What size water tank?

I'm the other way around pnw, deep well with pump so if the power goes off no water and after an hour or two if we need crank up the generator.

There are plenty of formulars online to work out your needs and pressures. How often does the water supply go down and what length of time? Are you on mains power? Do you have room next to/near the house for a holding tank?

It's around 2.3 foot head to gain 1 PSI and only my experience but at least 15 to 20 PSI is workable also depends on pipe size for friction losses.

Only a suggestion as you are going to buy a storage tank why not put that where the water source comes to the house, if power is handy helps but it means an easy installation with a couple of C/O valves and minimal pipework. Buy a 1 HP pressure pump and automatic controller will cost you under P 5K (we have a spare of both sitting here for a quick C/O if one or the other dies).

I'm sure that will be cheaper and safer than putting your water tank on a potentially unsafe hill. Smaller footings/foundations on flat ground.

A 5 minute shower could use 8 to 15 gallons depending on water pressure and shower head. An Auto W/M can use around 20 gallons per load etc etc.

For me the bigger the better for water storage. Good luck with your decision.

OMO.

Cheers, Steve.

If it were me I would figure what my minimum requirement would be and then double it. If you can locate it on a hill that would be great. It is about 27.6" or 70 cm rise for every 1 psi of head pressure so if you could raise it 100 feet you would have over 40 psig.

I'm like Steve, I have a deep well and a diesel generator for backup but the water tank on a hill would be an interesting project. I don't like the idea of a water tank on the roof or on a tall stand. Besides having to look at the thing all the time it would eventually need to be cleaned so it should be accessible.

The water pump would be like having a back up generator for the water, not used often but there if you need for prolonged water outages married to the right size storage tank.

Off topic, great to see the wet season is finally here, less watering.

Cheers, Steve.

Thanks guys, great info as always.

The water is out right now because one of the old main pipes broke. They were poorly maintained for years but the municipality has now taken it over and is slowly replacing sections. It runs several km from the source (I have actually never been there, and should check it out). It is a great source of water, so I never thought a well would be necessary. Thankfully she had some big plastic tanks that she had filled from the hose.

This one will be stainless, and I like the idea of the tank next to the house for best security/stability and may just do a pump setup since it will take more height than I thought to get enough psi. There is room for it. Because we are near the top of our hill, it would be difficult to get more than 15-20' height without putting it too far away, and that won't be enough. And yes I don't like those tall stands either.

I was thinking about a stainless tank on the ground with a pump and pressure tank but there was no way to hide the thing so I went with the well. I paid P80,000 to have a 3" well drilled 60 feet so now I just have a pump on a pressure tank and I also have the generator on the same pad.

The way the water is set up all my wife has to do is turn the 1" white ball valve in the photo 1/4 turn and we are on the well. She uses it to water plants when the city water pressure is too low. When the valve is closed the pressure drops, the check valve opens and we are on city water automatically.

No idea where you are pnw but do you know if any of the neighbours have deep wells? Reliable water source and how deep?

My well is 3 ft concrete rings and around 25 ft deep and has never run dry even with 2 of us and 8 to 10 workers here 6 days a week, 6 to 7 overnight so showers, cooking etc for near 11 months.

Wells are not expensive to install here, 10 years ago we had a deep well dug at Bens parents place because I couldn't stand hand pumping into buckets then carrying them to the bathroom or kitchen, call me lazy.

So 2ft diameter concrete rings around 22 ft deep from memory, 1 - 3/4 HP pump and receiver, pipework and taps to the dirty and normal kitchen and the bathroom was only around AU 550 bucks, the pump and receiver in that equation was around 200, digging the well, pipes and fittings were 350. Go figure, took 3 days to complete.

On the farm in Oz I set up 4  x 22,500 litre poly water tanks for rain water to ensure continuity of supply as the previous owners only had a 30,000 litre concrete tank and that ran out frequently in the dry season and they had to buy water in. In saying that we were only running on rain water and dam water.

Try to buy a 22,500 litre poly tank here, I had to import 6 -10,000 litre tanks from Malaysia at great cost for a film we were doing down in Paniman Cam Sur

Hope you have good ground water if available. Ask the locals pnw.

Cheers, Steve.

Appreciate all the ideas, guys. I'm probably gonna put a tank or two right next to the house where the water line comes in. With a pump and small genset or solar pack.

This home is in the southern Visayas, and the neighbors have all relied on the mountain water. I just asked to make sure. It is quite mountainous so a well could be a crapshoot.