What Size Should a Pump House Be?

Pump houses/enclosures can vary significantly in size depending on the application — from very large fire pump houses to smaller well pump applications. So, how big should a pump house be? It all depends on what you are covering.

Fire pumps include large pieces of equipment that provide the water pressure needed to supply sprinkler systems located inside high-rise buildings or warehouses to charge the sprinkler system during an emergency situation. Booster pumps help make up for any lack of pressure in the local water supply, water tank or other water sources provided and can be located inside or outside of the building. When there’s not enough room inside the warehouse building or the retail floor space is too valuable to give up, locating fire pumps outside the primary building in a “pump house” is the only other alternative. Fire pump houses tend to be much larger in size due to the size of the pump equipment they need to cover. They also tend to be larger because of the required clearances around the equipment for service people to perform routine maintenance.

On the opposite end of the enclosure spectrum, you have well pump covers. Well pump covers are much smaller compared to fire pump houses due to the size of the equipment they are covering. They tend to be square in size and don’t require much clearance around the equipment since they have multiple removable access panels to allow for routine maintenance. The enclosure pictured here is only 44”W x 44”L x 52”H, but as you can see, is perfect for this application.

One consideration when covering smaller pumps is heat. Heat removal is typically a top priority when we’re talking about enclosing pumps. Constantly running pumps generate heat that needs to be removed. High temperatures can damage electronic control panels and cause equipment to overheat. In that case, we would suggest adding a forced fan and louver to remove it. For this particular case, however, the well pump is on the smaller side and doesn’t continually run, hence no concern with heat build-up. This also eliminated the need to install louvers or fans to remove it.

No matter how large or small your outdoor well pump house application is, we are always here to help. If you would like to learn more about how to size your pump house, click here. Or you can reach out to me directly using the link below. We’re happy to help you design the best pump cover for your project.