This morning we woke up to no water in our home. I quickly diagnosed the problem as the water line froze in the well house. The well house is one of those fake rocks with a 1/4" installation sprayed inside. I ran an extension cord to the well house, plugged in a hair dryer and tossed it under the rock. A half-hour later we had water.

I would like to keep this from happening in the future. The problem is the only electrical service at the well house is the 220v powering the submerged pump and the pressure tank turning on/off the power to the pump is in the basement. So having a 220v light bulb in the well house won't do much good, if it is off most of the time.

I'm thinking about spraying foam installation inside the well house rock, to increase the foam thickness from 1/4" to 1"-2". But I'm not sure that will be enough to keep the water from freezing again. BTW, we're in the mountains of NC.

Any thoughts or suggestions????

 

I have a similar well setup but I'm down in the piedmont. Most of the wells I've seen in the mountains, at least at higher elevations, are like what's common up north where there is a pitless adapter so the water piping stays below the frost line.

Insulating the rock won't get you there. It's too difficult to seal around the bottom of the fake rock so you always have some breeze blowing cold air in. Also, the rock has a huge surface area and the only warmth comes from the small spot of ground underneath the rock.

You need to insulate the pipes very well. Use good quality pipe insulation and tape up any seams to make sure it's sealed tight. You may even consider two layers of insulation. Then place your rock over the well head and cover the flange at the base with dirt or sand to seal off any gaps and prevent air from getting inside.

Insulation only slows the loss of heat. If no water is used the well will eventually freeze no matter how well insulated. During normal use when you are at home it should make it through the night but if you go away for the weekend you may want to leave a faucet running slowly to cause the well pump to occasionally cycle on and bring warm water up into the well head.

What type pump do you have? Is it a submerssible that's down in the well? If so one bad problem to look out for is the well head freezing and the pump running. Your pressure switch that activates the pump is likely in your basement or under the house so it likely won't freeze. If you use water when the well head is frozen the pressure switch will turn the pump on but the water can't make it to the house. So, the pump continues to run and can generate tremendous pressure, especially if it's over sized or designed for deep depth. This can cause the water riser pipe within the well to burst.

 

Here is a bat **** crazy thought. What if I used a 12v light bulb connected to a 12v lawn mower battery, that is attached to a battery tender running off of one leg of the 220v? Then the well powers on it will charge the 12v battery. And maybe a thermal plug to only run the light when the temps get below 35 degrees?

It should be easier than this.

 

The wires going to the well head only are only energized when the pressure switch inside the house is running the pump. So, the wire at the well is dead (no power) 99% of the time. The only times it is energized is when you are using water which is when you don't have a freezing problem.

 

What we do here in Alaska when we know it's going to be cold is to trickle water in a sink we don't use much. This cycles the well pump on and off several times a day - maybe once an hour - and the flow is enough to prevent the line from freezing. Might be worth a try...

 

I like the trickling water idea. That's probably your best bet.

Second would be an extension cord to run a 25w or 40w light bulb under the rock on the real cold days. All you need is a little bit of heat under that insulated rock to keep the water from freezing.