Hi its me again! I'm thinking about redoing my well system. I'm thinking about installing a 300 gallon tank with a float switch about 10'to 15' above ground and letting gravity push water into my one story house. The tank will be enclosed to avoid freezing temperatures. This will be built directly above the old well house. Does anyone have any recommendations on this?

-- Russell Hays (rhays@sstelco.com), May 02, 2001

Answers

We installed a system similar to what you describe in a freinds house to increase water pressure. Uprights were installed to support the weight in the attic of a 250 gal hold tank with leak trough and drain. Heat from the home provided freeze protection.

-- Jay Blair in N. Al (jayblair678@yahoo.com), May 02, 2001.

Main thing, Russell, is that you'll only get one pound per square inch per 2.31 feet of elevation. So, if your tank is 15 feet above ground, and, say, ten feet above your shower head, you'll only have 10÷2.31=4.3 pounds per square inch. This is a very low pressure; while this small amount of pressure CAN be marginally adequate, it is not going to be particularly satisfying for most people, especially if you haven't designed the plumbing in your house for it. (If you use oversized pipe, and valves and faucets with large enough orifices, it can work sort of ok, but it is problematic) Be aware that most "normal" water systems have at least thirty psi, although some have twenty. To get even 20 psi, you'd have to have the tank forty-six feet higher than your point of use.

Sorry.

JOJ

-- jumpoff joe (jumpoff@ecoweb.net), May 02, 2001.

My 1st homestead had a 5oo gal tank on a hill up a 20ft tower. Bout 30ft total above the plumbing. Worked great for me. No you don't have high pressure but who needs it anyway? Your shower is just as hot and you get just as clean. If you need the pressure once in a while just pipe in directly from your pump. While I was pumping into the tank I'd wash my car. One added bonus the place never had faucet leaks and I never had to worry about the pipes breaking!! I'm building a rock house right now and I'm putting in another gravity system. Anyway my 2 cents!!!.....Kirk

-- Kirk Davis (kirkay@yahoo.com), May 02, 2001.

A question for JO Joe: I read somewhere about a guy who had connected a Hudson sprayer into his gravity plumbing system and used it as a manually operated pressure tank for taking showers. (You probably already know what a Hudson sprayer is, but just in case they are called something else in your area - it is a cylinder with a removable top containing a manually operated pump with a one-way air valve. There is a hose near the bottom of the cyl with a spray nozzle operated by a trigger handle. Ours takes about 20-30 strokes on the pump handle to supply enough air pressure to empty the 3 gal tank with a 'relatively powerful' spray.) The pumping effort might be reasonable for 1 or 2 showers a day. I can't figure out how that guy plumbed it into his system, though.

Russell - 300 gallons of water will weigh over 2500 pounds - then add the weight of the tank itself. Be sure you build its support very strong. Sandy

-- Sandy in MN (jpevans_56353@yahoo.com), May 03, 2001.