Do-it-yourself step-by-step installation of a water supply system: from simple to complex

Recommendation points

• Construction phase, outdoor work or watering
• Operating procedure
• Water supply of a small summer cottage with irrigation, water supply to the premises to a distant point
• Constant full-fledged water supply to a summer cottage or house
• Problem 1 and 2
• Problem 3 and 4
• The costs of the step-by-step assembly of the pumping station with your own hands
• How to make a hydraulic accumulator without a membrane with your own hands

The problem of supplying water in a house in the presence of a source – a well or a well – can be solved independently. In this article, we will talk about the simplest and most inexpensive ways to supply water at different stages. You will learn about the basic principles of an autonomous water supply system in a country house.

It is far from always possible to buy a turnkey house or cottage, where everything is already installed, tested and working. Up to 50% of the objects of purchase and sale are either unfinished or require repair or reconstruction. Sometimes we are talking about a site with a foundation, or even without it. Individual sources of water in such areas are usually artesian wells or wells..

Note.For each well, drillers issue a document – “Well passport”. It indicates the parameters (depth, width, distance to the mirror) and operational characteristics of the well (productivity, water quality), which will be decisive when choosing pumping equipment.

Attention! In the absence of a “Well certificate”, permanent equipment should not be installed and operated “blindly”. You can order a well survey service in any organization of the corresponding profile.

Construction phase, outdoor work or watering

Water is an essential element not only for living organisms, but also for chemical reactions. It may be needed at different stages of construction and operation of a house, a summer residence. We will consider options for urgent installation and water supply in different cases.

When there is no water supply system yet, and water is already needed, it is reasonable to apply a temporary option. In this case, water will be delivered only to the site, collected in a container, used to prepare a solution and other household needs. The operation of such a system will be carried out manually, if necessary, and only in the summer..

The good thing about the well is that you can use all types of lifting pumps in it. Its disadvantage is that this is usually a common place – a well on the site is very rare. Therefore, we will focus mainly on individual wells, based on savings on temporary communications..

In both cases, it is recommended to equip a primitive water supply control panel. The water outlet can be made in the form of a rigid elbow in the form of P or D with fittings at the inlet and outlet. Key – any switch in outdoor design. If the borehole diameter allows, an inexpensive vibration pump without a float can be used. The pump must enter the pipe freely, with a margin of at least 2 cm around the circumference. If the diameter of the pipe does not allow installing a garden pump, at this stage you can pick up a borehole or an external one, which will then work in a permanent system.

What you need:

1. Any submersible pump that is structurally suitable for the source (in the article “Overview of submersible pumps for a country house” we talked about the models of these units).
2. Outdoor switch.
3. Stock of solid cable from the key to the pump installed at depth.
4. Rope, rope.
5. Rigid elbow material – pipe, pipe elbows, elbow fitting (1 inch outlet).
6. Check valve (brass or plastic) for the thread at the pump outlet and valve connection (1 inch at the outlet).
7. Hose for fittings (1 inch inside).
8. Clamps, fasteners, visor and shield material.

Operating procedure

1. Determine the depth of installation (suspension) of the pump. If the well (well) is of shallow or medium depth (10–25 meters), it is optimal to install the pump 1 meter from the bottom. Vibrating pumps deliver heads up to 60 meters. The depth of the well can be determined by a trial lowering of the load on a rope..

2. If necessary, connect a solid cable of a given length to the pump.

3. We measure the required length of the rope (cable), hose.

4. Install a check valve with a union on the pump.

5. We connect the hose to the pump fitting and fasten with clamps.

6. We lower the pump into the well to the specified depth and fix the safety cable.

7. We mount the electrical panel (a board with a key and an automatic machine attached to it) and connect the cable to the switch to which we apply voltage.

Attention! We recommend using automatic fuses in all cases..

8. We assemble the rigid knee and install it with fasteners on a solid base (post, pipe, wall). The material for the knee can be chosen at hand – metal, PPR, metal-plastic. We connect the hose to the elbow fitting and fix it with clamps.

