No one gets away without water for very long! and many well pumps can use a lot of power. In my experience, most well pumps are 240 volts unless the well is shallow. The necessity of water brings with it some important considerations:
Are you willing to pay the price to have 240 volt service from your off grid system? In the past, this kind of power typically required 2 inverters instead of one. They would be connected together which is called “stacking”. This will give the 240 volts necessary for something like a well pump. You will need to size your solar and wind system to handle this.
Here are some other options;
A multi-voltage pump with a dedicated solar (photo-voltaic) power supply:
-One option is to install a good multi-voltage pump like a "Grundfos." You can get an entire well system and though pricey, they work quite well.
-Another option is to install a less expensive pump like the “Shurflo”. To my knowledge, Shurflo is not a multi-voltage pump so you will need to order a voltage specific pump.
-If your well is not close enough to your off grid system you will need to install dedicated solar panels to run the pump no matter which one you choose.
You can install a cistern to hold your water and the solar operated pump can fill it while the sun is out. If your cistern is higher than your house you can then use gravity to get it to the house (not ideal in my opinion) or you can install a small 120 volt pump and pressure tank to pressurize your house; this is what we did and it works well.
Gas generator
You can use a gas or diesel generator to run your well. This can also work well if you install a cistern. We used this method for years and although the cost of gas is more than commercial power, sometimes you just need to go with what you have. We have a 1500 gallon cistern which takes 2 hours to fill and we had to fill it twice each month.
Windmill
An old fashioned windmill – you know- the kind you see on a farm! This can be a good option even today - again you will need a cistern to make it work well. A good windmill can also be very expensive and like anything, requires maintenance. I spoke with an expert on windmill installation and maintenance and he told me that he is able to get a windmill to push water over a thousand feet so if a windmill is what you decide on, you don't necessarily have to put your home right on top of it. Talk with your windmill expert about the options for your site.
Transport water from off site
Around here there are some places where a well just can’t be dug but there are still people living there. You will see them with a large tank in the back of their truck heading home. They will fill whatever holding tank or cistern they have for their home and use that, much like we did. The only difference for them is that they have to find somewhere else to get their water.
Stream or lake
If you live by a good stream and local codes allow; you can install a pump system with filtration to get the water to your house or cistern.
Rain collection system
If local codes allow then you can collect the rain water at your home. I know of a man who designed the roof of his strawbale home to channel his domestic water into a 10,000 cistern located under the master bedroom. This was the ONLY water supply he had so water conservation was very important simply because he didn't how much rain was coming throughout the year.
Like I've mentioned before – living off grid is learning a new way of thinking. I called our local city health Dept. and asked them what the typical water usage is per individual. They told me that it is usually 75 gallons per person per day - that's 9000 gallons for a family of four for a month. We used 3000 gallons for a family of four. Water conservation isn’t that hard to learn.
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