head, if you want to be accurate get the pump curves from the manufacturers website and select a unit that matches your particular situation, also remember that your pipework will introduce effective head loss too.

Alternatively ask your local pump man what he recommends.

[T_Dog]

One of the cons of having a tank is that all kinds of life will be found living in it such as small shrimp and mosquito larvae. After seeing what was in those tanks in two different rental houses I vowed to not use a tank on our build. We go directly from the well to the house so the whole system is sealed.

[Crossy]

Mum-in-Law's ongs have fish in them (keeps the mozzie larvae at bay), I'm pretty sure they drink the water and nobody's died, I only drink beer when visiting

We've not had anything living in our tanks, but they do have tight fitting lids, we do drink the water but only after it's passed through an RO unit.