Water well

[Hustlin' Hank]

What is the least amount of water (gallons per minute) a family of 4 needs out of a well? I know you can't have too much. But what is the least?

Hank

[Jim Elbrecht]

There is liable to be a local code that will nail it down for *you*. But in general, you can make up for what you lack in by adding a reservoir. When I was a kid our family of 6 did quite well with a spring that got down to a couple gallons per *hour* in the summer. It emptied into a spring house that was about 10feet square and 3-4 feet deep.

Be careful with averages. Our water is metered & I check it every 6 months. Our family of 4 uses an average of 51,000 gallons every six months for the last 11 years.

The low is 30,00- the high was 130,000. [Throw out the 130K & the next highest is 98,000] The summer we used so much I was excavating a couple walls in the basement and replacing the stone with block. Lots of people and equipment washing going on all summer.

I imagine a family of 4 in FL would use more than a family of 4 in ME

- but I could be wrong. That said- here's what the EPA says about that average family;

Note that they say that the "average family of four can use 400 gallons of water every day" Our average is 140gallons a day, so I guess we aren't average. [I'm shocked at those numbers- I thought we would be way *over* the average. ]

Jim

[Don Phillipson]

Low pressure (trickle) systems in rural Canada supply water at half a gallon per minute (30 gall./hour.) The user needs to cumulate this in his own reservoir (of plastic, half the size of a fuel oil tank.)

[Frank]

Usually you look at the well recovery rate. Cannot recall good number but think it should be above at least 3-5 gal/min. Mine was 15 when I bought house several years ago and that was said to be excellent.

[Caesar Romano]

On Thu, 3 Dec 2009 03:13:36 -0800 (PST), "Hustlin' Hank" wrote Re Water well:

About 4 - 5 gallons/min during brief peak useage sould cover it.

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, Our local code is 5 GPM.

[hallerb]

needs to be how many galons after 20 minutes of constant operation.....

[Jules]

Ours will do about 4gpm sustained, and that's enough for the five of us (bath doesn't take too long to fill, shower doesn't have problems if someone turns on a tap elsewhere etc.) - it's a little on the low side, but then the well's a narrow 2" pipe, it was put in over 20 years ago, and the top end pump's over 30 years old, so it does pretty well (haha) for itself.

cheers

Jules

[Pat]

Might check with a local real estate agent. Or a mortgage company. I think you need to have a certain flow to get a mortgage. 1/2 gallon per minute gives 740 gallons per day. A thousand gallon storage tank can supply 5 gallons a minute for 200 minutes. To be happy I think 5 gallons per minute is needed for home use.

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, Our local code won't allow a house to be built on less than 5 GPM well on the site.

[Van Chocstraw]

How many gallons per minute is city water?

[JIMMIE]

Depends, my friend out in OK had a well that just produce a trickle of water. He use a solar/wind powerered pump that pumps the water all day into a 3500 gal cistern. He has about a 10 acre hobby farm and this pretty much supplies all of his water needs.

Jimmie

[The Daring Dufas]

Perhaps the EPA numbers are skewed by things like a suburban family home having a sprinkler system or regular car washing in the driveway. If they're just adding up water meter readings and dividing by some average number pulled from the ether, it could account for the high usage numbers. The EPA is, after all, a government agency.

TDD

[Hustlin' Hank]

That depends on the size of the pipe/hose it is coming out of and the pressure. I am guessing a 3/4" hose could supply at least 20 gal. min. at 70 psi. But that's not my question.

Hank