Supplementing low yield well with rainwater

[HollyAR75]

We're looking into options to add more water. A new well is super expensive and risky so we'd rather spend the money on something that will guarantee additional water. Currently have a 210' well that fills a 550 gallon underground cistern about 100' away from the house. In the crawl space of the house is a jet pump and pressure tank that pull from the underground cistern. We're thinking of catching rain water. Have two neighbors that live on my ridge that use rainwater as their main water source so we are familiar with the basics of it. Is there a clever way to connect the cisterns so the rainwater would take over when needed, so we wouldn't have to manually choose between systems. Open to any suggestions.

 

[Reach4]

I think you are saying that you want to have a second cistern for just rain water. The question that comes to mind is if you will want to consider that rainwater as potable (drinkable)?

You imply that you intend to have a second cistern. One thought is that you could feed from the rain cistern to the cistern connected to the pressure pump with gravity, or have a second pump. If you were planning to use the rain water for lawn watering, then a second pump could simplify things.

You could also consider getting by with one cistern. Run the gutter water through some sediment filtering, and route that water to the cistern if the cistern is not full.

The rain water will be soft water. If you have a softener for the well water, you would not want the rain water to get routed through that.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Valveman]

If you use the same cistern for both, you can just put the float switch for the water well lower so the well doesn't come on unless the rainwater runs low.