DIY Pump Install Questions.

ballvalve said:

If i understand your earlier post, you are running on a generator [?] that would change all these equations. In such case spend 600 bucks on a 3000 gallon static tank, forget the hand pump and get it up high enough for gravity flow in a power outage. Fill the tank with a float valve at about 1/3 down. Now your pump will go full life. What you do after the tank is up for grabs.

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Generator only for emergencies. Would be nice to have an elevated tank, but my land is all totally flat. For 40 PSI, I think the tank would have to be about 93' above my house (40 / .43). If my house were at the bottom of a big hill, that might work.

I may end up doing just that for drip irrigation, though. The drip system is designed for very low pressure. A 1000 gal tank 6 or 7 feet high should do it fine. Have been toying with building a concrete generator shed with steel reinforced roof and putting the tank on top. That would be much better on the pump than a 1/2 gpm drip flow. That will have to wait a while though.

Valveman explained it best but I have a few concerns! (1) I think Alabama requires that the casing extend at lease 12" above ground (No wells in a pit)! (2) Using a hand pump to pump pressure into a pressure tank isn't easy! (3) Most Public systems regulators won't condone (allow) their systems to be physically connected to a well system! We would have the public water faucet and well water faucet independent of each other. Then in the event of a well water system failure we would connect them together faucet to faucet with a short Washing Machine Hose (female to female connections). That's a temporary but legal hookup.