Joining the Renewable Heating Hub forums is completely free and only takes a minute. By registering you’ll be able to ask questions, join discussions, follow topics you’re interested in, bookmark useful threads and receive notifications when someone replies. Non-registered members also do not have access to our AI features. When choosing your username, please note that it cannot be changed later, so we recommend avoiding brand or product names. Before registering, please take a moment to read the Forum Rules & Terms of Use so we can keep the community helpful, respectful and informative for everyone. Thanks for joining!
Replacing mains water with well water
Following on from a topic on heating @editor asked for some info on our well
We have mains water on the street, but Scottish Water demanded a huge connection fee, which I wasn't prepared to pay, plus water charges are high. So prompted by our ground works team lead, I looked at a borehole / well.
Made contact with a couple of companies, but eventually settled on GRC Aquatec, they insisted a water deviner came first. He arrived and did his thing. 10 to 15mins later, said, we will drill here, then wondered off up our hill and came after another 10 mins. Told we had 4 good underground streams feeding our well. Then got his pocket watch out and it spun over the drill location. He then told me they will hit water at 15m, but that is just a stream, at 34m will be the main water.
A month later the drill team came, water hit at about 14m, final drill depth was 36m. However drilling was mostly through sand, some clay and a bit of sand stone, so we needed 30+m of steel liner, normal is a few meters of steel the rest in plastic, so bigger bill.
Getting the water suitable for consumption, is a turbidity back wash filter, with a added stuff to get rid of iron, a 10 and 5 micron filter and a UV filter. The well has a submersible pump and that feeds a 100L accumulator. Pump is switch on and off via a simple pressure switch on the accumulator.
We service it once a year.
Was it a smart move
For me, yes. Scottish Water add chlorine to water and I hate the taste it leaves. We have pure treated water, tastes great. It's hard compared to the soft water from the normal tap. So we have to descale the kettle once on a while, but that's ok.
We now have a battery and generator, so are fine in a power cut.
Costs (2021)
Drilling and liners £5k
Filter system, 40L/h pump and accumulation vessel, all manhours to install, testing water, almost another £5k.
So £10k, but claimed the vat back so £8k.
I too have a well, but this one is a c1500 drystane well around 30 feet deep. It is fed via underground stone drains over a considerable area. It holds around 900 gallons continually and can refill from near empty in around 45 minutes. The water is beautiful and soft and was our main supply until the water main arrived some years ago. Yes, Scottish Water do chlorinate but that I can filter out at point of use. We switched to gain mains pressure as pumping to the tanks in the loft to get sufficient head for a gravity system was too limiting.
The company that did the borehole were expecting us to have a low volume pump and overhead storage. The accumulator vessel allows us to have a steady supply presssure of 2.5bar or more if we want. So we have invented cylinder and everything in the house is a good flow rate.
- 26 Forums
- 2,618 Topics
- 61.1 K Posts
- 543 Online
- 6,994 Members
Join Us!
Worth Watching
Latest Posts
-
By David999 , 3 minutes ago
-
RE: Our 10 year old Grant heat pump failed
Since my last post on this topic we've reached a conclu...
By Mike Patrick , 13 minutes ago
-
Brown Oily Residue Blocking Air Vent and Weeping Relief Valve... Anyone Seen This?
My installation is 4 years old. After about 18 months a...
By seoras , 2 hours ago
-
RE: Renewables & Heat Pumps in the News
An article on funding for heat pumps in case anyone is ...
By Jeff , 3 hours ago
-
RE: Indevolt Batteries UK Support & Info Thread
Thanks @editor , @indevolt-uk Subject to any comments ...
By JamesPa , 11 hours ago
-
RE: Share Your Experiences with Heat Pump Manufacturer Support
@seoras Sorry to hear that. I found Vaillant very help...
By JamesPa , 12 hours ago
-
The Watchdog That Watched and Waited
On 9 January 2026, Consumer Energy Solutions collapsed ...
By Mars , 15 hours ago
-
RE: GSHP Kaput After 16 Years: New Compressor or Switch to ASHP? Advice Welcome
Cool Energy in Grimsby sell ground source heat pumps an...
By DerekDeLeon , 16 hours ago
-
RE: Valliant Heat Pump Settings
Thats arguably a sign of a good installer - they unders...
By JamesPa , 16 hours ago
-
RE: Electricity price predictions
Well, we have so many cases where rain water mixes with...
By Batpred , 17 hours ago
-
RE: Two heating zones to one zone
@profzarkov They arent obviously wrong, but the only...
By JamesPa , 20 hours ago
-
RE: Towns water feed to air source heat pump system
The DHW circuit cant be separated (well it could, you c...
By JamesPa , 20 hours ago
-
Solis AC-coupled 3kW storage inverter
Solis AC-coupled 3kW storage inverterPylontech batterie...
By MartinRobinson , 1 day ago
-
RE: My NIBE ASHP Nightmare: No Commissioning, High Bills and a Hostile Installer
As @transparent has observed above, this is not bad, an...
By cathodeRay , 1 day ago
-
RE: The Grid Says Yes.. Until It Doesn’t: Why Britain's Net Zero Push is Stalling at the Plug Socket
As I was reading this article Mars, I was thinking that...
By Toodles , 2 days ago
-
RE: Tell us about your Solar (PV) setup
Installed in May 2011: 16*Sharp 245 W monocrystalline p...
By txmartyn , 2 days ago
-
-
RE: Say hello and introduce yourself
That doesn't sound 'right' to me. The national Smart ...
By Transparent , 3 days ago
-
RE: Growatt battery disconnected
I doubt this will happen, but I will try and suggest it...
By Eliuccio , 3 days ago
-
Understood. That's why I decided from the outset on a ...
By JamesPa , 4 days ago
-
RE: My experience with 3 heat pump surveys: Heat Geek, British Gas & Octopus
On the litigation, I would not go there and definitely ...
By Batpred , 4 days ago
-
RE: Recommended home battery inverters + regulatory matters - help requested
I suppose if your pv inverter packs up, you have a plan...
By Batpred , 4 days ago
-
RE: New Vaillant aroTherm Plus in black - When will it come to the UK?
Firstly check you are using sound power not sound press...
By JamesPa , 4 days ago




