I looks like the problem that I was having with no water and the pump not holding prime was that there was no water coming through the pump when I turned it on. A friend had connected the pump for me and he used 1 inch clear vinyl hose to connect to the incoming pipes and from the pump to the tank in order to 'see' the water and air bubbles. Last night,after several friends had given up on another day of failed attemts to restore my water, I went outside to have another look for myself. The pump has two pipes, one on top of the other, and I noticed the bottom one,where the vinyl hose had been placed,seemed to be sort of twisted and sucked in. It looked as if the pump had more suction than those hoses could take.After disconnecting the hoses I briefly turned the pump on and with my hands over the holes I could feel the suction side so at least the pump works. Shouldn't he have used pvc pipes here? Could this have been my problem? Also,as suggested to others on this site, I checked my well to be sure that I had water.I dropped a rope with an iron bar beside the pipes and I hit water at 24 feet and after going another 24 feet I still hadn't hit bottom. From what I am reading it isn't very likely that the pipes go down far enough for the foot valve to be anywhere near 48 feet so I should have enough water. I understand there may be debris in the foot valve or it could be stuck so I am trying to check that out in between post. Am I right in thinking that the pipes probably don't go down that far or is it more likely that they do?

Question: Is there a formula for calculating the diameter of pipe I need to run from my well to the house, based on the distance? I've had a new well drilled for the house. The well is a little more than 300 feet from the house. I'll be having a submersible pump dropped into the well, and the pressure tank will be in a wellhouse right next to the well. I'll be running the pipe to the house myself; but because of the distance, I'm wondering if I need bigger than 1" diameter pipe. Any thoughts?