Drilled my well myself!

[Mad_Labs]

Hey All,

Well, me and my bro in-law just drilled and cased our first well. We got to 60' then hit some really hard stuff. We could see that there was water, so we decided to case it and call it good.

So far we are getting around 2 gpm. Hopefully that will increase as we develop the well. Still, it's enough for now.

We used an air drill attached to a PVC pipe. The exhaust of the air drill goes up the pipe and pulls up the tailings and water, which goes through a settling pond and back to the well. We made 51 feet in the first two days, and then 9 feet over two more days. Need to get a better rock bit. The drill was a kit from howtodrillawell.com.

Total cost was around $1200 US. This includes buying and fixing a compressor to run the drill. It needs a lot of CFM. We used a 27 CFM, 12.5hp, gas engine driven compressor that we bought for $300 because it needed new compression rings. Spent $150 in parts fixing it. It cost 2k plus new. Was well worth it, to rent a compressor would have been $130 a day. We ran the poor thing pretty hard, I suspect the compressor is a little tired.

Now that I have the drill, compressor and so on, I can do another well for a few hundred bucks, depending on what well screen I use. This time we made our own well screen but next time I will buy some. I learned a LOT. If anyone is considering using this system, get hold of me, much to share.

Anyway, exciting stuff. I have water! No more trucking water in every two weeks! I can plant fruit trees this year! Move my solar hot tub over from my old place. Take a longer than 3 min shower. Woohoo!

On to a question: Any reccomendations for a pump? All the ones I see so far are more than I need, I'd like to use as little power as possible. I'm only  60' deep and only need 2-4 gpm. Needs to be 120V and have soft start.

Jonathan

[bschwartz]

I'd love to get one of those systems, but I think I'd have to go about 200 ft, and I hear they won't go that far.  Second problem is the water I hit first might be hot mineral water! (Truth or Conseqences, New Mexico used to be named Hot Springs).  Hot water is great for soaking, and house heating, but not for drinking (temperature isn't the issue, it's disolved minerals). 

[BruceM]

Very interesting, congrats Jonathan.  That's quite a project!

I'm jealous as my off grid well set me back $10K. Ouch! It had to be drilled to 300 feet, though the water is somewhat Artesian and I pump from a standing depth of 200 feet.

Grundfos makes some scroll type PV driven pumps that would be a good match for your low flow rate.  They aren't cheap but have a good service record in my area.  I haven't seen anything in a jet pump or centrifugal as low as 2 GPM.  As you suggested, it may improve with development.

[Mad_Labs]

Yeah, this system is limited to around 100'. Iv'e heard of 200' but have my doubts. Ans so far it's not so good on rock.

I'll look into the Grundfos scroll pumps. Don't even know what a scroll pump is.

Jonathan

[mbryner]

I, too, will be off grid when the house gets built on our land.   Our well was 350 ft w/ static level at ~125 ft.   Only 2 gpm and ~$10k (but now up to 5 gpm consistently).   

We put in a Grundfos SQ pump because of its slow start/low electric surge.   Grundfos makes lots of different models with different specs that would work well with your well.   It sort of depends on how much standing water you have above the pump.   They also make a SQ Flex pump which you can hook up to solar panels directly.   If the sun is shining, you're pumping water.  Hook up a holding tank.   The SQ/SQ Flex series also have good dry run protection, etc.

Marcus

[WGB]

I used a Deeprock system and went 90' years ago, still have the stuff.
I just had a well drilled at our off grid site 135' 4" plastic casing 200 GPM at 3' above ground.

$3200.00

[WGB]

Pics

[WGB]

more
This is just a pipe down the well no pump!

[rcavictim]

You lucky dog.  I'll bet that won't last.  What is the source of the pressure?

[WGB]

You lucky dog.  I'll bet that won't last.  What is the source of the pressure?

