Running a Heat Lamp Down a Well Casing

If you only have 2 wires going to the well house, then you cannot legally do what you want to do. You must establish a "new service" at the well house and establi9sh a new neutral and ground there. You should hire a licensed electrician to do this, it is beyond the skill set of the average homeowner.

The easiest thing to do is just buy a 240V heat lamp.

didn't know they made them 240v heat lamps

so basicly i would have to put in a diferant fuse box or breaker box and run a branch off of that for a regular light

not quite average as i did pass electrial inspect for wiring home so alittle above

well house has 12-3 wire to it but white and black both hot and ground goes to metal water pipe

If both hot and ground go to (are electrically connected to) a metal water pipe, you have either a blown circuit breaker or a broken or disconnected wire,

I'm assuming you are in the USA. Other countries may have different color codes. Since you say it is 12-3, there should be red, white, and black. Red and black should be the 2 phases of 220V, and white should be neutral. You should get 120V between white and either red or black. If not, then the cable is not connected correctly somewhere, presumably at the breaker.

Sounds like you need to hire an electrician!

In an application like that it may be best to go online and buy a surplus 240/120 step down transformer that has a VA rating greater than your lamp wattage. Just step down the supplied 240 down to 120. If your lucky or just good at online searches you will probably pick up a new old stock or good used transformer for a few tens of dollars at most which is about 50 times less than what most contractors want for basic rewire jobs now.

You could just tie the lamp power to one line and the common line from the lamp to the other to the common/ground lead for the pump and get 120 volts that way. You should use a ground rod at the well unless its an old well with a cast iron casing then that can also function as the ground point. Its discouraged to do so but technically allowable in most cases.

The easiest way to do this is to run a new circuit. You could direct bury 12/2 UF cable from your house to your well and install a GFCI receptacle in a weather proof device box with an IN-USE type cover mounted on a 4" by 4". This is honestly the cheapest, easiest, and safest way to do this. It is also in compliance with the National Electric Code.

The transformer is the best way to go. It will make good safe 110 for your lamp, and a freeze tape, too.

I presume the lamp is for freeze protection. Until you can find a good exterior grade transformer(pump rooms are not especially friendly to electronic things) you can wire two lite bulbs in series. Run the 220 to them, have both the same wattage. If one burns out, the other won't work, like Christmas lites. For freeze protection, I always had a peep hole visible from the house, so I could be sure the lite was working.

Using the ground for neutral is called 'raising ground', it's not cool.

Why don't you use a short piece of self regulated heat tape available at most plumbing shops that specialize in wells. You can run 220V tape for low cost. These tapes draw about 5 watts/ft under full load and 1 watt/ft when not. Avoids some of the problems of wiring but you still need to install 220 volt outlet. They added load to a pump line will be low but often pumps have other items (chemical feed, monitoring devices) running with them so check electrical codes/requirements and make sure you have the proper lines to carry load. If you insist on 110 volt you will have to run a separate line from your main panel out to the well and then install a sub-panel to operate both 220 volt well pump and 110 volt light/heat line or a just utility outlet near the well. Size the line according to your needs.

KISS............. Hook 2 smaller wattage heat bulbs of the same wattage in series. Problem solved.

Make two 110 Volt lamps in series. A simple serial connection.

Pls bear in mind, the total power will dropdown 1/4 in this case

An example, connecting two 60 Watt lamps in series makes 15 Watt in result.

Kindest Regards

My physics books say different.

They seem to insist that twice the voltage applied across twice the resistance makes twice the wattage not 1/4.

Sorry . Yes You're right. It's my own stupidity.

Of course each heat lamp will glow with it's own voltage. 110+110=220.

Thanks for reminding.