Pump house freeze protection

jimlll

Member
A lady has asked me for suggestions to provide heat for pump house for a 4-plex condominium.
What do you fellas recommend that is dependable. I can imagine you with with dairies, animals, etc have a good knowledge and experience.
Hard wired? 220 V? Separate thermostat? Permanent mounted?
Thanks for your suggestions.
 
Pictures would be helpful but if it?s an outside building not heated with an above ground pump and plumbing it?s going to need heat if it normally freezes there in winter. If it?s a small area maybe a 5000W 220V wired in heater with a built in thermostat or if it?s fairly big an air-air heat pump?
 
Well how big is it, how well insulted, etc, anything form a light bulb to a Pump House heater, that's the actual brand, that's a 1,500 watt heater, with a thermostat on it, with a small fan!
 
. For something that important . Double heat trace supplied from two different breakers . Two baseboard heaters , each on this town circuit . Breaker locks to prevent tinkering .
 
If it is in a well pit should not need more than an extra set of fetilizer sacks over the top with a couple of bales of straw inside a tarp.
 
I've used an inexpensive, but durable, "milkhouse" style electric heater for many years. 115 volt and 1500 watts. They have a built in thermostat. Just set it to come on around 40 to 45 degrees and it does the rest. It will keep the temperature inside the wellhouse in that range automatically.
 
get someone local who knows just what to use and have him do an on-site inspection as we don't know what type of an enclosure is there call a pump man would be a good place to start.
 
I suggest you ask a well guy and see if they can install a submerged pump. Never have to worry about frozen well house.

Any well supplying water for a 4 plex in my area has to have water tested every month.

Upgrading well would make it easier to bleach well.
 
A product called Frostex 2 Is a very high quality heat tape system that uses self regulating solid state (rubber like) material between 2 wire conductors. The temp is stable at 80 degrees F and it uses no thermostat. As temp drops, the current increases and the temp stays near 80. It does not burn out it does not rot, and can be used with insulation. It can be cut and capped at any length. Extra plugs and end caps can be purchased to use extra cut parts for service. Give it a look, it is really good. Jim
 
(quoted from post at 11:03:46 03/15/19) How do you afford to pay the electric bill running one of those milkhouse heaters for prolonged periods.
Loren
How can you afford to replace the pump and pipes every time they get frozen.
 
What she needs for heat depends entirely on the conditions.
How large an area to be heated?
Is it insulated?
What part of the country; how cold does it get there?
What code restrictions are there? (In some areas, specific equipment must be used)

Before winter, I put up a 13' x 20' temporary building, with the tarp-type fabric walls. We had temps into the -40'sF. Was made so that very little wind could get in, and only snow that was tracked in on shoes.

Inside this building, I made a small heated area for sharpening saw chain, etc. Little room was about 4'w x 6'l x 6'h, and was 2x4 frame draped with tarp for walls. For a door, the tarp fabric could overlap and be clipped to seal.

Inside, I had a small 1,500w heater that was plugged into another device that turns power on at 35F and off at 45F. The little heater spent on average about 70% of its time off. Keep in mind, I had the ThermoCube at the highest point, so it was colder at floor level. The setup definitely surpassed my expectations.
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If it's just a little pump house and well insulated, and has 240 v for the pump, I would install a 500 w baseboard unit with it's own thermostat. About 30 inches long, no moving parts, very reliable for a long time. That's what we have in our crawl space at the cabin, it's 20 X 24 feet, and well insulate, and it doesn't freeze. It costs about a dollar a day to run it in cold weather.
 
Pretty popular around here to bury an old chest freezer just below ground level then put pump in that. Greatly reduces heat loss. Of course a submersible eliminates the problems too.
 
I would go with a hard wired heat system, something like a couple of baseboard heaters, or green house heaters, each on separate line voltage thermostats, on separate circuits if available. Avoid anything "plugged in" as they tend to get unplugged in the summer, and forgotten about.

I would not depend on light bulbs, as the quality has diminished to the point they are no longer reliable. Nor would I depend on the cheap electric room heaters, same thing, they are prone to fail.

One of these would also buy some peace of mind.
Freeze/Leak Detector
 
(quoted from post at 13:27:37 03/15/19) If it's just a little pump house and well insulated, and has 240 v for the pump, I would install a 500 w baseboard unit with it's own thermostat. About 30 inches long, no moving parts, very reliable for a long time. That's what we have in our crawl space at the cabin, it's 20 X 24 feet, and well insulate, and it doesn't freeze. It costs about a dollar a day to run it in cold weather.

Maynot have neutral for 120V and some boob will use the ground instead .
 
The base board heat sound right to me. When I was a kid we had two 3 x 6 pump rooms out in the fields away from everything. Both had blocks about knee high the 2 x 4 walls about head high. Only had that 3/4 thick celitex (Spelling ?)for insulation. Dad had a heat lamp in each one and never had a issue. They worked real nice during hunting season on a cold day. We would always stop and get warmed up in them. Just enough room for two kids out hunting rabbits.
 
2X - Local conditions will determine your needs.

When water use is high, the 58F ground water flowing through the system may be enough to keep the system from freezing.
 
I agree , however if only 2 wires as in older installation would a copper coated ground rod of
proper depth be sufficient?
 
How is it that someone installed a water system that is subject to freezing in the first place? Submersible pumps with pitless adapters are immune to freezing, you just need to place the pressure tank inside the building and bury the pipes below freeze depth and there should be no problem. This reminds me of the years I lived in North Carolina: frozen pipes were a regular occurrence because contractors were too lazy to route plumbing in locations where it wouldn't freeze. Here in Michigan, where subzero temperatures are common, frozen pipes rarely occur.

I assume the water system is already installed and there's no chance of making it frost resistant (e.g. by burying the pump house below grade). At the least, the walls of the well house should be insulated; if this is done the chance of freezing will be minimized because a four-unit building will be drawing water almost 24 hours a day. And it shouldn't take much to prevent freezing; wrapping heat tape around the pump and plumbing should do the trick.

I don't recommend using light bulbs or heat lamps. They'll burn out and you won't know it until the pump freezes. A small baseboard heater will be more reliable, but hardly foolproof in the damp confines of a pump house. I'd use heat tape, either the kind with a built-in thermostat or Frostex as Jim N. suggested. Hopefully the place never gets an extended power outage in freezing temperatures.
 

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