Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Best way to insulate a well house shed?

My friend got a set up from Home Depot that lets you spray foam yourself.

His well house has a 60 watt bulb and so far it has been in the 20's twice.

I will go look at it in the morning but i really like what that foam does.

Well house constructed with SIPS (structually insulated panels). Copper supply line to house heat tape from Raychem. Plug for heat tape in house. Has never froze even at -30* F.

A timely bump.

I have a heat lamp in there and I a space heater. I can monitor the temperature with a wireless thermometer.

we always had 100w bulb but we seldom saw temps below 10F

If you go space heater route, make sure it's got an old-fashioned mechanical dial. The fancy digital ones don't reset themselves properly if there is a power interruption.

It’s minus 12 out now. 87 degrees in the well house.

My first year here on this place. We used 2 inch insulation boards.

Next year we are going to try and get city water.

Thermocubes work great. It will cycle between 35 and 45F. Just set the heater on med or high and plug it into the Cube.

You said it's very humid in there in the summer. Open it up in the summer and take the heater out so it doesn't rust apart.

I live in SW MO. mine was designed with a slab on grade, insulated at the perimeter with 2” foam board. Walls were 2x4 with fiberglass batt, outside sheeted with plywood, sided with barn metal. Roofmframed with 2x6, r19 fiberglass batt, and covered in metal. Inside walls and roof sheeted with 1” foam board. Foamed all seams at exterior and interior. Made an insulated door with two layers of plywood with 1.5” foam between. Put a simple ceramic light fixture on the wall near the floor and the pressure tank, use a 100w incandescent bulb linked to a thermostat. small window in the door that lets me see the light from the house. Light comes on when temp in well house drops tp 40 degrees. Light only comes on during extended periods of freezing weather, due to efficiency of structure and heat from the earth transferring up through the slab. Has been 15 below here a couple times, never a frozen pipe. Might be overkill, but I despise fixing frozen and busted pipes in freezing weather, so...

Buy a dayton thermostat SPDT for about $30 and wire up a heat lamp. The one I got has a temp range from -10 to 100, IIRC, and has a 2 degree differential.

I'm with you on fixing frozen & busted water pipes.

24 below here.

Ya, as mentioned the pink and spray foam are good and would avoid straw or anything like that as it becomes nesting material.

Went to work for a couple of hours. Came home and plugged my little heater in. It went from 54 to 81.

Most of ND had road closures earlier. Now they are open but icy.

Yep, what I would probably use. That, or use the spray-in, but apply 'closed cell' style to where it's very dense and less thick.
We all know the reality of mice, bugs, critters, so recommend to avoid the pink stuff that could be shredded or beat up in a few years and go with the aforementioned for a clean, tight setup.

Damn....that's nippy.

I went out and removed an access panel and turned down the thermostat, time will tell.

You might get by with a large100+ watt service bulb. Less may be more in your application.

Having spent 36 years in the industry I can tell a few, very few, absolute truths. One absolute truth is, well houses are the worst things to work on. Totally unnecessary in most, not all, case. Dirty, nasty, bug and rat-infested cramped abortions to a pumpman. I had two very experienced employees threaten to quit if they had to work in anymore. Sometimes they are necessary but for the individual homeowner it is seldom. A $45 fitting, called a pitless adaptor, go figure, alleviates the need and expense of a wellhouse. Forty five dollars and your problem go away forever. No milkhouse heater, no insulation, no heating bills, no freezeups, no unsanitary conditions. The only thing worse than a wellhouse is the well inside the wellhouse. If your situation dictates a wellhouse, and I can't imagine many situations that they do, do not put the well in the house. Leave it outside and away from the wellhouse with enough room to get a pump rig or well drill back over the well without damaging the house. I worked on and installed thousands of private wells and fewer than 5% had any kind of well house. Just the well, buried water and electric line and a tank in the house. And for those that don't have a room for a tank then a constant pressure pump is the answer. Though I retired several years ago, I still dabble in the industry. Several weeks ago, I had to assist an old customer with a shallow well in a wellhouse along with a copious amount of piping, electrical boxes, and 2 pressure tanks. A job that would take 30 minutes maximum for just one man, if the well was outside the house, took 3 men over 3 hours to do a half assed job inside. Most of us service people breathed a huge sigh of relief when they outlawed them in most cases. God, I hate wellhouses.

That's all we do around here, put up insulation board and a lamp and if below ground we keep it covered with snow.

I posted a picture. There is a pressure tank exposed…

The dude that had the property only used the well for the lawn, and then drained it.