This goes all the way back to a post back in mid-November. You can read about the original problem here < click here >

Today I am starting a thread to show what my “build” is and asking for feedback…ALL feedback. I welcome any warnings, questions, issues, problems, concerns, and advice…ANY feedback. I will post the rather rough/novice schematic, the outside and inside pictures, and a narrative for each part.

Please let me know what you are thinking!!

After no success in figuring out an off-the-shelf solution to controlling the well I decided that I had to build a solution that fit my particular need. Here are some of the ugly parts…

• The original local dealer sold us a pump that didn’t meet our water supply needs when he could have if he had simply listened to us when we talked about the well depth, water needs, etc.
• AND…the same dealer sold us that control module that was completely unneeded. There was a much less expensive and far simpler way to control the well pump.
• When we worked directly with who we thought was the pump manufacturer, and who sold us the 2nd control module directly, they sold it when it was completely unneeded. Again, there was a much less expensive and far simpler way to control the well pump.
• Neither the local dealer or the manufacturer had any solution for our situation.

But the real issue was…

• The well control modules were getting zapped by transient voltage from nearby lightening strikes.
• That transient voltage was coming in through the 700’ of buried signal wire between the storage tanks’ float switch and the well. Basically the wire was acting as an antenna collecting the voltage and shooting it into the electronic circuit board inside the well control module. And that very small voltage spike was killing the circuit board.
• No off-the-shelf solution was available that wasn’t cost prohibitive. Meaning…thousands of dollars to install an applicable and reliable solution.

All we really needed was…

• An easy way to be able to run the well from the solar panels or a generator.
• A reasonable and realistic way to protect a control module and the well pump from lightening strikes. Obviously there is no way to protect from a direct lightening strike, at least one that is affordable, but I could expect protection from the transient voltage issues that was burning out the existing control modules.

Along the way I found out for basic operations the pump could run off solar panels or a generator very easily with nothing special needing to be done. The current well control module had no ability to implement that option. But, the well control module had options that meant absolutely nothing to me and were completely unneeded. After weeks of research, and a dozen emails back and forth to the “manufacturer” (turns out they were a distributor) I now understood how the pump worked, options for operation, and basically how it functioned overall. Interestingly enough…the pump itself was not “made” by the manufacturer, it actually was made in Italy and then private labeled by this company in Arizona. The pump is a really, really good pump!

So, all that being said…I just figured to build my own well control box/module.

Schematic…