Newbie borehole-related water questions

[martjulie]

17 minutes ago, martjulie said:

Ammonia smell from borehole was cured by a neighbour putting milking parlour cleaner down hole and flushing it out leaving for a wee week and water ok again

Oops fat finger typo ignore wee😱

[SteamyTea]

39 minutes ago, ToughButterCup said:

made me wince for a moment or two

https://www.agroserve.co.uk/product-range/milking-parlour-cleaners/

[bigshineybike]

Just to add our set up as an option.

We have a borehole 75meter deep, it was drilled over 20 years ago. No one has seen the pump since. It used to feed a pair of loft tanks which fed two bathrooms and a kitchen via a noisy Stuart turner booster pump.

This past year I swapped the loft tanks for a 2000 litre water tank in the garden. We now have an Ezidiver submersible pump in the garden tank. That is supplying the whole house with very good pressure for two showers and two bathtub.

There's a treatment unit between the tank and the house. We're lucky to only need a spun cotton filter and a UV tube.

Benefits:  the submersible pump is totally silent. We have a good store of water for the day the well pump breaks that is easily filled temporarily by tanker or rain water.

 

 

[Kelvin]

Big tank. Ours is 1200 litres. Our borehole recharge rate is very slow and the borehole very deep (147m) with the pump at 80m. We had a problem last summer when we had a house full of family so lots of water use where the alarm in the pump control went off. There are three water probs in the borehole and the water got low enough to trigger the alarm (which stops the submersible pump) Because it can take a while for the borehole to fill back up it meant we used a lot of the tank water. I disabled the top probe so it starts pumping again more quickly but still has the protection if the water gets low. 

[Nickfromwales]

15 hours ago, Kelvin said:

Big tank. Ours is 1200 litres. Our borehole recharge rate is very slow and the borehole very deep (147m) with the pump at 80m. We had a problem last summer when we had a house full of family so lots of water use where the alarm in the pump control went off. There are three water probs in the borehole and the water got low enough to trigger the alarm (which stops the submersible pump) Because it can take a while for the borehole to fill back up it meant we used a lot of the tank water. I disabled the top probe so it starts pumping again more quickly but still has the protection if the water gets low. 

Might benefit from an accumulator in the house?

[Kelvin]

35 minutes ago, Nickfromwales said:

Might benefit from an accumulator in the house?

I thought about that but no room. The pipes come under the MVHR and it’s all very tight as it is. 

[JohnMo]

59 minutes ago, Nickfromwales said:

accumulator in the house

Mine is in the shed outside. With all the filter stuff.

[Kelvin]

There’s plenty of pressure without the pump as our drinking water tap comes into a small accumulator in the garage and bypasses  the softener. The issue is the recharge rate so we would empty the hole throughout the day and it would take hours to refill hence the tank. In hindsight we ought to have fitted another accumulator in the garage and could have likely negated the need for the pump. 

[Nickfromwales]

3 hours ago, JohnMo said:

Mine is in the shed outside. With all the filter stuff.

Yea, that’s doable. More about adding more capacity tbh. 

[Nickfromwales]

2 hours ago, Kelvin said:

In hindsight we ought to have fitted another accumulator in the garage and could have likely negated the need for the pump. 

If that’s still an option would get you better results.  And you could fit a much bigger acc’r. 

[Bramco]

Just out of interest - how much does a bore hole typically cost?   And I know it depends on depth, what the geology is etc. but is it hundreds, thousands or ten's of thousands?

 

Or can anyone on this thread that has paid for one say how much theirs cost?

[Nickfromwales]

21 minutes ago, Bramco said:

Just out of interest - how much does a bore hole typically cost?   And I know it depends on depth, what the geology is etc. but is it hundreds, thousands or ten's of thousands?

 

Or can anyone on this thread that has paid for one say how much theirs cost?

Also factor in the cost of pump(s) accumulators / break tanks, filtration and sterilisation, plant and more. Needs to be a ‘system’ cost vs a hole in the ground  eg before you compare to a quote to bring in mains water. 

[JohnMo]

31 minutes ago, Bramco said:

Just out of interest - how much does a bore hole typically cost?   And I know it depends on depth, what the geology is etc. but is it hundreds, thousands or ten's of thousands?

 

Or can anyone on this thread that has paid for one say how much theirs cost?

Our fully installed costs were

Pump was £1500 installed,

accumulator, filtration system was £2300. All rated at 40L/min.

 

The borehole 34m deep, drilled and liners installed (mostly steel, due to sand down to 27m), was £5000. All the above includes VAT.

 

So all in cost around £9k.

[sharpener]

9 hours ago, Bramco said:

Just out of interest - how much does a bore hole typically cost?   And I know it depends on depth, what the geology is etc. but is it hundreds, thousands or ten's of thousands?

 

Or can anyone on this thread that has paid for one say how much theirs cost?

 

Even after the capital cost of having the borehole drilled and the treatment plant installed you need to factor in the recurring cost of replacement filters, UV lamps, chemicals and periodic water quality checks none of which you need with mains water.

[Kelvin]

Our all in cost was £8000 but that doesn’t include the cost of the borehole drilling and lining etc. The farmer we bought the land from paid for that and it was £18,000. Our hole is 147m deep. Finding water  was a condition of the sale. Also keep in mind there’s no guarantee they’ll strike water or at least a plentiful supply. I know of one self-builder near us who left the borehole drilling to near the end of his build (mental). It took several attempts to find a suitable supply and 5 different companies tried. It cost him tens of thousands and took almost 8 months. He assumed you could drill a hole anywhere and find water because there were a few boreholes near him. 

[JohnMo]

8 hours ago, sharpener said:

 

Even after the capital cost of having the borehole drilled and the treatment plant installed you need to factor in the recurring cost of replacement filters, UV lamps, chemicals and periodic water quality checks none of which you need with mains water.

True, but you also don't have to pay for metered water or a fixed water rate. For us and our council tax banding, the cost is around £500, which I don't pay as I have private water. The service cost on average is about £150. If I need a new pump, not cheap, but balanced over the years it's not a lot different I suspect.

 

Biggest difference for me is no chlorine in the drinking water. Which is added to water here. I would happily pay extra to have no chlorine taste.

[Kelvin]

I’m in two minds about having a borehole. Our water is great and tastes better than mains water and, as mentioned by JohnMo, you don’t have anything being added to it. I also test our water every month just to keep an eye on it. Having watched one of our neighbours lose her private water supply (from a well fed from a spring) for 7 months (iron oxide bacteria) and the huge expense  at trying to fix it (and it might still not be fixed) it does put you off a bit. However, no borehole no water no house. 

Edited 22 hours ago by Kelvin

[JohnMo]

2 minutes ago, Kelvin said:

However, no borehole no water no house

Sort of answers, your question! We had a water diviner, water was exactly where he said and depth. It may be worth exploring first. Help decide if your going 150m down or something more cost effective. They should also be able to tell what is feeding into the well of water. For example we have 4 streams underground.

[sharpener]

5 hours ago, JohnMo said:

For example we have 4 streams underground.

 

Ironically we discovered an acquifer only 1.2m down and right under our new rainwater tank location. So they had to bring in a dewatering pump - but the flat outlet hose kinks easily and I was up in the night sorting it out so the tank didn't float out of position before they backfilled the hole.