Author Topic: Using weather to check water level in a tank  (Read 974 times)

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Offline SLOweather

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Using weather to check water level in a tank
« on: April 26, 2018, 10:05:41 AM »
Tuesday afternoon, I received an alarm about high water level in our water company tanks. The level was too high to be a real number, 24' and the overflows are at ~17'. The level (pressure) transmitter, after about 25 years, had failed.

While I waited for a new one to arrive via UPS, I needed to maintain the level by manually running a well pump. I didn't want to haul a 20 ladder up there and look in a tank. A mechanical pressure gauge doesn't have enough resolution to read a max of 7 PSI or so full, and maybe 6.5 PSI when the pump needs to be turned on.

I felt the side of a tank in full sun. It was cool. Good sign, the water was above that. Hmmmm.

I got a water fire extinguisher and sprayed a stripe of water down the side of the dark green tank, top to bottom, and waited a few minutes.



And, there it was, the water level...



Solar heating of the tank side at the head space made the steel hotter, and wind evaporated the water faster there than at the part cooled by the water in the tank.

Of course I can't use that trick at night or if it's too cool and overcast, but it's gotten me through the week.

Offline miraculon

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Re: Using weather to check water level in a tank
« Reply #1 on: April 26, 2018, 10:34:53 AM »
Pretty clever.  =D>

Greg H.


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Offline WeatherHost

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Re: Using weather to check water level in a tank
« Reply #2 on: April 26, 2018, 04:26:36 PM »
Same concept works on propane tanks.  Condensation in the early morning will show you the liquid level inside.


 

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