Any experiences with measuring the water level in a well? My well is less than 5 Meters deep and 20 Meters from the house (no electricity available (yet, but who knows)
If your well has conductive tubing, measure the capacity. It changes with rising and falling water levels.
If you want an accurate measurement, you can put a tube that exits below the lowest water level you expect. Put a pressure sensor like an MPX2102 and an aquarium pump on the tube. When you turn on the pump and it starts bubbling out the tube at the bottom, the pressure you measure on the sensor will be relative to the height of the water column above the tube opening. 1"wc is approximately 249.082 pascals or 0.0361263 psi
I use this method on my brewbot for measuring the amount of water in the kettles for strike and sparging. It’s accurate to within a 100mL or so, at least with the ADC I’m using on my controller. You might need a slightly different sensor depending on the over height of water column you plan to measure.
In that case, just a tube and a pressure sensor will do, no need to pump air. As the water level rises air pressure will build up in the tube. Mounting it in the well might be a challenge, but also an easy setup.
It is much more accurate if you use the pump. I tried just measuring the pressure in the tube from the water column, it was all over the board and the resolution sucked, probably 10X worse. Using the pump fixes that because you aren’t just measuring how much the water compresses the air, you’re measuring exactly what pressure it takes to push out the bottom, which is exactly the water column. It doesn’t take much of a pump if all you’re pressing against is a few feet of water. Something like this: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005009288427024.html
I’d just tie it to a heavy nut and drop it in the well. I probably wouldn’t even measure it, just calibrate on some known water levels and watch it for a while.
that looks promising
Do you have experience with it? The well is just a 4.5 meter deep concrete tube of approximately 1 meter diameter with a concrete lid. Would echo have any effects?
I don’t think so. I haven’t built mine yet. JSN comes with a pretty long cable, so you could but just the probe in your well and keep ESP above ground to have Wi-Fi. You could battery power the ESP32 and use deep sleep to conserve battery (you don’t need to have probe reading every second or minute, right?). You could even try to use solar power to charge the battery. Possibilities are endless.
I’m going to try to mount a probe in a sewage tank - I have a few cables left leading to it. That means I don’t have to worry about power or Wi-Fi - Esp32 i going to be at home, the probe and its control board inter sewage tank.
I have a rainwater tank, and I use an esp32 (nodemcu) flashed with Tasmota, and a waterproof ultrasonic sensor to measure water level.
Similar story here. I would guess an ultrasonic sensor would be the most reliable solution for OP, since all the tech can be kept at the top of the well. The only minor question I have is whether echoes would be an issue in a well, but I think it’s worth trying to find out! You can get inexpensive preassembled units that work with Zigbee/Tuya,
Edit: This is what I used as a cheap off-the-shelf solution - https://a.aliexpress.com/_mPR6XlJ
I have one in my sump pit and it seems to measure the level of water just fine.
You have ultrasonic level sensors for oil tanks so I reckon that it would work in a well.
I tried to make one, it had 4meter ranges and fell short
Maxbotix make robust ultrasonic sensors that range out to 6m, they have a 3/4" pipe fitting on the back for mounting them.
So with that you can get a few lengths of 3/4" pipe and an elbow and have an easy way of mounting it a little ways into your well.
A little on the expensive side but simple to use and easy to weatherproof.
