WorldWide Drilling Resource

equilibrium will be reached faster. In other words, less drawdown means a smaller horsepower pump! We save our customer money on installation and their electric bill each month. Who doesn’t like to save money? Next month, we’ll take a look at some terms used in our industry. Bill admin@ worldwidedrillingresource.com The r es t i s basics. You have the footage count- er, recording device, and knowledge of the camera. Next month, down hole cam- eras in the TV i n d u s t r y , l i k e MonsterQuest . Ray Ray Roerick may be contacted via e-mail at admin@ worldwidedrillingresource.com Equilibrium by Bill Corey Pentair Water Training Institute Let’s talk about Equilibrium this time. What does it mean in our industry? Well, equilibrium means balance. In nature, and especially with water, it means water will always seek its own level. If you put two containers the same size next to one another, and put a pipe between them with a valve on the pipe, then fill one with water, what happens when you open the valve? We all know the one with the water lowers and fills the one without water until they are equal. Why do we need to know this? Be- cause, when we want to get water out of a well, we put a pump in the well, turn it on, and the water level in the well starts to drop until the water going into the well is equal to the water being taken out of the well. A well drilling pro- fessional calls it a “cone of depression”. A pump installer calls this same point “drawdown”. The well has reached equi- librium - what’s going in equals what’s going out - we have balance. The most important thing to remem- ber is the drawdown level is the working level of the well. In other words, when someone calls me and asks me to size a pump for them, one of my first ques- tions is, “What is the depth to water?” Of course, the depth to standing water is nice, but the drawdown level is imper- ative. It means I can calculate the correct TDH (Total Dynamic Head). I was traveling with an installer in central Minnesota who told me when he and his brothers started in business they could only get about 7-8 gpm (gal- lons per minute) out of a well. Of course they could not ask other drilling con- tractors in their area because they were the competition, so they headed west and found someone one who told them a secret about putting gravel in the well for the first 30-40 feet instead of the drill cuttings. They increased their well output to 30-35 gpm. Now, what does this have to do with equilibrium? If the well produces more water, there will be less drawdown, and 84 DECEMBER 2013 WorldWide Drilling Resource ® Roerick cont’d from page 75.