Running long water/power line...need suggestions

stumpfield · Sep 11, 2006

My well driller selected the absolute most inconvinient spot to drill my well. About 1500' away from my building pad. No power or anything nearby. He will drill anywhere I want but I'm not going to argue with him.

So, my next project is to run 2" PVC water line from the well/storage tank to the house and barn area (gravity feed). Should I use PVC or is there something else better?

I'll be run it along my 15' wide driveway. Should I trench near the edge of the driveway or right in the middle? I'm thinking right in the middle would avoid the wheel weight of most heavy vehicles. It will be 12" deep (min here...)

I'm still trying to figure out the cost benefit of running power line vs. having a delicated generator for the pump. If I chose to run power line, what's the most cost effective method? Transformer at both end? or using really heavy gauge wire?

Thanks for you comment.

Jimbrown · Sep 11, 2006

Have you considered a windmill or possibly a solar pump for the well. The advantage of doing solar is that you can do it all yourself. You can used roll type poly pipe but I personally would use PVC. If you buy it in 20ft lengths it has the connectors already on the sections. Mine is about 1300ft from my house and I have a solar pump on it.

schmism · Sep 11, 2006

i would NOT run it in the driveway.....

i dont think you'll be able to run 1500 feet at "low voltage" ie youll have to step it up with a transformer...

with the solar pump you can have a large "water tower" type stoarge. pump the water when the sun is out... use the storage tank as your "battery" when the pump isnt running. (2K gallons ish)

with a run that large id go with 1.25 min... 1.5-2" (20' lenghts as mentioned)

remember
1 foot of head = 0.433 psi
1.0 psi = 2.31 feet of head

(so normal household pressure of 50psi ~100' of head) with out a booster pump at the house

Onthesauk · Sep 11, 2006

I just had a new well drilled a month ago. Had to extend the run from the house an additional 200 feet. Have used 1", black poly rolled pipe, 200 psi for the entire run. Original was in 200 foot rolls, this time in 100 foot.

Wire cost me nearly $400 for 10/3 w/ground, 250 roll. At that level worth looking at solar alternatives.

EddieWalker · Sep 12, 2006

Never run your lines down your road. You will have to dig it up one day and while your doing that, you will still need to use your road. Always run your lines down the side of your road. Also make sure to put wire along the pipe so you can find it again in a dozen or so years. The wire is also called tracer wire and you just tape it to the pipe. Use a roll of 14 guage wire, or whatever you can find the cheapest, but be sure to include it.

The best pipe to use will have bell style ends with rubber gaskets. These will allow the pipe to slide in and out a small amount with out leaking or breaking. Glued together pipe will break allot sooner than gasketed pipe over the years. Schedule 40 is the minumum.

There are different grades of black poly pipe. It's the cheapest and easiest to install because it comes in 100 and 300 foot lengths. It's also the most prone to break and leak. I would never use it for a water main or supply line for any reason. Lots of folks have it and like it, but I think it's a time bomb waiting to break.

One of the local water companies used it for all there water lines about a decade ago. Now they have to run crews 24/7 to fix and repair water leaks. It's an every day event for them, and when I was talking to them, they we fixing the one in front of my house and had three others to get to that night.

Eddie

stumpfield · Sep 12, 2006

Oops... Hit the wrong key.

stumpfield · Sep 12, 2006

I was thinking of ease of trenching. My road is along the ridge line of a steep hill with about 100' elevation drop from the well to the home site. It also slopes down both side of the road in a 45+ degree angle. It looks very difficult to dig on a slope with compound angles. That's why I thought I have to stay somewhat on the road. May be I'll just dig as close to the edge as possible. What type of pipe I can just leave it on the surface?
I still don't understand why the well driller wants to drill near the top of a hill. Almost the highest point of the property. There are year round springs at the same elevation as my building site only about 1000' away. So, I know there's water down there. Common sense would drill right above or near the spring.

Here's a topo map.

Tim_in_IA · Sep 12, 2006

Is it too late to get him to drill closer to the site? What were the reasons for not drilling by the site. That is going to be an expensive addition to your project. Don't know if it will affect your pressure or not due to your elevation changes.

HomeBrew2 · Sep 12, 2006

stumpfield said:
... I still don't understand why the well driller wants to drill near the top of a hill. ...

My take on it is that the well driller doesn't like your driveway or more specifically, doesn't like the idea of driving his expensive rig on it. You've previously mentioned that the road to your drive is hard, he probably doesn't like it either. Also the season is getting late. If he gets in and we get a bunch of rain, he may not get it out till next year.

stumpfield · Sep 12, 2006

HomeBrew2 said:
My take on it is that the well driller doesn't like your driveway or more specifically, doesn't like the idea of driving his expensive rig on it. You've previously mentioned that the road to your drive is hard, he probably doesn't like it either. Also the season is getting late. If he gets in and we get a bunch of rain, he may not get it out till next year.

The real bad road is not on my property. It's about 2 miles on the way in. Once you go pass the bad section, then it's just a regular graded dirt road. If he can get to the well site he proposed, it's only another 1000' more and it's wide open CDF compliant driveway with several turnaround areas. Access was not an issue. He's willing to drill anywhere I want along that driveway. But he thinks drilling up near the top is better. This guy don't like to talk much. He walks around with his eyes half-closed...swinging his stick and stop at the spot say "drill right here!". Funny that he was the only driller didn't complaint about the bad road.