Automating a Manual Electric Water Pump

Thanks for the reply, but Storage tank locates half km away from motor...I need to draw wire to that much distance I think..

What you say would be far easier to understand with a diagram. Include where power is available too.....

Use timer switch: Plug your motor into the timer-switch and the timer-switch to the electric socket. Set the timer-switch to run at the desired times and for the length of time you choose.

In the USA some of us have our water heaters on timers. These timers are readily available and can be set to come on numerous times daily. The ten minute run time may be too short for these timers, don't know.

The hi/lo level switches sound good to me, too.

Plenty of devices are availble in the form of level sensors and so on. Or use a timer relay to satrt and stop

The simplest method is to use a non return valve and a pressure switch to control the pump. When you open the tap, water flows, pressure drops, pump goes on, close tap, pressure climbs, pressure turns off the pump. The non return valve ensures that the pressure remains till the tap is opened again.

Here in Germany you can buy a system for that for less than $100, including the pump and the pressure vessel to smooth out pressure fluctuations, to keep water pressure up in houses where the mains pressure is low, or where the house has a bathroom on the 4th floor with low pressure mains......

Presuming fused or protected power supply at the house? Then disconnect at the house when it should not run & power up when it should . Can be done with a timer also - This way unusal requirements can be dealt with at the house.

If you need to program daily to the nearest minute this might work for $75.00 US

http://www.intermatic.com/Default.asp?action=div&did=5

OR another option to lower cost, but I would not recommend this unless you are very sure of your safety with electricity.

If you could get away with a flow restictor on the outlet and run for 15 minutes every day, you could wire 2 of these timer's in parallel from GE for about $15 each to get the two daily timers you want.

Thats surely going to be more expensive that a simple non return valve and a pressure switch and works 24 x 7. See my post #5 and tell me what you think......

I don't have any knowledge of how the system your speaking of works in Germany. From your explanation, it reads like the pump is controlled by manually turning on the water supply in the shed. This still requires the person to visit the shed two-times a day.

Upon review of my earlier post, I might be naive because I assumed that disconnecting the pump from electric power would seal the system and not leak past the pump. If the water supply tap has to be sealed and closed to stop water leaks every time the pump shuts down, I would propose a normally closed electric solenoid value in the water supply line ahead of the pump. So my system is getting more expensive...

The system I propose is exceedingly simple, the pump sucks water (as it does now) and pumps it via a non return valve into the long pipe run.

Also mounted after the NRV is a pressure switch.

Assuming the tap is off, no water being used, the pump will pump till the pressure switch opens, when the pump stops.

Opening the tap at the other end reduces pressure, pressure switch closes, pump runs again.

Simple enough?

Yes .This is the best I have seen and used.The pump starts whenever the line pr drops due to usage and stops when pressure build up to set level.This very cheap also

There are several ways to do this, but the best may be a combination. Without more information on the pump & storage tank, accurate design is difficult. Andy's non-return valve and pressure switch will probably work, but the discharge pressure of the pump may be enough to open the pressure switch on startup. The head loss of half a km of pipe possibly exceeds the pressure difference between minimum & maximum water level in the storage tank.

If this happens, add a timer to the circuit, so that the pressure switch will start the pump and the timer, but only the timer will stop the pump.

Is there power already run to the shed or is the power located at the shed. If its run from the tank to the shed, Then move the switch to the tank and hard wire the motor. If it originates at the tank then, I would install a float valve in the tank (input line) And a pressure switch on the output side of the pump. The float valve will cut off the flow when the tanks full and the pressure in the line will increase, the pressure switch will shut off the pump. The tank level goes down the valve opens, pressures relieved, switch closes, power to pump.