Gene says his well out in Elko is near 1000′ feet deep. That raises the question of how to get water up to the surface from that depth. Most of the domestic well information on the web calls the well deep if it is 300′ feet deep. A shallow well which can use a suction pump has to be less than 25′ or so in order for atmospheric pressure to lift the water.
Since one atmosphere (15 psi) is about 30′ of water, that means the pressure at the bottom of the 1000′ well that is needed to get water to the top is 30 atmospheres or 450 psi. A nice list of water pump types is provided by Pump Scout. That brings up the problem of pipe used to bring the water up out of the well.
This makes for an interesting basic physics problem. How much energy is needed to lift water out of the well? For typical flow needs, what power rating will the pump motor need? What are the efficiency factors involved? What pressures need to be accommodated? For electric pumps, what size wire at what voltage would be needed?
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