Spring water distribution.

Jan 31, 2020 13:46:15

Hi.

Firstly thankyou everyone for this amazing resource.

Me and my partner have just bought some land in Portugal.

I have found a spring, and am wanting to tap it for water.

I am slowly trauling through spring box construction posts and videos and think I have my head around that.

But what im planning to do with the water I have not found anywhere (maybe due to a lack of correct terminology while searching).

The land is in a valley and consisting of both sides of said valley. One side heavily terrested and with ruins for reconstruction. The other with a forrested area (unfortunately hit heavily by the 2017 fires).

The spring is situated on the forested side of the valley conveniently at a simlar level (I would estimate an elevation of around 35 meters from the bottom of the valley).

I plan on collecting the water close to the spring in a tank, probably an IBC, and running a pipe down the valley and back up the otherside into another IBC at the same elevation.

The distance for the pipe will be aproximately 120 meters

In my head, both should fill equally. Simple.
Have I overlooked something?
How important is the pipe diameter?
Would a tap at the bottom be advantageous for air trappment?

I made need to prime the system with some kind pump, but im not sure.

All theory but excited to try it.
Seems maybe too simple.

Would love any input.

Cheers.

Jan 31, 2020 16:29:10

Hi Tom,

I like your questions; I'm certainly not the expert on this board. Could you post a simple drawing of the layout? That would really help simple folks like me follow the question and the thread.....and who knows, I may even notice something that the experts here might not (but I doubt it, they're pretty good).

Jan 31, 2020 18:06:17

Yes your idea works. It's brilliant.
If the IBC tank of the forested side is 34m above the valley. I would place the IBC tank on the other side at 32, because there will be some pressure loss due to friction.

There is also the big worry of air entering the pipe and then creating airlocks at undulations/high points. https://www.itacanet.org/doc-archive-eng/water/gravity_flow_pipelines.pdf

Feb 01, 2020 11:50:50

Thankyou for your replies.

The PDF is really interesting.

Here is a basic sketch of my idea.

Im thinking that because im not so bothered about flow rate that the pipe diameter is not so important? Not sure.

Feb 02, 2020 21:39:02

Off hand, I'm thinking 2" pipe....what do you think S Bengi?

Feb 02, 2020 22:41:00

Whats the total run of pipe, is it 150m?
Whats the friction loss on 150m (450ft) of pipe 1inch or 2in, not counting partial air lock?
Whats the original flow rate of the spring/seep.
I assume you only need about 100gallon per day (377L/day) or 4gallon an hour or 9oz/minute. But maybe while building the cabin you will need alot more than that per day?

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