This is a crash test for dummies

Solar Well House

 

Basic construction:

Dig footer ditches.

Fill with #5 gravel.

Top off with crusher run fines to filter into gravel spaces and ease leveling of foundation blocks.

Foundation:

Dry stack with pressure treated 2x8 cap

Walls / shed roof:

2x4x10 front and 12x4x12 rear and sides insulated with 3 ½ inch foam panels

T111 exterior siding. 1/4” interior paneling coated with polyurethane water proofing.

Floor: 3/4” pressure treated plywood with polyurethane coating

2x4x10 front and 12x4x12 rear and sides insulated with 3 ½ inch foam panels

T111 exterior siding. 1/4” interior paneling coated with polyurethane water proofing.

Floor: 3/4” pressure treated plywood with polyurethane coating

Water Tank

550 gallon from Agri-Supply

Platform on 8x8 pillars standing on concrete pads directly on gravel filled depressions like the foundation footers so the floor system doesn't have to support all that mass.

All wood is pressure treated.

Stand pipe 4” schedule 40 PVC

Connecting pipes 2” schedule 40 PVC

1/2” & 3/4” ABS tubing

Gotta Turn the Well Pump Off when the Tank Gets Full !

Float Switch made from PVC pipe and end caps with threaded rod nuts and fender washers to turn toggle switch to pump on and off.

Just above the water inlet is an overflow outlet going outside...just in case the switch fails to turn off the pump [and a good thing too!..took some doing to get everything tuned up and a few different switches to find something reliable]

Float fits inside Stand Pipe [which is why there is a stand pipe]

 

Well:

320 ft deep /rated at 2 gallons per minute [actual is 3 cups per minute..ARG! ]

Pump: Submersible 12/24 volts 20 watt, 90 feet down.

1.4 gallons per minute pumping rate on 12 volts...which presents a big problem as it will pump the well dry in about 30 minutes.

Solution: Repeat cycle timer, 15 minutes on / 3 hours off

Panels:

4 x185 watt solar panels from http://sunelec.com/home/ to provide a total of 740 watts of power in full sun. [moonlight might be enough to run the 20 watt pump?]

Mounted on tilting steel frame for summer/winter average exposure elevation.

All panels individually wired to voltage busses so reconfiguration is easy

Panels configured to 12 volts all in parallel, but could make voltage combinations of

12&24 [2 in parallel / 2 in series],

12&36 [3 in series and 1 alone] or

48 [all 4 in series]

just by re-arranging wires on the busses

Charge Controller:

Originally I figured the submersible pump would just run continuously as long as the sun was shining as the well was "supposed to" deliver 2 gallons per minute, but it turned out that the well only filled at 3 CUPS per minute and the pump was running dry most of the time [not good for pumps]

SO....insert Deep Cycle Battery so the pump [only using 20 Watts at 12 volts] could do its thing according to the Repeat Cycle Timer, all night AND all day, with a charge controller to prevent overcharging the battery.

It's all downhill to the house/shop, so gravity feed, right?

Sorta. Modern water systems run at 40 to 120 PSI.

Where there are no flow restrictors [garden hose spigot] or where I could remove them [ bathroom faucet], gravity works just fine.

Where I couldn't remove them, just a trickle.

$$ BOOSTER PUMP $$

https://www.amazon.com/FloJet-02840100A-Marine-Accumulator-12-Volt/dp/B0...

Now with 40 PSI and lots of water flow, a malfunctioning toilet drains the entire 550 gallon tank over night and it takes 3 days to re-fill. [The well only delivers around 175 gallons per 24 hours.]..running booster pump dry..not good!

Ponder ponder..hummm

I just replaced the old washing machine and can't throw anything away till I know it's not worth fixing. Arg, burnt switches cost more to replace than I paid for the machine, but how does it know how far to fill itself when low/med or high laundry load is selected?

Air pressure.

The old washing machine had a pressure diaphragm switch, so just tapped into the downpipe to access whatever pressure was in it when the water was getting low.

Moved the switch up the near empty standpipe till the switch reacted...strapped in on right there.

Now when the water gets low, everything but the well pump shuts down..

and good thing 'cause the next thing was “THE BIG FREEZE”

EVERYTHING [but the big tank in that well insulated box] FROZE SOLID and busted pipes EVERYWHERE.

Running water? Yep...gotta run and get some water ...from the well house. [I had turned the main feed valve on the stand pipe off]

But [OH GOODY!] the booster pump shut itself off when the tank ran dry.

It took a week to find all the leaks in over 1500 ft of pipe running off through the woods in all directions [5 households]

 

Schematic: