From Spring To House Water System

 Right or wrong this video shows how I set up my simple spring water system although it's not done yet, I may run a larger pipe down the hill, I need to bury everything of course and also run a PEX pipe up the hill to the second tank. I also want to enclose both tanks for better protection and keeping the water more closer to ground temperature. Feel free to comment if you think I did ok or what you would do differently.



Thanks for watching and God bless.

Hi William;   Nice video.   I too live with gravity water.
One thing I have learned over 40 years , is about "line loss" or friction. You mentioned a thousand + yards down to the house with the blue pipe?
That's too far. I assure you more water will make the house if you do the following.  Every 100 yards or so you need to switch back to a larger size pipe for APX. 50' - 100' then back to the blue pipe.
This eliminate friction.   A 1/2" pipe that is long enough literally will flow nothing, no matter how much is entering... 1" does the same just goes farther.  
Your red pipe looked relatively short and might be just fine... but adding a stretch of 2" pvc in the middle won't hurt.  
Keep up the good work and keep us posted with photo's!

Over time you may want to earth berm your tote for that rare -20 weather.
My running water never freezes although I do have 125 psi down here at the house.

thomas rubino wrote:Hi William;   Nice video.   I too live with gravity water.
One thing I have learned over 40 years , is about "line loss" or friction. You mentioned a thousand + yards down to the house with the blue pipe?
That's too far. I assure you more water will make the house if you do the following.  Every 100 yards or so you need to switch back to a larger size pipe for APX. 50' - 100' then back to the blue pipe.
This eliminate friction.   A 1/2" pipe that is long enough literally will flow nothing, no matter how much is entering... 1" does the same just goes farther.  
Your red pipe looked relatively short and might be just fine... but adding a stretch of 2" pvc in the middle won't hurt.  
Keep up the good work and keep us posted with photo's!

I knew water friction could slow it down and I mentioned in the video I might start out with a one inch PEX  and run a ways down. I did not know you could switch back and forth.  Would it be better to start big, say like 1 3/4 and keep reducing or do as you suggested and go back and forth between big and little? I haven't measured it but I'm thinking its only a forty foot drop in elevation, its just long though.
 Thank you very much for your suggestions and thank you very much for watching and God bless.

Much better to switch back and forth. Eliminates the distance factor.  Large to small would work but back and forth in my opinion is better.
Enjoy that cold clean water .... for free !

thomas rubino wrote:Over time you may want to earth berm your tote for that rare -20 weather.
My running water never freezes although I do have 125 psi down here at the house.

I forgot to mention I plan to build a building around it I'm thinking ICF's (Insulated Concrete Forms) I got cheap off craigslist and fill them with aircrete or cob but cob probably would not dry correctly, there's always dirt crete too.. or sawdust or paper- crete Hummm.. Then some kind of stucco on the sides, a small access door and an earth roof that I could dig off to get the tank out if need be. I love to do things that aren't exactly normal.
 I also have a few aircrete video's, feel free to check it out if you like. Thanks again for the input.

thomas rubino wrote:Much better to switch back and forth. Eliminates the distance factor.  Large to small would work but back and forth in my opinion is better.
Enjoy that cold clean water .... for free !

Thank you much.