Help using the head pressure from our spring

[JonRankin]

We recently bought a place that has a natural spring that provides good head pressure to our home, but it has been plumbed as follows:

-Spring water collects in an open 2500 gallon concrete reservoir
-Gravity feed through 2" PVC to a pair of 5000 gallon poly tanks near home site. Head pressure at inlet to tanks is about 60 psi
-Poly tanks feed low pressure water to a boost pump and pressure tank
-Pressure tank feeds through filter, softener and UV light, then to house

We seem to be wasting the head pressure from the gravity feed, just to use a pump to get it back to about the same pressure level. I think I could just bypass the tanks and feed the spring water straight to the filters, but I'd like to keep the tanks in the loop so that the water in there doesn't start growing things, and keep the tank water as a backup in case the spring gets slow in the summer. I would loose the benefit of settling some of the sediment out of the spring water in the poly tanks, so I'd probably end up going through filters faster. I'm new to springs and wells, is there any kind of a pressure tank that would let me use the spring supply line to boost the pressure of the stored tank water? Is the boost pump using less power than it seems and I should just not sweat it?

For reference, there is no power at the spring location, and 220 / 110 power at the poly tanks / boost pump location. I'm drawing off the middle of the concrete reservoir right now, so I should be getting a fair amount of sediment out there - maybe putting in a baffle of concrete blocks would help further?

Thanks!

 

[Valveman]

Moving the storage tanks to the top of the hill would give you the 60 PSI and allow the use of the tanks. But if you use the tanks at the bottom as they are now, you will lose that 60 PSI and have to use the boost pump to make it up. However, even with high electricity rates, water just for a house or two will probably only cost 5 bucks a month to pump with the boost pump. If you do a lot of irrigating a 1HP boost pump can use 100 bucks a month if ran 24/7/30.

You maybe able to filter and use the line directly from the spring. But there may not be enough volume that way, and the storage tanks might be needed. I would just run a line around the storage tanks and see if the spring can supply what you need directly.

If direct from the spring works, you don't need those storage tanks anyway.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[JonRankin]

Thanks for your thoughts, that's what I was afraid of. The spring site is steep and rugged enough that moving the tanks would be a big project, so I'll try the bypass method; if it works maybe I'll alternate between bypass and tanks to keep everything moving and maybe save a little power.

 

[Blue Oaks]

Did you see my thread about moving tanks up a pretty steep hill? Where in CA are you? My friend is a master at working on steep hillsides. He is in Morgan Hill.

https://terrylove.com/forums/index.php?threads/moving-water-tanks-up-the-hill-for-more-pressure-need-advice-on-piping.92695/

 

[JonRankin]

Did you see my thread about moving tanks up a pretty steep hill? Where in CA are you? My friend is a master at working on steep hillsides. He is in Morgan Hill.

https://terrylove.com/forums/index.php?threads/moving-water-tanks-up-the-hill-for-more-pressure-need-advice-on-piping.92695/

Nice work, looks good. I'm not too far away, south edge of Mount Diablo in Contra Costa County. After the storms this year I'm scared to try to cut any landings on that hill, we got hammered! I do have a neighbor with a bobcat and all the toys so maybe I'll have to think about it...

 

[Blue Oaks]

Nice work, looks good. I'm not too far away, south edge of Mount Diablo in Contra Costa County. After the storms this year I'm scared to try to cut any landings on that hill, we got hammered! I do have a neighbor with a bobcat and all the toys so maybe I'll have to think about it...

I can't emphasize enough how nice it is to have gravity fed water to the house. I also put in a couple fire/golf hose spigots that are very reassuring to have in the event that they might be needed.

 

[Valveman]

I can't emphasize enough how nice it is to have gravity fed water to the house. I also put in a couple fire/golf hose spigots that are very reassuring to have in the event that they might be needed.

It would be great to have an elevated water tank. It would be even better to have running water on the property to use a Ram pump and/or hydro generator. Unfortunately, most of us do not have that option. Where I live it is so flat you can see your dog running away for 3 days, and the closest running water is hundreds of miles away. We make Cycle Stop Valves to control pumps and make them as reliable as a storage tank on the hill for those of us who have to pump water to the house.

 

[Blue Oaks]

It would be great to have an elevated water tank. It would be even better to have running water on the property to use a Ram pump and/or hydro generator. Unfortunately, most of us do not have that option. Where I live it is so flat you can see your dog running away for 3 days, and the closest running water is hundreds of miles away. We make Cycle Stop Valves to control pumps and make them as reliable as a storage tank on the hill for those of us who have to pump water to the house.

There's a handful of very old properties in the area that have grandfathered hydro electric rights. They're nice to have for sure, but the creek they run off of can vary wildly in their water flows.