When installing an outdoor (garden) pump, the procedure is simplified to the level of intuitive perception: a hose with a strainer and a check valve is lowered at one end into the source, and the other is connected to the pump. The whole system is fixed in place.

In this version, we do not need a tap to shut off water – its function is performed by a check valve, thanks to which the pipe is constantly filled with water. If you install the nozzle at a height of 1 meter, you can supply water for irrigation by gravity over a fairly large area, provided that it does not have a slope towards the water source.

The price of the issue. In this system, only the pump itself will cost the most – from 600 to 1500 rubles. Fittings, a hose, a cable, a check valve (plastic) and an automatic machine will cost about 300-500 rubles.

Water supply of a small summer cottage with irrigation, water supply to the premises to a distant point

For the full functioning of the well in winter, you will need a caisson device – a transition room between the source (well) and the consumer (water intake system at home). Usually it is located below ground level, deeper than soil freezing. It performs several vital functions:

1. Serves as a place for installing equipment, in fact, being a pumping station.
2. Maintains a constant temperature due to the energy of the soil.
3. Absorbs noise from equipment (pumping station).

At this stage, you can combine temporary system elements with permanent ones. There are elements and indicators that will remain unchanged. These are the depth of the source, the distance to the entrance to the house, the depth of soil freezing, the height of the house.

Taking into account the fact that we are striving to gradually put into operation a permanent autonomous water supply system, we cannot avoid the construction of a caisson. If we operate a vibration pump in a temporary system, then the entire structure is simply transferred to the caisson.

The next permanent element will be the highway from the caisson to the entrance to the house. It is better to perform this section thoroughly, regardless of the pumping equipment. Lay the pipe deeper than the freezing of the soil, with a diameter not less than that in the wiring of the house, with ball valves on both sides. Here an obstacle arises – the path from the source to the consumer can be “thorny” and must be calculated. We are interested in two main pump indicators: the head and the immersion depth of the water intake (suction depth for external).

Suppose our needs at this stage are very modest: water supply to a height of 2 meters from the level of the 2nd floor (5 m from the ground) 10 meters from the well. Consumption – periodic (filling containers), no more than 1 m³ in hour. Depth from pump to water mirror – 5 meters.

We calculate the height (H) to which the pump should raise the water. 1 meter of vertical pressure is equal to 4 meters of horizontal displacement, for system resistance – 5%:

• H = (6 + 10/4 + 2) + 10% = 11.55 – we accept 12 meters.

In hydraulic engineering calculations, the resulting indicator is multiplied by 2 – to take into account further operating conditions. So, the required head in our case will be 24 meters.

Having selected the pump in this way (with a power reserve), we include it in the system and install it in the caisson. In this case, manual control based on a check valve is no longer suitable for us and it is time to introduce automation. The first and so far the only control element will be the pressure switch. It can be installed at the entrance to the house (from the inside).

What does a pressure switch give? It is triggered when the valve is opened (pressure drop) in the system and turns on the pump. In other words, it automatically pumps water directly from the well into the system. We emphasize that the described devices are temporary measures, a transitional stage to a full-fledged system..

Attention! The main reason for the failure of external and submersible pumps is frequent short-term activation.

We reviewed surface pumps in a previous article..

In this form, the system will work when you open the tap and will allow you to spend the winter with water. The pressure will be unstable, uneven, so the connection of water heaters is not recommended.

Constant full-fledged water supply to a summer cottage or house

Most of the system is assembled and connected. There are four tasks left to solve:

1. Stabilize system pressure.
2. Protect the pump from frequent short-term starts.
3. Complete and finalize the system.
4. Filter the water.

Problem 1 and 2

The pressure is equalized by means of a storage tank of a special design – a hydraulic accumulator. Inside it is a sealed rubber membrane that separates the water intake compartment from the air.

When the accumulator is turned on in the system, the following happens: the pump pumps water into a closed system, the membrane stretches, creating pressure, the pressure switch is triggered, the pump turns off. The pressure in the system is not maintained by a pump, but by a membrane.

