2016 drought season has started

[sandyf]

Bill: you may have problems pulling water for 350 metres from 15 metres down at 2 inches, as Kwasaki says, there are limits to pump technology capabilities at a sensible price. A 1 inch pipe will easily do the job that you need done is my guess.

And our well is also only about 15 metres deep but the water level remains at around seven metres.

We found a 1 inch pump for our well at Global and it easily handles fourteen metres but I'm told it's at the edge of its capability, the cost was around 4,000 baht. If using a 2 inch pipe at that depth you may need a jet pump.

A silly question.

What is a jet pump?

Bill

A jet pump has 2 pipes going down into the well, on a single jet version one is inside the other. They take some of the pump output and pump it down into the well to help force the well water up to the surface.

I fitted a Hitachi deep well parallel jet pump a couple of years ago, it has a 30 m head and was about 10K baht. Works great being an on demand type of pump, far better than a submersible or reciprocating pump.

[billd766]

Bill: you may have problems pulling water for 350 metres from 15 metres down at 2 inches, as Kwasaki says, there are limits to pump technology capabilities at a sensible price. A 1 inch pipe will easily do the job that you need done is my guess.

And our well is also only about 15 metres deep but the water level remains at around seven metres.

We found a 1 inch pump for our well at Global and it easily handles fourteen metres but I'm told it's at the edge of its capability, the cost was around 4,000 baht. If using a 2 inch pipe at that depth you may need a jet pump.

A silly question.

What is a jet pump?

Bill

A jet pump has 2 pipes going down into the well, on a single jet version one is inside the other. They take some of the pump output and pump it down into the well to help force the well water up to the surface.

I fitted a Hitachi deep well parallel jet pump a couple of years ago, it has a 30 m head and was about 10K baht. Works great being an on demand type of pump, far better than a submersible or reciprocating pump.

Thank you for that information Sandy.

I was up in Khampaeng Phet looking at pipework, connectors and power cables at 2 or 3 places and Global House seems to be the most expensive for the pipework, (my local shop in the village is cheaper), they don't seem to have much in the way of decent pumps, the guy in KPP I go to for parts for my Honda strimmer has a far better choice including deep well submersible pumps that I have never seen before, (I never needed to look for them) and is cheaper, and while Global House have a lot of cables from 1 mm2 up to 50 mm2, again they are expensive.

I will look locally at prices and then make up a spreadsheet to cost it out, but it is starting to look less expensive to pay the fire truck 150 baht per month and the other guys 200 baht per month over a long period than fork out to get a well dug, build the pipework, power the system either by a long cable network or by a diesel generator (Global House has a great choice but is expensive).

[WaiLai]

Good luck to all in need.

Any signs or indication that the PM and his Bangkok crowd have addressed the problem in advance?

I believe that water shortage is about to be the Achilles heel of this regime!

Is that the crack of thunder or the crack of a north/south division I hear?

[elgordo38]

Please as a courtesy to the rest of us members could you guys PM each other. The drought item is important to me but I every time I open it up its a discussion between two or three guys on pipes and pumps and its been ongoing for some time now. The topic is drought not pipes and pumps. Please show a little respect.

[sandyf]

Two things:

Global House has submersible pumps;

Avoid all 90 degree bends in your pipe, it reduces pressure, use 45 degree at worst.

When all the taps are closed the pressure is equal throughout the system irrespective of bends.

There is always some confusion between pressure and flow.

[sandyf]

Please as a courtesy to the rest of us members could you guys PM each other. The drought item is important to me but I every time I open it up its a discussion between two or three guys on pipes and pumps and its been ongoing for some time now. The topic is drought not pipes and pumps. Please show a little respect.

So Bill left the word 'problems' out of the title and you make an issue out of it.

[chiang mai]

Two things:

Global House has submersible pumps;

Avoid all 90 degree bends in your pipe, it reduces pressure, use 45 degree at worst.

When all the taps are closed the pressure is equal throughout the system irrespective of bends.

There is always some confusion between pressure and flow.

Yes you're technically correct of course, they reduce the flow rate.

[billd766]

Please as a courtesy to the rest of us members could you guys PM each other. The drought item is important to me but I every time I open it up its a discussion between two or three guys on pipes and pumps and its been ongoing for some time now. The topic is drought not pipes and pumps. Please show a little respect.

Actually as I opened the thread about my problem with the drought up here ANY information on how to even partially solve the problem is more than welcome, be it on pipes, pumps or anything else. If I and perhaps anyone else have learned more than they did before it is a bonus and it can be applied to the coming drought.

This is a discussion forum and you are free to discuss or not. As you may know a discussion is an exchange of idea and experiences between a group of people.

Now as you have obviously read this thread and find that it does not apply to you then you are free to read, join in or not as you wish. If you have any information that is pertinent to any drought problem, feel free to join in.

If you don't want to join in that is up to you.

If you think that we are doing wrong in holding an open discussion then please feel free to report it to the moderators.

If you don't like the way that the thread is going, then please feel free not to join in. I promise that I won't get upset or throw my toys out of the pram.

Have a nice day.

