When my boyfriend and I moved into our new house we were very excited to have a water well and NO WATER OR SEWER BILL. While wells no longer come with a bucket and a rope that you have to haul up every morning (see the above picture of our well), having a well has been more interesting than we expected.
Our very sweet landlords had lived in our house and drank the well water for thirty years. They assured us it was good to drink and that they have had it recently tested. In addition, we don’t have to add salt to the well and it doesn’t turn our clothes or anything else yellow, like most wells, because it’s a spring fed well.
Once we moved into the house though, we noticed that there were small particles in the water. I don’t know about anyone else but I don’t like amebas with my water. That’s a joke, but we did stop drinking the water right away. We are still able to use it for everything else besides consumption. As renters, we didn’t want to make a long term investment in a water filtration system because we don’t know how long we will be living here.
I kept track this month and we used 18 to 20 gallons of water for drinking, which cost us about $15 dollars. In my former apartment, our water and sewer bill cost us around $35 a month and I know that is a lot cheaper than most houses. My sister’s water bill is around $60 a month at her house. We really are saving a decent amount of money but I will comment that it is much less convenient to be constantly having to buy gallons of water. I may look into other options such as filters or water coolers in the future but for now we are sticking to the simplest solution- buying water jugs. When I am hauling them into the house I remind myself that it’s one less bill to pay every month and that alone makes it worthwhile.
Edit- Since I published this post we have been able to go back to drinking the well water. I think they might have been due to pipes sitting for too long before we moved in. We make sure to flush the well regularly and we have never had a problem with particles in the water since and I’m very picky. We use a Brita pitcher and we have both been very healthy. I actually had the chance to speak with a local man who does water testing and he assured me that we have spring fed wells and that the water is good quality.
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