Water, water, everywhere

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Sharkey
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Water, water, everywhere

Post by Sharkey »

As many project posts as I'm making, the appearance might be that I'm actually efficient at getting things done, but that's all it is, an appearance...

Four years ago after I first moved here, I got a sudden lesson in hydraulics when the spring quit during a storm. At the time, I was down with the flu and had a temperature of 103°, and wasn't in any shape to go up the hill and fix the water system.

In my condition, I needed water and I needed it now, so I dug out an old well pump and pressure tank that I'd been saving, cut a hole in the top of a plastic 55 gallon pickle barrel, and put the whole shebang under a downspout to catch rain water from the roof.

This worked well enough that I didn't change it much for the next 4½ years. It was always valuable to have a day's worth of water stored in case the spring quit or got too muddy to use. There were times over the last few winters that I ran on roof water for weeks at a time until the weather improved and I could get up to the spring to fix whatever was troubling the system.

Even when the spring is working properly, there is a certain amount of sediment that comes down the pipe and has to be filtered out before I send it into the house plumbing. These filters were a tacked-on affair, residing on the ground where the pipe from the spring exits from underground. It was always a chore to clean the filters, squatting in the bushes and fighting with the filter housings.

All of that is changing. For one thing, a day or a day and a half's worth of water is more welcome than none, but having a larger supply is best. A couple of months back, Thomas noticed in an agricultural classified paper that a food manufacturer over in the valley was selling clean 275 gallon totes for $50 each. He wanted one to pull on the wagon behind the tractor for watering trees and asked if I wanted one for the water system. I said yes, but when he got to the food plant, they told him that they hadn't had much response to the ad, so they were selling them for $25 each to get rid of them faster. He bought 10, 2 for me 2 for him and 6 for the company he works for, whose truck he was driving (free delivery!)

About a month ago, I finalized my plans for the tote and removed the 55 gallon barrel, pump and pressure tank from the water system. This was a leap of faith, because we were still having stormy weather, and with the barrel and pump removed, I could get stranded without water.

Over the course of a couple of weeks, I levelled an area next to the house for the tote and rebuilt the controller for the pump, placing the pressure switch in a raintight enclosure along with a thermostat and control switches. Since I plan on tapping the 30 amp 240 volt feed that goes to the bus, I added a 20 amp disconnect so that the pump and controls would be protected.

I filled the tank last week and finished the controller, mounting it on one side of the tank. Today, I switched the house and Housetruck over to the backup supply and cut the spring supply plumbing apart to retrieve the filters for reuse in the new system. By afternoon, the new filter assembly was together, and I hung it on another side of the tote/tank.

Here's what I have right now:

Image

The filters aren't plumbed in yet, that's tomorrow's project. For the time being, the pump runs on a heavy duty extension cord, but once I start digging up the ground to run the pipes, I'll bring the type UF cable that runs along the surface up into the controller and tap it to supply 120 volts to the pump. Gone are the flimsy extension cords and when it's done, I won't have to worry about blowing the "everything breaker" in the load center. (The "everything breaker" runs nearly everything in the house, lights, plugs, bathrooms, exterior outlets, etc. When using the pump, I've always had to be careful to not be running heat in the bathroom, or it gets cold and dark in the shower fast when the pump comes on.)

There are four stages of filtering. First, on the right, a 152 micron "irrigation" filter, or "spin filter". This is to catch the bigger bits, mostly leaf debris. The next filter is a 30 micron, followed by a 20, then 5. The last filter feeds a check valve, and from there it will go to the pressure tank and the house fixtures.

Normally, the spin filter needs cleaning most frequently, every day in the winter, sometimes several times a day when it's raining hard and I'm using a lot of water doing laundry, etc.

Until this system was put together, I used only the spin filter and a 20 micron filter for the house supply. This frequently wan't enough filtering, the toilet tank has to be hosed out every few weeks due to accumulation of fine sediment. I have a 5 micron filter on the supply to the Housetruck and another 5 micron filter under the sink in the truck. The first of these two filters needs cleaning every few weeks normally, but the one under the sink stays very clean, as does my Multi-Pure water purifier. I think that a four stage filter will be enough to stop most everything from entering the house supply from now on.

While I'm at it, I'm improving the supply of spring water to the far parts of the yard, and beginning a filtered water supply towards the general direction of the Crown, eventually, I'll want/need water out there too.
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ezrablu
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Post by ezrablu »

Sharkey this is fantastic! I'm going to buy one of those totes just like yours but I have to pay $75 for mine here in Wisconsin. I've been wondering what to do in the winter when everything freezes...Do I just empty the big tote till the next spring?
ezrablu
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dburt
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Post by dburt »

Sharkey, what I like about your projects is when you do get around to doing one, you do it right! That sure counts against a whole bunch of projects that many folks do quickly but sloppy- but rarely or never right. Then I come along and stumble into it, or it falls into my possesion or responsiblity and then I have to try and figure out what's wrong and redo it right. And usually it's a tangled mess! That's when I'd rather see it done right then quick, hopefully even before I get there! :wink:
KB2IAW

Re: Water, water, everywhere

Post by KB2IAW »

Sharkey wrote:As many project posts as I'm making, the appearance might be that I'm actually efficient at getting things done, but that's all it is, an appearance...

