Help with a cistern - Small Cabin Forum

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Small Cabin Forum / Off-Grid Living / Help with a cistern


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grover Member	# Posted: 15 Apr 2015 14:52 Reply Can anyone help with the plumbing and wiring of an underground cistern? I have a concrete cisern of around 1500 gallons installed. It has a hatch on top for inside access and there is a threaded fitting on the side a couple of feet down from the surface. I think this fitting is where the water will come out of the tank and to my water line. I think I want to use a submersible pump that puts out 7-10 gallons per minute. I know I have to plumb the water from the cistern to a storage/pressure tank. I think I can put this tank in the crawl space but if it needs to be in the cabin I can probably manage that too. Any website you can recommend to help me or if someone out there has done this and documented the process that would be helpful.

bldginsp Member	# Posted: 15 Apr 2015 20:04 - Edited by: bldginsp Reply Google 'well pump sizing' or 'choosing a well pump' and you'll find a bunch of sites. I've been looking into this too, but for a deep well not a cistern. You may not need a submersible pump since you are not pumping from deep. Matching pump size to the situation is critical and you need to factor in total head, pressure of the pressure tank, length and diameter of supply pipe etc. using the correct formulas. Usually for a house people pump at 10 gpm to pressure tank so I'm told, in a cabin you might be ok with 7. How far is the power source from the pump? Wire can get expensive, but you will probably use a smaller pump requiring smaller wire. You can hire a well service to do the whole thing for you but they'll charge you. And you need to protect from freezing if that's an issue. Good luck