Well water - seasonal and infrequent winter use?

winni83 · 11-15-2017, 10:42 AM

With our old camp, now replaced with a year round house, we had a drilled well. Underneath the house in a crawl space was a small walled off and insulated room with the hot water tank, well pressure tank and associated piping and a small 220 volt heater. The line from the well and the water lines in the house were set up so that by turning the well and hot water tank beakers off and then opening some valves in the small room, the water from all the pipes in the house drained onto the dirt floor and the water in the line from the well drained back into the well. Drained the hot water tank with a hose leading outside. RV antifreeze in the drains and toilet bowl and toilet tank and that was it. We used it a lot in the winter and kept the heat in the house off. Took about half an hour to close the house up and 10 minutes or so to open up. You need to be careful about what you leave in the house as we learned early on when a bottle of vinegar burst. I am not sure what the plumber did to make the water in the line from the well drain back, but it worked like a charm. The water line from the well came underground and then entered the house and it was just on top of the dirt floor in the crawl space and then it went into the heated room; it angled up from the dirt floor up to the heated room, so that may have helped with the well.

11-15-2017, 10:42 AM	#7
winni83 Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Moultonborough, NH Posts: 439 Thanks: 17 Thanked 218 Times in 138 Posts	With our old camp, now replaced with a year round house, we had a drilled well. Underneath the house in a crawl space was a small walled off and insulated room with the hot water tank, well pressure tank and associated piping and a small 220 volt heater. The line from the well and the water lines in the house were set up so that by turning the well and hot water tank beakers off and then opening some valves in the small room, the water from all the pipes in the house drained onto the dirt floor and the water in the line from the well drained back into the well. Drained the hot water tank with a hose leading outside. RV antifreeze in the drains and toilet bowl and toilet tank and that was it. We used it a lot in the winter and kept the heat in the house off. Took about half an hour to close the house up and 10 minutes or so to open up. You need to be careful about what you leave in the house as we learned early on when a bottle of vinegar burst. I am not sure what the plumber did to make the water in the line from the well drain back, but it worked like a charm. The water line from the well came underground and then entered the house and it was just on top of the dirt floor in the crawl space and then it went into the heated room; it angled up from the dirt floor up to the heated room, so that may have helped with the well.