Four years ago after I first moved here, I got a sudden lesson in hydraulics when the spring quit during a storm. At the time, I was down with the flu and had a temperature of 103°, and wasn't in any shape to go up the hill and fix the water system.

In my condition, I needed water and I needed it now, so I dug out an old well pump and pressure tank that I'd been saving, cut a hole in the top of a plastic 55 gallon pickle barrel, and put the whole shebang under a downspout to catch rain water from the roof.

This worked well enough that I didn't change it much for the next 4½ years. It was always valuable to have a day's worth of water stored in case the spring quit or got too muddy to use. There were times over the last few winters that I ran on roof water for weeks at a time until the weather improved and I could get up to the spring to fix whatever was troubling the system.

Even when the spring is working properly, there is a certain amount of sediment that comes down the pipe and has to be filtered out before I send it into the house plumbing. These filters were a tacked-on affair, residing on the ground where the pipe from the spring exits from underground. It was always a chore to clean the filters, squatting in the bushes and fighting with the filter housings.

All of that is changing. For one thing, a day or a day and a half's worth of water is more welcome than none, but having a larger supply is best. A couple of months back, Thomas noticed in an agricultural classified paper that a food manufacturer over in the valley was selling clean 275 gallon totes for $50 each. He wanted one to pull on the wagon behind the tractor for watering trees and asked if I wanted one for the water system. I said yes, but when he got to the food plant, they told him that they hadn't had much response to the ad, so they were selling them for $25 each to get rid of them faster. He bought 10, 2 for me 2 for him and 6 for the company he works for, whose truck he was driving (free delivery!)

About a month ago, I finalized my plans for the tote and removed the 55 gallon barrel, pump and pressure tank from the water system. This was a leap of faith, because we were still having stormy weather, and with the barrel and pump removed, I could get stranded without water.

Over the course of a couple of weeks, I levelled an area next to the house for the tote and rebuilt the controller for the pump, placing the pressure switch in a raintight enclosure along with a thermostat and control switches. Since I plan on tapping the 30 amp 240 volt feed that goes to the bus, I added a 20 amp disconnect so that the pump and controls would be protected.

I filled the tank last week and finished the controller, mounting it on one side of the tank. Today, I switched the house and Housetruck over to the backup supply and cut the spring supply plumbing apart to retrieve the filters for reuse in the new system. By afternoon, the new filter assembly was together, and I hung it on another side of the tote/tank.

Here's what I have right now:

Image

The filters aren't plumbed in yet, that's tomorrow's project. For the time being, the pump runs on a heavy duty extension cord, but once I start digging up the ground to run the pipes, I'll bring the type UF cable that runs along the surface up into the controller and tap it to supply 120 volts to the pump. Gone are the flimsy extension cords and when it's done, I won't have to worry about blowing the "everything breaker" in the load center. (The "everything breaker" runs nearly everything in the house, lights, plugs, bathrooms, exterior outlets, etc. When using the pump, I've always had to be careful to not be running heat in the bathroom, or it gets cold and dark in the shower fast when the pump comes on.)

There are four stages of filtering. First, on the right, a 152 micron "irrigation" filter, or "spin filter". This is to catch the bigger bits, mostly leaf debris. The next filter is a 30 micron, followed by a 20, then 5. The last filter feeds a check valve, and from there it will go to the pressure tank and the house fixtures.

Normally, the spin filter needs cleaning most frequently, every day in the winter, sometimes several times a day when it's raining hard and I'm using a lot of water doing laundry, etc.

Until this system was put together, I used only the spin filter and a 20 micron filter for the house supply. This frequently wan't enough filtering, the toilet tank has to be hosed out every few weeks due to accumulation of fine sediment. I have a 5 micron filter on the supply to the Housetruck and another 5 micron filter under the sink in the truck. The first of these two filters needs cleaning every few weeks normally, but the one under the sink stays very clean, as does my Multi-Pure water purifier. I think that a four stage filter will be enough to stop most everything from entering the house supply from now on.

While I'm at it, I'm improving the supply of spring water to the far parts of the yard, and beginning a filtered water supply towards the general direction of the Crown, eventually, I'll want/need water out there too.
You Wont Get Any Water With A Backward Check Valve .....
Sharkey
Original Founder
Posts: 1364
Joined: Sat Oct 09, 2004 4:00 am
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Post by Sharkey »

Wich is true, that's why I was very careful when assembling to observe the arrow indicating flow direction. In this circuit, the flow is right-to-left, discharge is after the check valve.
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