Installing An Off-Grid Water Well
When I bought my homestead (see previous article on buying a country property), it had the basics: a house, a water well, septic tank, shed and barn; however, except for the brand new septic, everything was old and poorly maintained. I had to prioritized the repair/replace list and after refurbing the house, the water well was next in line.
I did my research on the internet about water wells, the various types of pumps, hand pumps, stand-alone mechanical pumps and solar pump options. I spoke with some of my neighbors about their wells, many who have had to recently replace pump motors and pipes. One neighbor tried to do his own replacement and it turned out to be trial and error because he did not know what type of pump or how far down it was placed so it was a guessing game and he ended up calling a company to come fix it after 3 days of failure. Another neighbor started doing it himself, found his pipe was broken and ended up getting a well company to replace the broken pipes and replace the pump. In both instances, it was 3 to 7 days to fix the problem, plus between $1500 and $2500.
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