Help me out to automatically pump out rain water from my house yard!

[EmailMe]

Hi everyone!

I need help from this community. I'm novice user. My house is in low land. It fills out during rain and we have hard time always to pump out those collected water with our regular 220 V water pumps. Can any of you suggest a circuit that i can assemble for:
1. Sense water deposition and start pump automatically.
2. Once water get pumped/or say level goes low enough stops the motor automatically.

I would appreciate of your help for a simple circuit that i can buy components and assemble them. Please no with Arduino or something like that. Real simple that works without programming. Please!

Thanks in advance

 

[Diver300]

Float switches for pumps are a well known solution:- **broken link removed**
The float switches are available as separate items.

 

[Les Jones]

Many submersible have a float switch attached which start and stop them automatically.
This is one example. You will also find many float switches on ebay but some will not be capable of switching the power to the pump directly. These would require the use of a relay and possibly a low voltage power supply depending on the contact rating of the switch.

Les

 

[Visitor]

I second the float switch idea. Depending on how much current the pump draws, you may have read to use the float switch to switch a relay, and the relay switch the pump.

Float switches come in many types – one of the easiest to use might be a bilge pump switch.... a relay would almost certainly be required in this case.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Likewise, float switch - it's an absolutely standard device for a pump, and many pumps come with them ready fitted.

Funnily enough, I repaired one at work the other year - the float switch had failed, and we got a replacement and changed it.

Been a nosey type I cut the old one apart, to find it was simply a large ball bearing that rolled about and pressed on a micro-switch. I kept the ball bearing, it was too cool to throw away

 

[Externet]

Pick your choice ----> https://duckduckgo.com/?q=yard+flood+pump&t=ffsb&iax=images&ia=images

----> https://duckduckgo.com/?q=float+switch+wiring+&t=ffsb&iar=images&iax=images&ia=images

 

[tomizett]

Further to what everyone has already said, the normal way to use a submersible pump with a float switch is to dig a "sump" for it to sit in. The sump is a hole/depression lower than the rest of the yard, which is deep enough for the pump to work in and to operate the float switch (the switch may require a few hundred millimeters depth). This means that the entire yard does not need to fill up before the pump comes on. The depth should be arranged so that the water level in the sump that is required to start the pump is below the level of the rest of the yard.

 

[Buk]

If you pump water, you must pump it to somewhere that is lower than your property.

If you can run a pump attached hose to that place, couldn't you run a drain to it also?

 

[Les Jones]

Giving the diameter and depth of the tube would be a GREAT help. Also add all the constraints of you problem rather than adding then a bit at a time. A picture of the location of the pump and location of the sensor (If different,) would help..

Edit. This was in response to a question that the OP asked in a second thread that he opened on the subject. (The moderators closed that thread to avoid the confusion that would be caused by multiple threads on the same subject.)

Les.

 

[KeepItSimpleStupid]

If you pump water, you must pump it to somewhere that is lower than your property.

Not necessarily. If it's groundwater in the basement (french drain), you can pump it, say a meter, up to the driveway.

In my case, it's groundwater, some from a neighbor's downspout a large distance away.

The case to consider, is if you need a battery backed up or water driven backup pump. We can't discharge into the sanitary sewer.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Not necessarily. If it's groundwater in the basement (french drain), you can pump it, say a meter, up to the driveway.

I would have thought pretty well all basement/cellar pumps have to pump up more 1m?, and far enough away so it doesn't drain back in.

 

[KeepItSimpleStupid]

Ranch house built into a hill. Pumping to the ground on the driveway side of the house is less height. That was my point of reference.

 

[Pommie]

If there is a lower place, then a self starting siphon may work. Basically, two buckets at the same height with a tube between them - all filled with water.

Mike.

 

[gophert]

If there is a lower place, then a self starting siphon may work. Basically, two buckets at the same height with a tube between them - all filled with water.

Mike.

You'll have to think about that one and explain to us how you think a self-starting siphon between to buckets could empty surface water from a low area as described.

 

[Buk]

Not necessarily. If it's groundwater in the basement (french drain), you can pump it, say a meter, up to the driveway.

In my case, it's groundwater, some from a neighbor's downspout a large distance away.

Hm. Apart from that I would be billing my neighbour for water treatment and waste disposal, I still maintain that unless you have a lower point (or a hard surface that leads to a lower point) to pump the water to, its just going to flow back in.

And if you have a lower point, you could install a drain to that lower point. Of course, that doesn't mean it would be easy or economic to do so.

You'll have to think about that one and explain to us how you think a self-starting siphon between to buckets could empty surface water from a low area as described.

Not quite what he was talking about, but a "self-priming syphon" is a definite possibility. See the end of the vid for usage.

 

[Pommie]

You'll have to think about that one and explain to us how you think a self-starting siphon between to buckets could empty surface water from a low area as described.

Google is your friend, and it's two.

Mike.

 

[gophert]

Google is your friend, and it's two.

Mike.

Yeah, Google laughed last night and then, at your suggestion, I added the word "two" this morning - Google laughed even harder about siphoning from a flat surface with two buckets. It's a nice novelty trick in a high school lab but not for lifting water off of a flat surface.

 

[Buk]

It's a nice novelty trick in a high school lab but not for lifting water off of a flat surface.

If its a regular occurence, wouldn't you build a sump?

 

[gophert]

If its a regular occurence, wouldn't you build a sump?

Yes, You'd think but that wasn't the instruction of the "two buckets" plan.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

If its a regular occurence, wouldn't you build a sump?

It's what the OP should be doing in the first place, dig a sump at lowest point, float switch and pump inside, metal grill over the top - job done. Simple solution, already in use by millions of people.