The water in your well is a valuable, necessary component of your household. Without water your home becomes much less comfortable: you cannot shower, flush toilets, wash dishes or clothes.
Your well is your home’s private water supply, and it has limitations. Without getting too technical, wells supply water from underground aquifers, measured in gallons per minute. The amount of water your private water well makes available to you at a given time is dependent on a number of factors. The static water level (how high the water rises in the well) is a major factor. For example, if your well is 200 feet deep, and the static water level is 20 feet from the top, that means there is about 180 ft. of ‘water reserve’. In a standard 6″ well, 1.5 gallons of water is contained per foot of the static water level, providing you 270 gallons of water for use at any given moment, assuming perfect conditions.
But Connecticut is not always known for its perfect conditions! Drought and rain deficits in the Northeast have a very real effect on your private water well, and when your well’s water level runs low, the water entering your home can look dark and muddy. Contact us with any other concerns, such as water leaking into your well.
It is important to use water with care, concern and caution. That means, scheduling large volume water usage around normal, everyday use to allow your well ample time to recover. If usage is not properly spaced out, there is a possibility of pumping the static level down and dirty water entering your home.
How to Prevent Drying Up! Well Water Conservation Tips
- Is there a leak? Eliminate unnecessary water use by confirming that your home’s water lines are leak-free.
- Fix running toilets and leaky faucets. A leaky faucet probably won’t make your well run dry, but it does add to well water exhaustion. A faucet that leaks one drop per second will leak 2,700 gallons per year, putting unnecessary strain on your well water system.
- Schedule Use. Do not wash 3, 4, 5 loads of laundry back to back. Washing machines use 40-55 gallons of water per load! If you start a new load every 30-45 minutes, then the family takes their showers, there is a chance your shower water will run dark and muddy.