Finally got rid of the dog house well shed at the retirement new home. 8X12 off the ground (on skids) shed that is not insulated. Also cut out flooring for the pump/well head and pressure tank. It gets well below freezing at times so thinking it should be insulated. Dirt bank around the shed? Straw? Plywood to the ground inside the cut out? I will insulate the walls etc. Just not sure about the outside and cutout areas.

Small space heater

Milk house heater will have its own thermostat

Plan on a small heater, thinking something to keep the air from moving around underneath the shed would be worth the effort. .

The more insulation, and the snugger the better.

Put a heat light in it like the kind you use for baby chicks

Where you live has everything to do with how gonzo you need to go.

Central AR, Up in the hills.

Bank up the outside walls far up enough to keep air from circulating underneath. Spray in insulation inside on all surfaces. Put in a little heat light. That should do the trick. That place got a ceiling?

Insulate as best you can, heater with thermostat

I had/have the same problem,. The well is under a 3 sided metal building, open on the east side. I was going to use foam insulation and in close the open end….that stuff is expensive.

So I basically built a box around the water works and used 2 inch foam board, $50 bucks a sheet x 3. Heat tape and a heat lamp for now.

The local electrician was supposed to come by and install a bigger breaker and outlets…still waiting…,

Lightbulb.

We kept a 40 watt incandescent light bulb at our pump head. Never froze on us. Our well house was above ground, cinder block, and had a foam insulation on the inside and roof.

North Dakota and Montana have slightly different winters eh.

Stringers in the ceiling, just roof basically. Plan on putting in something there as well. Has a vent and room for circulation as the summers are humid and hot. Perhaps some carpet on the floors?

There are thousands of wells in Iowa that don't get electric heat but do what you like. Most have some batt insulation in the well houses and that's about it. A heat lamp if you really want to cover all of your bases.

kwg

Keep the wind out, pink insulation...and a milk house heater on a thermocube.

Any reason not to have a pitless adapter put on the well, along with a submersible pump? Water line below the frost line into the house and you don't have to worry about it anymore.

An awful lot of of little old well houses use a light bulb.
If a little light I'd disable, great. Easy to see it's working.

I know quite a few folks with a cabin or such that's has a real bathroom.
Insulated well, a 100w light keeps things flowing.

Live in Iowa with a deep well and no well house do not understand

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.

Insulate the thing when it's being constructed. Don't wait for winter.

Ours was a shallow well and never any kind of heat and a tin dog house. Our line to the house was almost 5 foot deep. It never froze in 40 years.

kwg

Call it bad names. Although I've not personally insulted a pumphouse, I think the formula is pretty universal.

My pump is about 300 feet below ground, no well house

Pitless adpaper here.