Yes, well (no pun intended) that is the trick of it. Finding the actual well. There are a couple clues in the house... the pipe from the well runs inside the house along the east wall. In my daughters bedroom (the closer of the two bedrooms to the mechanical room) the east wall has a 4" build-out from being flush. This doesn't exist in the other bedroom further away from the mechanical room, and they both share the same east wall. So the pipe at least runs to that point. where it goes from there, is the mystery. We're thinking that the well head may be in the window well outside daughters room, or in the flower gardens on either side of the window. With 3 feet of snow there, it's not likely we're going to get any information before spring. So, I'm left with bleeding the pump daily.

I was once employed as a private water treatment specialist and solved a very similar, even worse problem. Flow was just under 2gals/min, and well pumped down in 11-12 minutes. Installed 2000gallon holding tank, influent (supply to holding tank) treated with chlorine injection - to allow required contact time for sanitation. Pumped from holding tank with Grundfos QD(?)35 110volt, inline aeration venturi, then through a 20" carbon block filter to remove the chlorine. As far as the well pumping down in 11 minutes, it then would take 3-4 minutes for the well volume to return.. I solved with an electric timer (like ones used for electric water heaters, but found one with a pin for each minute. Set it to feed power to the pressure switch for 10 minutes, then cut power to the pressure switch for 4 minutes. A float switch inside the tank killed the pressure switch as well. Surface contamination has already occurred down the well, this is why we sanitize wells and plumbing systems, through to all the points of use, with chlorine from time to time. Also, holding tanks are not "open tanks", they are very closed - in fact, they even have a screw on 18" cap. An open tank would have just vented off the chlorine, nixing any sanitization; requiring chlorine injection AFTER the holding tank. Has worked great for 7 years now with minimal maintenance, Also should note that it supplies water to a 4 bedroom, 5 bath, fully occupied home for family of 7.

Hi aliceinwonderland-- Thanks for taking the time to read through all that and respond! That does sound unusual-- our pH definitely increases with the temp. I was using very hot water when I got the higher reading. Hmmm... Anyway, to answer your questions: 1. As far as I know, all of our water is treated so I'm not sure how I'd go about testing the untreated water...? 2. I am using a Taylor pool test kit, brand new. It gets excellent reviews but is marketed for pool use so I'm not sure if it's the best thing for home water testing. It's a small bottle of red drops- you fill up the little reservoir with your water, add 5 drops of the solution and match up the color to the samples. Mine only goes as low as 6.8 and when I tested the cold water, it looked like it might've even been a tiny bit lower (more yellow) than that. When I used hot water, it jumped to just between 7.0 and 7.2. 3. The diameter of the neutralizer is 13.2", according to the diameter calculator I found online after measuring the circumference at 11.5". I don't know about how much media as it's not written anywhere... my receipt from the fill-up just says "NF repack". 4. I really don't know, but the initial receipt for the install says "1354NF" and when I googled that I found an "NE1354" that says it is a calcium carbonate neutralizer in which the "mineral is an oxide of calcium and magnesium". I do have 3 separate receipts that all say "1354NF" (not NE) though so I'm not 100% sure they are the same thing. Hope those were sufficient answers! It's all foreign to me. I could take a pic or two if that would help....

If you're really sure you want tankless (and you kinda seem to be), I'm not going to argue with you. I'll just say a couple of things and then I'll bow out. Disclaimer: I'm not an expert on these matters. They just interest me and I hope to be more energy independent in the future, so I read up on them. I always welcome corrections from knowledgeable folk. First point: IMO electric resistive heating of ANY kind basically just doesn't play nice with PV, off grid or on. The only time it really makes sense is when you're off grid and your system produces more energy during the day than you can store in your battery. This can also apply to some extent if you're intertied and your utility pays you wholesale or less when you sell your power, essentially penalizing you for conserving. Either way, dumping your excess PV energy into water heaters is one way to store it for later use. However, it should be obvious that to store that energy, you have to use traditional storage water heaters, not tankless. Second point: Peak demand matters. It matters to your electric utility, and it matters to your bill. You probably know more about CA rates than I do, but it appears to me that right now California is more into time of use (TOU) metering than peak demand metering. However, more and more utilities are adopting peak demand metering for residential customers (they've had it for business for ages). So even if you're not dealing with it now, it may well be in your future. Demand based metering watches your power (not just energy) usage. The higher it is, the more you pay for all your electricity. In one demand scheme, you pay a surcharge based on your peak power usage (in kilowatts), In another, the price they charge you for every kilowatt hour you use depends on your peak usage -- the higher your peak, even if it's only once in the month, the more you pay per kWh that month. Let me give you an example of the second scheme. Let's say your house's big energy hog right now is an electric range.. Most of the time, you just use one or two surface units at a time. So your peak demand is relatively low, and you pay (say) 14 cents per kWh most months. But when you cook Thanksgiving dinner, you have all the surface units going, plus the oven, and a microwave. On that one day, you have a much higher peak demand. Your utility takes note. And that month, you pay 20 cents per kWh for EVERY kWh you use all month. So even though that month's usage is only a little higher than usual, the final bill for the month is MUCH higher. Now imagine what could happen to your bill if you add an appliance that increases your peak demand every day of every month. Guess what: when it comes to peak demand, tankless electric water heaters are MONSTERS. Think about it. With its mild climate, California is a great place for heat pump storage water heaters. That's what I'd get if I were you. Not tankless, and definitely not electric tankless. And that's all I have to say about that.