Wells, Boreholes and Rainwater ~My @offgrid-online Water System Contest Entry
Hi there fellow Steemians! Here is my entry to the @offgrid-online #WaterSystemContest.
I live on a tiny island that is home to about 400 residents. There is no mains water whatsoever so we all rely on either well, boreholes or rainwater to supply us with our daily needs. In this post I want to share the well and borehole along with a little about how they work. I'm not currently living off-grid but our family aims to when we can afford to buy our own home instead of renting. I hope that the information I share will be informative to anyone who is looking for options with their water supply.
Wells
Wells were the first means of drawing water on the island from when the first inhabitants moved here in the 16th Century. Our water supply came from a well situated about 300 meters away from our house. It was pumped up to a holding tank located in the garden. Attached to this is a pump house fitted with electricity, pumps and 3 filters; rope, uv and an extra fine micron filter.
The setup in the picture above is for the well. As you can see there is an electric mains isolator switch to work the well pump, and a plug socket which used to supply the pressure pump which sends the water from the tank to the house.
This system is great if the well doesn't succumb to dry weather. The stream that supplies the well is shared with about 4 other households so during dry periods it often dries up. What that means for many of us is that the indicator in the well will not allow the pump to draw if it drops too low and has at times been a problem. It also causes airlocks in the compressor pump to the house and when this happens it drinks electricity. Due to the high electricity usage I certainly wouldn't recommend this system if you're using solar or wind turbines.
This well also used to get really murky with silt and sediment after heavy downpours of rain which the rope and micron filter just couldn't remove it all. So we would often at times be left with muddy puddle water. There are other wells on the island that don't have this problem and their water is clear and clean. The UV filter bulb also needs replacing once per year.
Boreholes
Boreholes are a common means for drawing water on the island. The island is made up of granite rock and also a series of caves run under the island also. These pockets allow for pools of water to form within the rock.
Ours was installed this year. The process first involved a survey from a water diviner to determine the best place to drill in our garden. The hole was then drilled and a pipe inserted and capped off until the connections could be made to the house. The hole is about 50 meters away from our pump house so a big trench was dug and blue pipe laid and connected at both ends. There is an electric pump to feed the water up out of the hole. This now has a drain cover and everything is neatly housed inside. The electricity usage is much more efficient and significantly lower than the well as it doesn't need to use the compressor pump, which makes having a borehole ideal for a homestead with solar or wind power.
I'm not a plumber but if you look at the photo, the blue pipe at the bottom right of this picture is the water from the borehole. The other pipes go to the house and shed. There is a pressure gauge in there to adjust the millibars of water going into the house.
I am super grateful for the water we have. We have learned to conserve as much as possible. The next step is to have a grey water system connected to use around the garden. At the moment we have a water butt to collect rainwater and I also use tubs and buckets to collect rainwater. We haven't had rain in about 2 weeks so I can't show any pictures of these. I am trying to source used water butts so that we can add more and make more efficient use of the house guttering too.
Thank you for taking the time to read my article. If you found value in it please show some love with an upvote, comment, resteem or follow.
I would love to instal a greywater system. It woukd make such a difference to our pretty dry garden thats for sure.
A really informative post... thanks for sharing x
Thank you. For sure there are loads of different options too. The simplest option some people do, is use their bath water or washing up water when they are done. :-) xx
cool, i appreciate seeing other systems as we're continually learning here on the homestead. also learned about boreholes from your post. thanks! :)
I'd never heard of a borehole either until we moved here! I'd be interested to know what your method for getting water is too? 😊😊 x
I have never heard of boreholes! I am learning something new every time you post! I had no idea you live on an island. How cool! Thanks for sharing your water system. Very interesting.
Aww thank you so much! I'm really pleased that you find my posts informative. Same goes for you too, we both can learn a lot from each other. You now know what boreholes are and I have learned about Kombucha! 😊😊😊
This post has won a 2 SBD prize in the Offgrid Water System Contest. Contest Results: Offgrid Water System Posts. Thank you for sharing knowledge and personal experience :)
Oh wow that's awesome! Thank you so much 😊😊
for us, that Can drill a well into fresh water, your post is very interesting. I enjoyed the read. It will become more and more challenging to collect water in the future. Every bit of information is very helpful.
Thank you, I'm glad that you found some value in what I wrote. :-)