DIYbanter - Solar popwered water pump?

Hi Scott

On Wed, 15 Mar 2006 07:46:49 GMT, Scott
wrote:

Hi,

In my garden the previous owners put in a hnd pump that linked to an
under ground stream, you get nice cold water out of it.

Anyway - thinking of putting an electric pump on it to say use the water
in the garden, for car cleaning and possibly at a later stage, subject
to a filtration device, use it for non drinking water in the house.
Especially if the local water company decides to make everyone have a
water meter.

Anyway - I am not sure how far the bore goes, buut can anyone point me
in the direction of some water pumps that may do what I want - but
specifically, I would like them to be solar powered if possibly - is it?

Scott

A couple of points....

- It's dificult to know what to recommend without knowing how deep the
borehole is. The 'cheapie' sump pumps that you can get from Screwfix
tend to have a limited head (= the vertical distance they can lift
water). Proper pumps designed for well use can pump water much
'higher' - but are correspondingly more expensive.
Can you use a length of string with a weight on the end to 'plumb' the
well and see how far down it is ? I found my replacement pump through
yellow pages - pumps & wells, I think... - flow rate is also
important, and I don't expect small solar pumps to shift a great
volume of water.

- assuming that you've got any depth at all in your well (as in more
than 10 ft) you are going to need a proper well-pump - which will cost
from £150 upwards. All the ones I've seen are mains-powered - and are
rated at 500watts + - which you're not going to get from a solar panel
- unless it's a very large and expensive one. If you're going to do
this seriously you'll need to pump the well water up into a storage
tank - which will add to the height your pump needs to lift...

However - all is not lost.
Perhaps the first stage would be to get a professional analysis of
your well water (£60 - £80). Depending on what that shows, you could
either

= give up on the project altogether (if the water quality is too low
to do anything with (economically))

= use the water 'as is' for non-critical applications around the
parish - garden watering, car washing etc

= go the whole hog and install suitable filtering / pump / tank system
to make it fit for human consumption.

We don't use any mains water at all. The previous owner of our
bungalow installed a hand-dug well using 5ft diameter concrete sewer
pipe sections - it goes down about 25ft, produces water that, after
filtration, is a lot nicer that the processed stuff that the water
company supply, and costs virtually nothing !

Filtration is via a particulate filter and UV lamp filter - filter
installation costs about £250, filter replacement costs £30 annually.
The pump and filter lamp cost a small amount in electricity. 'Used'
water is processed through our septic tank system.

Result - zero water rates and no hosepipe bans.....

Good luck !
Adrian
http://www.inspired-glass.co.uk/bungalow.htm
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