Too complex for this newbie - advice?
I bought a house (NorCal) that shares a seasonal well with a neighbor, and I have three questions. (I'm mechanically intelligent, but completely new to well systems, and have only very rudimentary knowledge of hydraulics and electrical systems.)
As far as I can tell, the well produces up to 10-13 gpm in the wet season, and goes entirely dry toward the end of summer and then for several months, so the well oscillates between say 10 and 0 gpm seasonally. (When I bought in August last year, it tested at about 2 gpm, and I think it's at about that now in August.) It's a shallow well (~25') with a submersible pump, and a pressure tank that feeds elevated storage tanks (my neighbor and I each have two 5,000 gal. tanks). The storage tanks have mechanical float valves. Household water pressure is by gravity feed. (It's all on a steep hill.) I'm guessing, but the elevation difference between the well head/pressure tank and my storage tanks above is probably 80' vertical. The problem is my neighbor's tanks are probably at half that, about 40'. We share the initial supply line pipe, and at some point a line T's off to his lower tanks, and the remainder continues up to mine.
As I understand this system, when the well is not producing enough to meet both our needs, he is getting most or all of the water, since even if my float valve is open, his tanks fill up first, and he uses the water from them, so the pump just keeps filling his tanks, and I get little or none, depending on production. (Our water rights call for equal or equitable use or something.)
Question 1: If I'm correctly understanding the above dynamic (am I?), I am looking for a way to deliver water to us equally if our tanks are not full. A well guy I just had out suggested installing 1 gpm Dole valves at each storage tank, so that we each get equal flow until the well produces below 2 gpm. Sounds logical, but I have a nagging feeling it ain't that easy. (I'm sure there are expensive options involving something like smart flow meters and electronic valves and radio controllers etc., but .... those sound expensive. And 2 gpm isn't too little to give it all to my neighbor, if it's going to run completely dry.) Is a tradeoff with the Dole valves that the pump runs more also? What's a good way to do this?
Question 2: Do some changes the well guy made sound right to you? Previously, the pressure tank was filled at 68 psi, set to 70 cut in / 90 cut off. My neighbor's tank was completely full with float valve closed, my tanks were half empty with float valve open, pump is off, pressure is sitting at 80, and I'm getting no water. I assumed the well wasn't producing. According to the well guy, the well was producing (at least some) but without enough pressure to pump it up to my storage tanks. He manually turned the pump on at the controller with the ball valve closed, built pressure up to 90, opened the ball valve, it started pushing water to my tank, but slowed and stopped flowing at about 80. He said the water column pressure from my tanks was keeping the system above the cut-in, so I have never been getting any water. So he charged the pressure tank to 85 psi, and set the cut-in/cut-off to 87 / 107. Is this right/reasonable?
Question 3: With a seasonal well like this, I have to have some sort of sensor to stop the pump from trying to deliver water if the well isn't producing, correct? I don't know what that is (stumbling about trying to educate myself leads me to a gut impression that it has to be an electronic conductivity sensor down in the well, rather than amp sensor on the pump or pressure sensor in the system.) Does that dry-well cutoff affect either of the first two questions?
Sorry, I know that's a lot, but it feels pretty complex to try to ask a simple question and get it right.