Well Point Water Connection To House

[AndyD]

I'm sure most are aware of the bleak water situation in Cape Town which has motivated me over the last few months to install a connection from my wellpoint to my house.

My idea started simple but ended up quite complicated for several reasons which I'll get to later. I had my wellpoint water tested a couple of years ago and it came back with a 3 page report I couldn't make head or tail of which basically said it is of potable quality. Up until now I've only used my wellpoint for irrigation and swimming pool purposes but given the looming water issues I decided to use it in the house. My first idea was simply to have the entire house on dual supply which could be manually changed over from council water to wellpoint water by means if a couple of ball valves or taps. After speaking to someone with a lot more experience in potable water systems it was suggested that using wellpoint water as drinking water would require regular and frequent ongoing testing of the water quality ie at least once a month.

The costs and the inconvenience of doing this ongoing testing regime ended up changing my original plan. Instead of supplying the entire house with wellpoint water I decided to continue to use council water only for human consumption and wellpoint water for the rest with an option in future to install a more thorough filtration unit for wellpoint water to be used for human consumption as well should 'zero day' ever actually arrive. This new plan meant I had to do considerable internal plumbing alterations to separate the 3 points in the house we get our drinking water from, namely the kitchen sink cold tap, the coffee machine and the soda machine which are all permanently plumbed-in items. I completely re-piped the three points to allow them to be separately supplied from the rest of the house.

Next step was to dig up the council supply pipe at the house and install a double check valve, a ball valve and pipe a new take-off for the 3 drinking water points and a new pipe for the wellpoint water supply. Then I installed a manifold for the 3 drinking water points etc and around the other side of the house I fitted a strainer, a filter, a PRV and a couple of pressure tanks to prevent the wellpoint pump short-cycling. I then dug up the garden and installed a 25mm pipe from the wellpoint for the house supply.