With small volumes of consumption (washing hands, draining the toilet bowl), the pump does not turn on for pumping immediately, which significantly saves its resource in comparison with a direct system. To provide a house where 4 people live, a tank of 30 liters is usually enough, but there are products for 50, 70, 100 and more liters. The working pressure of accumulators of this volume is from 6 bar (atm). The pressure switch is set within 1–2.5 bar.

Problem 3 and 4

At this stage, we have technically ensured the water supply to the house at the required height and distance under a constant specified pressure. The smart move is now to “extend the life” of parts of the system by improving water quality. Simply put, now it is necessary to complete the system with filters and mount it for permanent use..

If the well is shallow and the water intake is located close to the bottom, then we cannot avoid installing a coarse filter. To protect the impeller and the accumulator, we include a coarse filter in the system in front of the pump (next to it). Immediately before water distribution in the room, fine filters are installed in order to protect sensitive household plumbing fixtures.

Attention! Install fine filters in accessible places for visual control and timely maintenance.

The classical and most successful layout method is considered to be the placement of all the described elements (except for fine filters) in the well caisson. This simplifies maintenance and hides the noise underground. At the same time, the system does not take up space in the house..

Of course, the components described exist in different factory versions. The most convenient and popular of them is a portable pumping station. It is a hydraulic compressor, the components of which are selected taking into account mutual indicators and assembled at the factory. It includes:

• surface pump
• hydroaccumulator
• pressure gauge
• pressure switch
• Remote Control

The costs of the step-by-step assembly of the pumping station with your own hands

Initial data:

1. Surface pump. Required head – from 24 m, outlet pressure – from 3 bar, suction depth from 7 m.
2. Hydraulic accumulator – 20-30 liters.
3. Pressure switch 1–3 bar with pressure gauge – 1 piece.
4. Check valve (brass) – 2 pcs.
5. HDPE pipe – 10 m.
6. PPR pipe – 10 m.
7. Ball valve – 2 pieces.

Cost table:

Position	Manufacturer	Unit price, rub.	Qty	Cost, rub.
Surface pump	HAMMER NAC800A, PRC	2500	1	2500
QUATTRO ELEMENTI Giardino1000, Italy	3300	1	3300
GRUNDFOS JP 5, Germany	11000	1	11000
Hydroaccumulator	EUROAQUA Н024L, PRC	1600	1	1600
PUMPS + TANK 30L H, PRC	2100	1	2100
AQUAPRESS AFC 24SB, Italy	5200	1	5200
Pressure switch with pressure gauge	Pressure switch RDM 5 (RM 5) + pressure gauge, Russia	400	1	400
Check valve, brass	AL-KO, Germany	300	2	600
HDPE pipe	–	20	ten	200
PPR pipe	–	20	ten	200
Ball valve	STA, Ukraine	70	2	140
Total associated installation				1540
Total pump + accumulator				4100/5400/16200
Total whole system				5640/6940/17740
Job				5000
Total material and work				10640/11940/22740

Overview of ready-made pumping stations suitable for the initial requirements:

Model	Price, rub.
Dnipro-M JET-80ST, Ukraine	4500
AL-KO HW 3500 Inox Classic, Germany	6000
PUMPS + AUJ S60 / 24l SS, PRC	7950
Metabo HWW 3000/20 S, Germany	8400
Grundfos JPBasic 3PT, Germany	11000
DAB Aqajet 112 M-G, Italy	16700

As can be seen from the analysis, the price of the entire system depends on many factors, including those not taken into account in the table (additional, accompanying and transportation costs). The main item of the estimate is the pump and the accumulator. Their price depends on the manufacturer.

How to make a hydraulic accumulator without a membrane with your own hands

Especially for those who are used to doing everything on their own, we will briefly describe the original and very effective pressure maintenance system. Instead of a factory accumulator, we install a sealed tank made of stainless steel or food grade aluminum. We connect a pump with a float limit switch to it. We install a compressor on the tank, which will create the required pressure at any water level. This will reduce the number of pump starts at least twice. In this case, the system will be complicated due to the compressor..