When we bought the property, there was already a well on it which saved us the cost and trouble of having one dug – especially because the well is 480 feet deep. About a week and a half ago, we had someone install a pump and pressure tank for the well. It’s a pretty neat system because there’s a controller at the tank that takes single phase power and converts it to three phase power. This three phase power is then run down the well to the pump motor. Since it’s three phase, you can use a smaller wire and it saves you some money in the installation.

Another cool thing is the pump itself. It’s a variable speed pump. When we need more water to keep the pressure up, the controller just speeds up the pump. It’s supposed to be a more economical implementation in terms of power used and easier on the pump. In addition to that, you need a much smaller tank too. Since the tank is only there to provide a little buffer for the motor, it’s only 11″ in diameter and 22″ tall. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a picture of the setup but it’s a nice little package.

We’re going to run wires up to the pump some time in the next month and build small structure around it for protection and to help keep it from freezing. The wires will let us plug in a generator down at the house site. I had planned to hook the generator up to the well at the well head and test it out, but none of the hardware stores in town carried the twist-lock plug I needed so I’ll have to do that next time I’m up.