Spring water system upgrade

[Cpd]

Looking for anyone with experience in the installation of UV and particle filter systems for the treatment of ground spring water.

a bit of background information. I have a spring that is located  60m above sea level and  is located 180m away from the house. The house is at 40m above sea level so the spring is 20m above my ground floor. Due to various changes i was advised by council to have my spring water checked and so they came round and took samples for testing.

There was a technical report and a risk assessment but in the guys own words on an email to me.

 

“Colin, Lovely spring water full of lovely things so passing except for the odd floating bit which filters will sort out.

 I can now get the assessment completed , hopefully before the weekend”

 

so really pleased with the results and one if not the cleanest springs around these parts. The spring is very consistent and produces 8400 litres every 24 hours at its lowest ever recording in the last 6 years. 

 

I have also been awarded a significant grant to help upgrade the system £2400 

 

my biggest concern is to not loose and pressure so i was thinking about the following.

 

upgrade the tanks next to the spring with two 3000 litre tanks, with the first acting as a settlement tank. Instal a tap at the bace of the first tank to flush it out every six months or so if there is any particle build up. (I have a basic system that does this already and it works great) then put the particle filters between the first and second tank.

 

”there should be a complete filtration system with 20-30 micron and then a 5 micron media filter prior to ultraviolet sterilisation untit” 

 

i was then thinking of putting the uv unit down near the house as I have to run power to it and don’t want to run armoured cable 180 meters up a hill...... 

upgrade the water pipe between the spring and the main junction to the 3 buildings that the water supply services. 

 

So so my question are.

1. Does this sound like a plausible plan

2. Should I consider using a wider bore pipe from the spring down to the uv system 

3. Any recommendation on uv systems and particle filters

4. Have I missed anything !

 

thanks for any help. Colin 

 

 

[jack]

@JSHarris is your man, having been through this in some detail. He details some of what he did in various posts on his site, such as: mayfly.eu/2016/07/part-forty-two-water-treatment/

[Jeremy Harris]

The plan sounds right to me.  Fit the filters and UV disinfection unit as close to the house as possible, and somewhere where you can access them easily.  UV does not provide sterilisation, or long term disinfection, hence the reason for putting is as close to where the water will be used as possible.  Our UV unit sits on the wall of our service room, right next to the hot and cold water distribution system.

 

With the tanks about 20m above the house the pressure won't be great, but should just about be OK.  I'd suggest keeping the pipe from the tanks to the house around 32mm MDPE or above, to avoid pressure drop.  With luck you may end up with about 1.5 bar at the house, after accounting for losses, which is just about OK.

 

Again, to reduce pressure losses I'd opt to use Jumbo filters, rather than the 4 1/2" ones, Ideally two 20" long jumbos, one for a 20 to 25µ pre-filer and one for the mandatory 5µ filter immediately in front of the UV unit.

 

The biggest cost will be the tanks, I think, as the rest of the stuff isn't massively expensive.  When looking for a UV disinfection unit not only choose one that meets your demand, but select one for which there are readily available replacement UV tubes.  This latter point is important, as there is a wide variation in tube sizes and some are a lot cheaper and easy to but than others.  There's also a variation in UV power, so worth looking around to find a unit that will meet your needs with the lowest power, as it's on all the time.

[joe90]

Sounds lovely to me to have spring water, my father in law who owned this property before we re built relied on rainwater and ground water from a well, found to have copper and iron in it but he lived to the ripe old age of 94 with no major health problems ( apart from the heart attack which saw him off). 

[Cpd]

Thanks very much @JSHarris some really good pointers in there and just what I was needing. the officer who inspected was quite impressed with my existing set up and could not have been more helpful. I am providing bottled water to “non residents” and will aim to do the work at the end of the season when all our visitors go to warmer climates ! That gives me time to track down all the essential bits and bobs and come up with a plan. 

 

 

9 hours ago, JSHarris said:

Again, to reduce pressure losses I'd opt to use Jumbo filters, rather than the 4 1/2" ones, Ideally two 20" long jumbos, one for a 20 to 25µ pre-filer and one for the mandatory 5µ filter immediately in front of the UV unit.

 

I was considering putting the filters up the hill between the tanks in a “box” and then having the uv system as close to the house as possible, the only reason for this was that I thought that the particle filters could cause a reduction in pressure and if I put them up the hill this would mitigate this.(as there would be unrestricted flow from the pipe to the uv unit)  I only say this because other people who have fitted similar systems always moan about blocked filters and lack of water pressure, I expect this has got more to do with poor maintenance and badly sized filters..... but is there merit in my plan to split the system ? Thanks   

[ProDave]

You are lucky around these parts to have spring water that does not come out the colour of weak tea from all the peat.

 

We have mains water that comes from Loch Glass above Evanton. It's lovely pure water but before they built the new treatment plant a few years ago, used to come out of the tap with a slight tint when the wind was in a certain direction and srirred up the silt in the loch.

 

Am I the only one that when you mentioned bottling it thought of "Peckham spring water"

[Jeremy Harris]

The filters will work better at the bottom, rather than the top, as their losses will be slightly less.

[Nickfromwales]

Son of a bitch. 

Just searched the fantastic "any borehole experts out there" thread and it's gone along with EB thanks to Helmut Von Fackenface. 

How does the wayback stuff work ? 

[PeterW]

8 minutes ago, Nickfromwales said:

Son of a bitch. 

Just searched the fantastic "any borehole experts out there" thread and it's gone along with EB thanks to Helmut Von Fackenface. 

How does the wayback stuff work ? 

 

Like this.....

 

http://web.archive.org/web/20150424130649/http://www.ebuild.co.uk/topic/11760-any-borehole-experts-here

 

[Nickfromwales]

Happy days. 

Thanks.