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Aranarth
join:2011-11-04
Stanwood, MI

Aranarth to Anonymark

Member

to Anonymark

Re: [Rant] Water Company

I have a 60ft well, I live in the country, I probably pay $10/mo to pump water for personal use (showers, washing, drinking, etc.) and my water tastes nice and it's not all that hard.

nanner nanner suckers! (J/K)

On the other hand I remember my dad almost constantly complaining about the price of city water when we lived in town. I think he said doubled almost every other year. So started at $5 and when we left 5 years later it was almost $40/mo.

Surely pumping water can't cost that much can it?!
07108968 (banned)
join:2012-12-11
North Coast

07108968 (banned)

Member

said by Aranarth See Profile

On the other hand I remember my dad almost constantly complaining about the price of city water when we lived in town. I think he said doubled almost every other year. So started at $5 and when we left 5 years later it was almost $40/mo.

Surely pumping water can't cost that much can it?!

What quantity of water were you using for $40/mo, did that include a sewer charge?

I pay ~$120 quarterly combined water and sewer.(works out to half-half)
There is a lot involved with running a municipal water system.

I know people that have good wells and others the water isn't worth using for the toilet.

I wouldn't mind septic instead of a sewer system but I like having a basically unlimited amount of fresh clean drinking water, that is under constant pressure, you never have to wait for the pump to "catch up" or losing the "prime".
Aranarth
join:2011-11-04
Stanwood, MI

Aranarth

Member

said by 07108968:

What quantity of water were you using for $40/mo, did that include a sewer charge?

I pay ~$120 quarterly combined water and sewer.(works out to half-half)
There is a lot involved with running a municipal water system.

I know people that have good wells and others the water isn't worth using for the toilet.

I wouldn't mind septic instead of a sewer system but I like having a basically unlimited amount of fresh clean drinking water, that is under constant pressure, you never have to wait for the pump to "catch up" or losing the "prime".

Its a 4" bore well and the pump is an in-line autopriming and I have a cycle-stop on it as well.
Its a family of 4 mom, dad, 2 kids (not teenagers).

Yes we have a septic system since we have farm land all around.

Pressure is set to approx ~60 psi and the pump comes on once this drops below ~40psi. While water is in use it well runs constantly because of the cycle-stop.

Line from the well to the pressure tank is 1".

This also feeds our open loop geothermal (~7gal/min) and tankless hot water heater.)

Geothermal discharge is underground through a tube and sock and everything else is through the septic system and drainage field as usual.

If the system was not heating and cooling the house it would be closer to $10-20/mo for water.

rockotman
...Blown On The Steel Breeze
Premium Member
join:2000-08-06
DSotM

rockotman

Premium Member

I have a well now, as well. It provides plenty of water for me, the wife, and the horses. But instead of now making quarterly payments to a utility, I have to buy softener salt (typically 1 or 2 40# bags at $5 each per month), PotPerm for the green sand filter (typically one bottle per year @ $50/bottle), and various in-line filters (1 sediment filter per month @ $5 each, two reverse osmosis unit carbon filters @ $20 each every six months, and 1 reverse osmosis membrane filter @ $40 each every other year). Add to that the time involved in doing all the maintenance, plus the yearly maintenance to make sure that the orifices in the back-wash units on the softener and green-sand filter do not get clogged, and I figure between my material cost and my time, I pay on average about the same as what I paid when I had municipal water. The real savings is in not having the sewage charge thanks to the septic system.