[shearling]

We have an old house with a well  not sure how deep but 'very' with sludge and a bit of water at the bottem. Not been used for many years but at least Victorian with brick sides and looks sound (not been down it yet ). There is a stream/small river type thing close by on the edge of our land. My question is...how do we get the well working again? could we use it to make a bore hole? the stream runs around our field slightly down hill and is ankle deep in summer and shin deep in winter could we use it to generate electricity or power - and if so how and do we have to ask/get permission?

[Hopewell]

We also have an old well. I have been told that there was an attempt to fill it in, but it definitely has water in it, although sometimes its very near the surface, and I measured it another time and it was 5 metres down. I presume wells naturally fill with water, so if you just have sludge maybe it needs to be deeper.

I have contemplated using ours but I have wondered how to get the water tested? Being a mostly arable area I would be concerned about nitrate content amongst other things.

[doganjo]

I think if you 'borrow' water from a water course for any reason you have to request consent.  But companies who set up such power schemes woudl probably know for sure, or contact your local building regs department.  

We had an old well which only just produced enough water for us - it was 30 to 40 foot deep and we were advised that it couldn't be deepened (not sure if I asked why, possibly because of having to shore it up).  When I subsequently built my new house next door a water diviner found water for me in my field at a depth of 12 feet, so we dug another well.  Bore holes can be expensive so I would suggest you try to find a water diviner.  There is a British Dowsers association - http://www.britishdowsers.org/whats_on/water_divining_dowsing_group.shtml  As far as I know when a property changes hands the water must pass certain tests by law.

Hope that helps  

[Fleecewife]

We have an ancient well which is our water supply.  It's about 20-25' deep, about 5' across and was hand dug into the rock.  It is probably quite silted up but so far it supplies us and the granny flat, although we use captured rainwater for the stock and veg garden.  If you use the water from your well then it will be tested and will have to pass purity tests - which it almost certainly won't pass.  You then install a filter and UV light which is about £500 or so and everything is fine.  I can't remember at this time of night who does the testing (at your expense) but if you phone your council they will have the information. Our well was already in use when we moved here, but I suspect that you would need council permission to begin using a well which had fallen into disuse.
To get the water out of the well you can use either an electric pump in the well itself, or have one in the house - ours is in the house which is noisy but at least we know when it's working or if it goes wrong, while the granny flat's pump is in the well (not submerged)
If you are going down your well do be careful - it is a closed space with the risk of gas.  Also you need to be properly roped up and have someone on the surface.
There are water engineers who could clean your well out for a price, but it might be possible to do it yourself, with safety precautions as above.  Once cleaned out you would need to wait for the sediment to resettle before you could use it.  You also have to have suitable housing above the well, both for safety and to stop muck falling in.

[jaykay]

Our water comes from the beck and doesn't have to be tested as long as it's only supplying one house -if next door were getting their supply from the same place it would have to be tested every year - wonder if the same is true for wells? ( not that you might not want it tested to start with). Local Environmental Health at the council will know.

We also use a string filter for fish/mud and a UV one for bacteria.

Yes, you have to have permission from the Environment Agency to remove water for a hydro-turbine even if you put it back afterwards

[lachlanandmarcus]

where we are in Scotland we had to have the water tested before being allowed to start re using a disused well. We had to install silt and UV filter. The council arranged for it, def get in touch with them.

[doganjo]

where we are in Scotland we had to have the water tested before being allowed to start re using a disused well. We had to install silt and UV filter. The council arranged for it, def get in touch with them.

Contact your local Council.  For a well, the cost is about £120 and they do all necessary tests.  When you're filters are installed they then come back and re-test free. Makes no difference how many homes take water from that well.

[Norfolk Newby]

Remove some of the sludge in the bottom of the well so that there is a volume of reasonably clean water there. It might be worth bailing out the water in this sump with a bucket on a rope to check that the flow of water into the well is going to be enough to supply your needs. If the level drops significantly after a few buckets are removed, you may need to dig the well deeper. This will create a bigger reserve of water which can replenish itself overnight. However, it won't increase the ultimate flow rate.

You can lower a submersible pump which can sit on the floor of the well or a weighted board or similar so that the pump is below the surface of the water. The pump is supplied with electricity and connected to a flexible pipe so that it can force water up to the surface and above. The flexible pipe allows you to remove the pump for cleaning and other maintenance if/when this is required. The flexible pipe is connected to rigid piping at or just above the surface. The electricity supply needs an isolating switch to allow the pump to be operated when needed and made safe when being worked on.

Obviously, the electricity supply needs to be connected to the pump so that it is protected from the water. The pump with have suitable fittings and seals to allow this even if it is submerged for long periods. The cable needs to have a tough rubber outer covering to prevent water entry if it is damaged or handled roughly.

The pump supplier can advise on suitable cable. It isn't cheap but is necessary.

You will probably decide to run the water supply to a tank, perhaps in the loft. This means that the pump only operates when the water level drops below a preset level. Or you can have a sealed tank with a pressure cell inside which hold the water under pressure. This can be at floor level and feed 'up hill'. In this case there is a pressure switch on or near the tank which operates the pump when the pressure in in falls.

You need to choose a pump which can produce enough pressure to lift the water from the bottom of the well to the height of the tank (if in the loft etc.) This is called the discharge pressure head.

Pumps are designed to produce different flows at different pressures. This is set out on a little graph where the pressure and flow are the two axes. Read off from the graph the flow given by the pump at the pressure (or 'head') equivalent to the depth of the well plus the height of the tank above ground level. This flow needs to be enough to keep at least one and preferable two taps flowing continuously.

If you get a pressure tank to hold the water in the house, it needs to be able to generate a good flow to the highest tap. Therefore you can do a similar bit of figuring to work out the performance of the pump to overcome this pressure plus the pressure to lift the water from the well to the tank. Then do the same check on the selected pump graph.

If you want to install a filter or other cleaning equipment and have to install a long pipe to feed water to the tank, you need to allow for the pressure drop these will create. The filter supplier can advise on the pressure loss at your specified flow rate. Ask for the head loss value and add this to the lift height required for your installation. Calculating the pressure loss in the pipework is a bit more tricky, but adding 10% to the pressure height and being prepared to use large diameter pipe (1 inch diameter rather than half inch) should keep it all working.

Please note that most pumps can only suck (lift) water about 10 feet and often they become air-locked if left unused for any time. Hence the advantage of having the pump submerged under the water in the well.

If all of this sounds complicated you might prefer to get an engineer to manage the selection and installation.

[shearling]

Thanks everyone. Phew Norfolk Newby that was comprehensive Will let you know how it goes, intend to do it in the summer.