Private Well Update

[Waxman]

I am making progress in my plans for drilling a well at my carwash.

The savings end is looking like this; the town charges $3.50 per 100 cubic ft. of water. The electricity cost calculated with today's rates to pump the same volume of water is $.28. (28 cents).

 

[MEP001]

What about wastewater?

 

[car washing systems inc]

What about wastewater?

If they let you do it they will usally put a meter on you well water line so they can charge for waste water

 

[Waxman]

If they let you do it they will usally put a meter on you well water line so they can charge for waste water

Yes that is how it is done with a well. I already checked the regulation.

 

[Bubbles Galore]

Interesting...how much to drill a well and can you keep up with the water demand for all of your bays?

 

[mac]

I've been involved with a couple of washes that have wells, and the results are pretty good. Should pay for itself in 2 years or less, depending on your rates. Be sure to have a good strainer in case it sucks up a load of sand or grit.

 

[Waxman]

It will only be feeding my SS bays in order to comply with the 'no cross connection' rule.

I have a small wash with 2 SS bays (1 IBA) and they require 10gpm total on peak demand.

 

[Washmee]

I drilled a well 15 years ago when the city utility that supplies my area with water announced they were putting a 150% surcharge on water used by customers outside the city limits. The mayor tried this tactic to get people to agree to annex out of our township into the city. It didn't work. My well has a flow rate of approximately 75gpm and has paid for itself many times over.

 

[Waxman]

Interesting...how much to drill a well and can you keep up with the water demand for all of your bays?

Not sure of the cost yet; in process of getting estimates. There is some guesswork because of depth needed being in question until drilling begins.

The costs also include open cutting asphalt, as well as opening up the carwash floor somewhere to stub up into the building. With floor heat everywhere, this has me concerned, but it can be done.

 

[MEP001]

This might be something we should look into as well. We were shut down for a month and allowed to open only from noon to 6 PM for three weeks after that because of a water supply issue to the city. If we used either reclaim water or "gray" water we would have been exempt from the shutdown.

 

[Waxman]

You can re-use your R.O. reject and qualify, maybe for next time...

 

[Randy]

There’s no way you’d be able to drill a well here. The cities own the water rights inside the city and some cities are now condemning the wells of the large users just outside the city, a Golf course and a Dairy Farm have lost their water rights. The city has stated that the Golf courses and farms are depleting the aquifer at an alarming rate and it needs to be protected. The city needs to sell there over priced water. I’ve thought about installing rain water run off collection system, but it doesn’t pencil out. How deep do you have to go to hit water?

 

[Waxman]

Last well at my old shop (next door) was 240' deep w/80' of casing and yielded 30 gpm..

 

[MEP001]

You can re-use your R.O. reject and qualify, maybe for next time...

That's already required under Stage 3 water restrictions and isn't considered "reclaim."

 

[Washmee]

I am really lucky that my wash sits over the Big Indian Aquifer. My well is only 100ft deep, with 80 ft of casing. It cost me around $15k to install about 12 years ago.

 

[bigleo48]

Surprised nobody mentioned the potential pre-treament the water may need and the effect it could have on equipment.

 

[bigleo48]

Anybody try collecting rainwater for reuse. I have a long building on my SS side (150') that backs onto a field. The eave trough drains the whole roof to the corners on the back side. I was thinking of taking all my 55 Gal containers I have and daisy chaining them together to eventually create a very large reservoir and feed it into my pump benches automatically. It would be a problem 3 months of winter, but fine the rest of the year.

 

[pitzerwm]

Big, read my AU car wash article, there was a guy that did just that and even talked his neighbor into letting him harvest his roofs.

 

[Washmee]

My former partner installed 2 10k gallon underground cisterns when he built his last wash to collect rain water. He uses a well pump setup with pressure tanks and uses the water untreated in the high pressure arch that he uses.

 

[Washmee]

Surprised nobody mentioned the potential pre-treament the water may need and the effect it could have on equipment.

The water from my well is exactly the same hardness as the water that the city supplies to my wash, so there is no difference in cost.