There are wells over 100 years old flowing in the area.
It's the Mahomet aquifer, not all of the aquifer flows though.
I've heard a couple reasons, one the water table is higher somewhere and is seeking its own level.
The other is we are in a bend / edge of the aquifer and as the water moves against this edge it's forced up like a ramp, that was from a well driller.
!0 miles to the East there is one well the casing is above the 3 bedroom roof to keep the water from flowing over the top.
When I get time I'm going to use the flow for cooling and hydro electric. One more nice thing is 20 feet to the north is a 12' drop off to a low ground on the way to a creek.
I want to build a duck pond there, so that is one more use for the water.

[BruceM]

I was very tempted by the Grundfos SQflex pumps, they are the only PV pumps that our 3 well drillers will install now, too many failures on others.  Nice part is they do a wide range of both AC and DC supply with the same unit.  (Was $1400, don' know the current prices). 

The SQ flex's  have their own switch mode power supply built into the pump, and do spew EMI all over the attached power/panel system, (I briefly took some spectrum measurements on a running unit, and even the attached PV was screaming on an AM radio) and I didn't want another EMI mitigaton problem to deal with.  Metal conduit down into the casing and a good filter at the well head could clean it up, and I may revisit the issue someday.  If only they'd do a better job on EMC design issues...

Living in the high desert, the notion of lots of water flowing up out of the ground from a shallow well is a shocker!  Water is life, what an wonderful site you have WGB!

[mike90045]

Great for you.  I hit shale at 240' in 2 locations.  neighbor went to 400+ still shale.  Now I have a 2.5 AF pond, with 5 acres watershed feeding it.

[WGB]

I was very tempted by the Grundfos SQflex pumps, they are the only PV pumps that our 3 well drillers will install now, too many failures on others.  Nice part is they do a wide range of both AC and DC supply with the same unit.  (Was $1400, don' know the current prices). 

The SQ flex's  have their own switch mode power supply built into the pump, and do spew EMI all over the attached power/panel system, (I briefly took some spectrum measurements on a running unit, and even the attached PV was screaming on an AM radio) and I didn't want another EMI mitigaton problem to deal with.  Metal conduit down into the casing and a good filter at the well head could clean it up, and I may revisit the issue someday.  If only they'd do a better job on EMC design issues...

Living in the high desert, the notion of lots of water flowing up out of the ground from a shallow well is a shocker!  Water is life, what an wonderful site you have WGB!

I use Grundfos brand pumps not the PV type though.

Mad_labs, have you come up with a pump?

What amazes me is the low GPM output of the PV pumps, must be to conserve wattage?
I do know most are high head for you desert guys, that will cut GPM.
You have any info Bruce?

[mbryner]

The low GPM you are referring to really has nothing to do with the fact that they are PV capable.  

Look at the data sheets here:

http://www.us.grundfos.com/web/Download.nsf/Pages/F022FA20B451057588256B7B005019AD/$File/L-SP-TL-014.pdf

Note that the data curves for the 6 SQF-x at 6 gpm are quite different than the 60 SQF-x at 60 GPM.   You have to size your pump for the depth of your well and how many solar panels (wattage) you have.   The GPM is proportional to the amount of power you give the pump (watts from PV), and inversely proportional to the depth of the water or height you have to pump it.    

[BruceM]

Good post, MBryner.

Solar Blvd has a sale on 60 watt, 60volt panels ($99) now, they are a good pick for some PV pumping setups with the SQ flex, which likes higher voltages, which also saves you on wire size. Two panels in series would work well in some lower volume/shallow well setups.

http://www.solarblvd.com/product_info.php?info=p834_Kaneka-60-60W-Thinfilm-Solar-Panel.html

I've done business with Solar Blvd. They are OK, but their non-name brand panels are questionable (Solar Cynergy- it's really just what Solar Blvd can get cheap from anyone in China).  I got a batch that was way below spec., they did make good, including return freight.   I switched to a different brand (also China but name brand and met spec).  Solar Blvd's expert technical knowledge was shockingly laughable, they didn't know how to properly test the rated output of a panel, only knew open voltage and short circuit amps, thought you get wattage my multiplying those.

They do offer some good bargains and are honest.  I dickered and got them to match the sale price on some panels offered elsewhere.

Bruce