[elgordo38]

Please as a courtesy to the rest of us members could you guys PM each other. The drought item is important to me but I every time I open it up its a discussion between two or three guys on pipes and pumps and its been ongoing for some time now. The topic is drought not pipes and pumps. Please show a little respect.

So Bill left the word 'problems' out of the title and you make an issue out of it.

OK guys I tried to make nice I guess the moderator route it is. We live in a selfish world I get it.

[Sutty]

Thanks to the thread I now understand a lot more about pumping from well thanks very informative.

[billd766]

Please as a courtesy to the rest of us members could you guys PM each other. The drought item is important to me but I every time I open it up its a discussion between two or three guys on pipes and pumps and its been ongoing for some time now. The topic is drought not pipes and pumps. Please show a little respect.

So Bill left the word 'problems' out of the title and you make an issue out of it.

OK guys I tried to make nice I guess the moderator route it is. We live in a selfish world I get it.

What is selfish about the thread. It is open to anybody to read and comment.

Selfish is when a group is closed and other than that small group nobody else knows what is going on.

Who knows what people may learn from this. I certainly learned more about piping, pumps and wells than I ever knew before. More people may be getting wells and boreholes dug in the next few months and they may get some useful information from the thread.

Please be my guest.

If the mods agree with you I am quite happy to accept their decision.

If they don't agree with you I hope that you will do the same.

Have another nice day.

[fredob43]

Please as a courtesy to the rest of us members could you guys PM each other. The drought item is important to me but I every time I open it up its a discussion between two or three guys on pipes and pumps and its been ongoing for some time now. The topic is drought not pipes and pumps. Please show a little respect.

So Bill left the word 'problems' out of the title and you make an issue out of it.

OK guys I tried to make nice I guess the moderator route it is. We live in a selfish world I get it.

What is selfish about the thread. It is open to anybody to read and comment.

Selfish is when a group is closed and other than that small group nobody else knows what is going on.

Who knows what people may learn from this. I certainly learned more about piping, pumps and wells than I ever knew before. More people may be getting wells and boreholes dug in the next few months and they may get some useful information from the thread.

Please be my guest.

If the mods agree with you I am quite happy to accept their decision.

If they don't agree with you I hope that you will do the same.

Have another nice day.

You cant please all the people all the time Bill.

May I suggest if you want to hear more about what your interested in then start you own post.

Seems simple to me.

[chiang mai]

+1

[xcell]

We have been pumping water from our dwell since 10 years... Although in our region (Pasak) in Phuket the property prizes have gone up for 700%! we still have to buy water by end of February as our dwell is empty and we do not have any water supplied by the municipal - Most "developments" here are using "drinking" water quality for their toilets - so I assume that desalination becomes a factor here, too.

I have introduced 5 years ago a "Wave Power" desalination program which has been refused due to "high" costs (1 Mio THB for a 30'000 l/d/unit)... Most of the golf courses here are using extensively water resources - I wonder, if one day or the other Phuket government will be able to supply enough for this "tourist stronghold"...

[Sutty]

As a direct result of this thread and the imminent droght wick I belive will get worse this year it got me thinking about recycling water ect ect as a result I have bought two 3000 ltr water butt's and connected my grey waste showers and bathroom sinks only to them to harvest the water I have then connected them in series with a pump to the toilet systems and outside garden tap. It's amazing how much water is saved by this small measure.both tanks now full and it works a treat

[billd766]

Due to the New Year and I suspect many people in the province wanting wells and boreholes I have not been able to contact anybody about drilling for water.

I can still get water water delivered from the fire truck or the other place so at this point it isn't worth going much further with the project. I have tried to insert the files but it seems that I am not allowed to post them.

Well across the road.xlsx

You aren't permitted to upload this kind of file

The cheapest option is using 1 1/2 PVC pipe for about 15,000 baht and a simple petrol engined water pump by Honda at 7,500 for a total of 22,000 baht. That would only work if it was a shallow well with a lot of water in it.

At the other end of the spectrum is a deep borehole and mains electricity coming in at over 53,000 and no options have included the cost of the well itself.

My wife tells me that there will probably be a "Dalek" or a water tower on stilts coming to the village this year and the neighbour across the klong has said that the dam will start building during 2017/18, just in time for the El Nino floods.

I rooted around in the deeper and darker part of my store shed over the holidays and found a Chinese copy of the 5.5 hp Honda engine that used to have a waterpump attached to it. It has been hiding for 5 or 6 years and after clearing all the crap from it, replacing the oil and the spark plug, cleaning out the float bowl and chucking some 91 grade gasohol in it, it surprised me by starting and running on the 5th pull of the starter cord.

I used to have it bolted to my pickup truck along with a 1,300 litre water tank that I used to collect water from the klong years ago.

[chiang mai]

Some half way decent news, El Nino has peaked:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-05/el-nino-peak-has-weather-forecaster-warning-of-possible-la-nina

[billd766]

Some half way decent news, El Nino has peaked:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-05/el-nino-peak-has-weather-forecaster-warning-of-possible-la-nina

I will refrain from a meaningful comment until possibly the end of this year.

I bow to the superior knowledge, the availability of excellent weather programs and their experts in Australia but I live in Central Thailand which is a bit far away from Australia with a different climate.

Mother Nature has her own way of doing things.