water well low pressure switch

[MBLES]

i have customer that has well water pumps with pressure switches to pumps. the customer wants a low pressure indicator switch installed that can be set to alarm
for low pressure. does anyone have any ideas for alarming low pressure switch to alarm? I have been told that there is no such animal, even by water well control techs and control panel manufactors.

 

[GoldDigger]

i have customer that has well water pumps with pressure switches to pumps. the customer wants a low pressure indicator switch installed that can be set to alarm
for low pressure. does anyone have any ideas for alarming low pressure switch to alarm? I have been told that there is no such animal, even by water well control techs and control panel manufactors.

I do not see any particular reason that you cannot take an ordinary pressure switch and set the trip point so that it turns on at, say, 10psi and turns off at 30. Then take the dry contacts from the switch into an alarm input.
If the normal pump control pressure switches are set for 20/40 the alarm switch will never go off under normal conditions and will be reset once the pumps get the pressure back up past 30.

What is the exact low pressure they want to alarm at? And when do they want the switch to reset?

 

[USMC1302]

I was too slow, and Gold Digger has the same idea. There are multiple ways to solve your problem depending on how you want the alarm to operate/reset.

 

[MBLES]

I do not see any particular reason that you cannot take an ordinary pressure switch and set the trip point so that it turns on at, say, 10psi and turns off at 30. Then take the dry contacts from the switch into an alarm input.
If the normal pump control pressure switches are set for 20/40 the alarm switch will never go off under normal conditions and will be reset once the pumps get the pressure back up past 30.

What is the exact low pressure they want to alarm at? And when do they want the switch to reset?

are you thinking i could install seperate pressure switch and set alarm contacts? thats a good idea! they want it to go off at 20psi Low pressure.

 

[weressl]

i have customer that has well water pumps with pressure switches to pumps. the customer wants a low pressure indicator switch installed that can be set to alarm
for low pressure. does anyone have any ideas for alarming low pressure switch to alarm? I have been told that there is no such animal, even by water well control techs and control panel manufactors.

A pressure switch is a pressure swicth is a pressure switch...... You can set it low, high, low-low, high-high, you can buy ones with rate of change. IN your case you would want to set the alarm switch to OPEN on low pressure, eg. failsafe against broken wire.

http://www.barksdale-usa.com/ds-c9612.php

A more accurate method is to use a pressure transmitter and have setpoint relays control the pumps and alarm setpoints. Taking that further, the pressure transmitter can be used to control an ASD(Adjustable Speed Drive) to keep a constant pressure, regardless of flow demand. If you have multiple pumps operating parallel, only one ned to be on the ASD, the resto of them can be switched ON/OFF as the demand changes and the ASD driven pump keeps the pressure steady.

 

[DavidA]

You can put another pressure switch on the line and have it operate a relay, pilot light, buzzer, etc. There are any number of them available from automation direct, IFM, and so on. You can even get them with adjustable set and reset points.

 

[MBLES]

i knew i would get the best ideas here! thanks!

 

[readydave8]

i knew i would get the best ideas here! thanks!

Best place to look when the experts (water well techs, control panel mfrs) are stumped.

 

[ceb58]

You can put another pressure switch on the line and have it operate a relay, pilot light, buzzer, etc. There are any number of them available from automation direct, IFM, and so on. You can even get them with adjustable set and reset points.

And you can buy them at slowes or homedespot. Run power in on one side of the contacts out to your alarm from the other side. You will need to kill power to pump, open spigot and watch pressure gauge to get it set to close below the controlling switches low pressure setting.