For the wire to the house, it's possible to bury the wire (cable) 6" 
below ground level with just a spade(shovel), or might be able to find 
someone that will plow in (a narrow vibrating knife blade, hollow for 
cable to be passed through and buried around 8". Check local cable or 
Dish supplier for their contractors. For my gas well with a PIC 
monitoring pressures and temperature 200' away from house, I have a 3/4" 
plastic conduit with 120 VAC 3 wires (hot, neutral, and ground) plus a 
fiber optic cable for the PIC RS-485 communications to a PLC. The fiber 
optic gets converted to RS-485 in the house with a B&B Electronics 
convertor. Most cable and Dish cables are only buried around 6", and 
there are not many problems. The 120 VAC or higher needs to meet your 
local electrical code which will be buried below frost level which for 
Northern Ohio is around 42". For that rent a little trencher, probably 
less than $100 for 4 hours.

Rolf wrote:
> Hi All.
>
> I am looking for some preliminary direction for a winter hobby project. 
> My Father-In-Law has two wells on his property. One has a plentiful 
> supply of water, but the water is very very 'hard'. The other well has a 
> lower supply, but the quality is far better. It is easy to switch 
> between the two wells for the house's water supply. If the good well 
> runs dry he has to go through a complicated process to re-prime the 
> well's pump when the water level returns. This is especially complicated 
> in winter when it can be very cold. His current routine is to check the 
> well's level at least once a week. For his convenience, and my interest, 
> I plan to build a device that will measure the depth of water in the 
> well in such a way that it can be monitored from his PC, and do all the 
> bells-and-whistles thing including tracking the water level over time, etc.
>
> I have researched ways to measure the water depth, and currently I am 
> considering implementing two of three candidate methods, but that is the 
> subject of a different thread.... my concern right now is for the data 
> transfer required.
>
> The well is located about 10 meters from the house, and about 30 meters 
> from his office with his PC. The house is a log cabin with a concrete 
> foundation/basement. The well is 10 meters deep and 1 meter in inside 
> diameter. The well is capped with a concrete lid that has a square 
> concrete 'manhole cover' for inspection. There are photo's of the well 
> from the outside here: 
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/12903637@N08/1524116316/ and the inside of 
> the well here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/12903637@N08/1524133462/
>
> I was hoping to use some form of radio transmitter (prefereably a 
> transceiver) to transmit the data to a receiver in the house. The reason 
> for a transceiver is because the computer is only on about 1/4 of the 
> day, so I would want to store a number of readings while the PC is off, 
> and then upload them in bulk when the PC comes online (as well as then 
> uploading updates regularly every 15min or so). I was hoping to use a 
> cheapish pre-built module. Specifically, I was considering something 
> like Vitaly's or SparkFun's BlueTooth modules.
>
> My question for this e-mail is as follows: What can I expect from a 
> Class 1 BlueTooth module in terms of reliable range where the module is 
> installed under the 3inch concrete lid outside in temperatures of close 
> to freezing with about 3 feet of snow piled on top (the inside of the 
> well never gets much below freezing regardless of the outside temperature)?
>
> I am (and my father-in-law is) reluctant to have to drill a hole through 
> the lid, but, we agree that would be preferable to trying to de-ice a 
> 35kg man-hole cover in 20-below temperatures (Celcius or Fahrenheit) 
> when you are 60-something. If I need to install an antenna through the 
> lid it can be done though.
>
> A further option, though less sexy, would be to use a wired mechanism. 
> Although this would mean not having to have batteries in the well unit 
> (there is no power source in the well), it would also require digging a 
> trench to the house, and opening up the vulnerability to inducing 
> lightning-strike damage to the PC, etc.... I would need to install a 
> conduit, have a much more significant 'impact' on the well itself, etc. 
> I was hoping to just be able to install a box on the inside of the well, 
> and for that to be enough.
>
> Any advice, suggestions, etc. welcomed.
>
> Thanks
>
> Rolf
>
>   
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