Well is long distance from pressure tank -- help?

[dguest]

I'm wondering if anyone has had some experience with a situation like mine.

Here's what I'm dealing with:

My well is around 1,300 feet from my building. The well head is about 200 feet elevation below the building and is about 300 feet deep. So the pump pushes the water uphill around 500 feet.

Putting the pressure tank near the well at the bottom of the hill would have required an unrealistic ammount of pressure to push the water up the hill. Running 220v power from the pressure tank in the building 1,300 feet to the well would have required a huge power cable at huge expense. So, the well has (or will have) separate power service.

I talked this over with the well driller a couple of years ago, and he checked off on the plan.

The well at the bottom of the hill will have it's own power service. The well pump control panel is in the pump house near the well. A low-voltage wire will then run up the hill to the pressure tank in the building. The well driller indicated that I could use a low-voltage pressure switch at the top of the hill to send a signal 1,300 feet away to the well pump control panel to turn the pump on and off. With this setup, the pressure switch doesn't have to carry the high voltage necessary to power the pump -- it's only used to send a signal to a switch which turns the power on and off.

Anyone have any experience with a well this far away from the pressure switch? I've looked around on the internet for a pressure switch and pump controller that will do what I want, but I haven't seen anything. Before I talk with the well driller again, I'd just like to know if anyone has any advice?

[sammyhydro11]

It sounds like he wants that switch to fire a mag starter which drops in power for the pump. I think its agreat idea and should work fine as long as your pump and line going to the building is sized to give you enough water you should be good to go.

SAM

[Bob NH]

One thing you must be aware of is that there could be a lot of voltage drop in 1300 ft of wire operating a contactor. Round-trip resistance of 18 AWG copper will be more than 20 Ohms, so it is hard to pull in a contactor with a low-voltage signal.

On one project where it was about 600 ft from control to pump, I used a solid state relay to pull in a line voltage coil in a 5 HP motor starter. All it needed for power was a 6 Volt wall-wart and because it required only about 10 milliamps for the solid state relay, it could be run on 20 AWG wire.

You can get a definite purpose contactor from a place like Grainger for less than $30. You have to put it in an enclosure, and you will also need a disconnect (probably the circuit breaker) at the pump.

[Wet_Boots]

I remember a house way uphill from well, and even with a large pressure tank in the house's basement, there was a lot of water hammer. I would look hard at pipe sizes, and bump them up from what you'd have in a regular installation.