Spring water collection/housing

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Spring water collection/housing

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Henbant

Joined: 04 Oct 2014
Posts: 8

Posted: Sat Oct 04, 14 10:04 am Post subject: Spring water collection/housing

Hi all,

We have a quite active spring about 50m below our house that never dries up that we want to install a pump into to use for the farm and house.

All the pictures I can find on the net all seem very overkill or just seem inappropriate for our situation.

My plan is to sink a large plastic drum without any bottom to it into the spring (most of the water seems to come up the ground) and then use an electric pump (we have a decent solar PV system) to pump 65m up the hill to above the house and store the water in 2 IBC's and then let it come down by gravity to wherever its needed on the farm. We will just set the pump to run for say an hour every day at midday (when we have most solar energy)

My main two issues are:

There is a big range in pumps, I can spend between £70 and £700 on a pump that on paper does the same thing. Any recomendations?

and stopping surface flow from entering the collecting drum, the spring is only about 2ft below the field surface

All ideas (and pictures of peoples collecting points/spring housing) much appreciated.

Matt

Ty Gwyn

Joined: 22 Sep 2010
Posts: 4563
Location: Lampeter

Posted: Sat Oct 04, 14 11:05 am Post subject:

Hi Matt,
The type of pump you need will depend on the head of water to pump,you mention 65m from well to storage tanks,but its the height you will need to calculate.

The well at only 2ft below surface of field will always attract surface water,to eliminate this i would sink your bottomless tank well below this level,and seal around the base with semi dry concrete or even good clay if you have it,and make sure tank top is well above ground level.
If the source of the spring is as good as you say,then you should be able to rise the level of water in tank above ground level,and be sure of no contaminated water entering.

I have done similar a few years back,but used concrete rings,the 2nd ring was a foot above ground level,and in 2or 3 days it was overflowing,so i placed another ring on top,against every bodies recommendations,but i raised the water level to 3ft 6in above ground surface.

This was for gravity feed to water troughs for the cattle in the lower fields when the gutters dry,as they have this year.

Hairyloon

Joined: 20 Nov 2008
Posts: 15425
Location: Today I are mostly being in Yorkshire.

Posted: Sat Oct 04, 14 4:12 pm Post subject: Re: Spring water collection/housing

Henbant wrote:

We will just set the pump to run for say an hour every day at midday (when we have most solar energy.

I'd suggest running a smaller pump for longer: unless you foresee times when you're likely to be in a rush.

Henbant

Joined: 04 Oct 2014
Posts: 8

Posted: Mon Oct 06, 14 8:46 am Post subject:

Thanks both of you, it seems low powered pumps that will confidently give us the head we need are quite hard to determine. There are some very nice ones that are designed for lower voltage systems but they are much more expensive.

It seems everybody recommends the culvert pipes, and that may well happen yet, but I think we will have a go with a big plastic drum first, we only really enough water at the spring that the pump doesn't run it down too much.

The clay/concrete around the base is finally starting to make sense to me.. I'll go and have a play as soon as the weather cheers up!

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