Double Water Pumps Question

[SLOBuds]

If you surge is in short duration you would only need more pressure tanks by the flow.

Instead of another pump I would put 4 or 5 more pressure tanks on the system by the houses then your existing pump will run longer but short bursts would come out of the tanks.

tommu

I am trying to get a backup pump on the system - so if one pump goes down, the system will still have water pressure while the first one gets fixed.

Any idea how to do that?

 

[tommu56]

Then the other pump is the only way ta add redundancy the only other thing would be a separate suction line for the second pump or up size the one to the first to prevent cavitation of the pump with both running.

tommu

 

[MikeD74T]

SLOBuds, Your first post indicated you did not understand how "fighting' could occur. I was trying to explain that. Also you provided little info about pipe size, pump size, demand, etc. I think with 1200 feet between pumps your diagram would work. I'd still stagger the starts & keep the stops the same. Remember that all bladder tanks will drain until the first pump starts, not just the one on that pump. Multiple / larger bladders just allow more time between pump starts and longer pump runs. You can even run with only one bladder tank and staggered settings despite the pumps being separated. If I did that the tank would be toward the middle of the system to absorb water hammer when demand suddenly decreases. With your system that might not be an issue. MikeD74T

 

[Sackett2]

I don't recall the specs, but on the dual pump system at the missile site,
The primary pump supplied water to the building, but if water demand became high, IE during a fire situation where the fire hose was in use, the secondary pump would engage.
the kick-on pressure for the secondary pump was at least about 20 lbs below the primary pump- but the kick off pressure was within 5 lbs of the primary pump- kept them from fighting

 

[Egon]

The system as show should work very well if one pump is intended as a primary backup.

 

[SLOBuds]

Thanks guys for the great feedback and ideas. At the end of the day it sounds like a pretty simple setup.

I have never liked having the large number of mechanicals for my water system on that parcel. So many things can break.

My neighbor has his storage tank on top of a hill. He does not use any pump equipment at all, except to get water from the well to his tank. The pressure is a bit low - 40 lbs - but he uses it OK at that level since he only needs to supply a house with 2 occupants and a bit of landscape immediately around the house.

I don't have that same elevation rise to my benefit. And also I need to supply multiple houses as well as field irrigation, so the low psi would not work with that much demand.

My problem in the past has been systems going down without backups. Another problem is that it isn't always easy to tell if the system is down.

If the pressure system is down, that's pretty easy because we can detect it inside the house. If the well pump is down, we have to notice that the storage tanks are lowering - which could also be from heavy consumption. So then I have to go over and see if water is flowing into the tank, from the well.

Thanks again.