Our Off The Grid Water System in Winter

It is minus thirty-six Celsius (-36C) or (-33F) here outside of Yellowknife, and we are pumping water from our lake 250 feet away.  Now, that normally might sound like a slightly daunting task, one that borders on frostbite territory. Yet we're sitting in front of a warm fire in our living room.  How is that possible? The answer is easy.

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Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

We have a fantastic lake pump system that is both ingenious and simple. I say ingenious only because it was the previous owner who installed the system. I'm just the caretaker.

In a previous post, we wrote about how our custom off grid water pump system works in the summer. Here's how our off the grid water system operates in winter.

How Our Off The Grid Water System Works in Winter

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To begin, we have an 1100-gallon holding tank in the house that we pump water into from the lake about every three to five weeks.  The primary pump system is fairly straightforward.

It has a rubber line running from the submerged lake pump to the house (Pic 1) over a distance of approximately 250 feet.

The lake provides all our water needs. This includes our drinking water, which we filter. Read our Big Berkey water filter review for the lowdown.

Now, under normal spring and summer conditions, this by itself is ideal. But when you have ice on the lake from six to eight months of the year, you need a method to keep the water line from freezing up as you attempt to pump water.

And for clarity, the six to eight months is not an exaggeration. We usually have to start winterizing our boat before the end of September. And by October, I'm right into my off grid winter home routine.

Freeze-up starts between mid-October and mid-November and does not leave until late May or early June. That is where the heated glycol (antifreeze) system comes into play.

Glycol Keeps Our Pipe From Freezing When It's -40 Degrees Outside

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We have a converted propane hot water heater in the water tank room just off our front entrance.  It's a critical part of our off-the-grid water system. The hot water heater has been conveniently filled with glycol as shown in Pic #2.

The lines from the glycol tank run in a simple closed “loop” system.  There's an enclosed rubber hose (about 500 feet worth) running along each side of the waterline. Hot glycol circulates inside the hose alongside the water line to keep it from freezing.

Pic 1 shows the directional flow of glycol, symbolized by the orange arrows, with the lake water flow is shown by the blue arrows.  

As a side note, the water flow shows from the lake to the house, although once we are done the pumping, the excess in the water line bleeds back to the lake. There's also a plastic 8-inch pipe that has all the lines of our off the grid water system covered and insulated from the house to the lake.

Step #1: Heat the Glycol

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To start the process, we must first turn the glycol heater from “Vacation” mode to “Hot”. We then allow that to heat up for 30 to 45 minutes, depending on the temperature.

The reason that the tank is not left “on” all the time is simply to conserve propane. This is a lot like turning your regular-use water heater to vacation mode when you're going to be away for an extended period of time.

As another side note, we also keep the dial set lower for our regular water tank to also conserve energy. And we'll be installing an "on-demand" water heater this year.

Update: We got an on-demand combi NTI boiler and hot water heater in June of 2019. The jury's still out on this one though. Once the temperature outside gets below the -30C level, I'll generally go with the 45-minute pre-heat which is what we did this week.

Step 2: Turn on the Electric Glycol Pump

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After the glycol reaches the right temperature, I turn on the electric glycol pump (see below).  This actually “pulls” the glycol from the 5-gallon holding tank above it. It then forces the glycol into the loop down to the lake and back.

When first starting this, the return is so cold. I mean seriously. Cold. As in, you can't hold the line for more than a few seconds.

Within about five minutes, the return starts feeling warmer. We then allow that to run for another 30 to 45 minutes, depending on the outdoor temperature. This ensures the middle water line is heated sufficiently to prevent the lake water from freezing on contact with the line.

I should point out that the lake pump (Pic 1) is actually located about 60-70 feet out in the lake. And it's down about 18 feet. This is a good thing because the ice can get to about 6 feet thick in bad winters, although currently, it's only about 3 feet thick.

Step #3: Turn on The Lake Pump

Once the above is done and we feel the line is warm enough, we turn the lake pump on.  This pump sends the (really cold) lake water up to the house. To do this we head to the breaker panel in the house and hit the double breaker that activates our Franklin Electric ½ hp submersible lake pump.

If everything works correctly, water should hit the holding tank within about a minute. But that's a long minute when you're holding your breath…  

There was only one time that the water did not come up. And it was due to my own impatience at not heating and circulating the glycol long enough.

It was easily remedied, though. I just had to start all over and repeat the cycle with appropriate timeframes.

We continue pumping for an hour to a half to fill the tank.

Step #4: Remember to Set the Overflow Alarm (aka The Air Raid Siren)

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Fortunately, we have an overflow alarm on the water tank of our off the grid water system. That thing is capable of waking the dead. It reminds you that you're near the top of the holding tank to prevent overfilling it.

I learned the hard way (twice, actually) that it is best to leave the alarm on at all times. The first time I left it off was because we were just sitting in the nearby kitchen.  I thought (there's the rub) that I would remember roughly when an hour or so had passed.  Well, I didn’t.

And then I heard water splashing on the floor somewhere. I was like an Olympic sprinter getting to the shutoff breaker when I realized it was the overflowing water tank.

Step 5: Keep the Glycol Pump Running.....

Once the above steps are completed, we will allow the glycol pump to continue running. We let it go for about 15 or 20 minutes more. This keeps the line warm as the water in the line works its way back to the lake once the pump is shut off.

I should mention that our house is some 70 feet or so above the water level of the lake, so this is where gravity comes into play. I am not sure if we actually need to leave the glycol flowing that long, but I don't want to have a frozen 30 feet of water line to find out otherwise.

So this is the awesome custom off the grid water system we have that allows us to pump water all year round.  One thing to note is that we used to have to set the house power to run straight from the generator when running the pump.  That was before we switched from a 12-volt battery system to a 24-volt one, which is a different story again.

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