Vacuum-assisted irrigation system

A system for extracting water from a well, comprising:

• a casing seal positioned over the well creating an air-tight seal between the well and the atmosphere;
• a separator tank fluidly coupled to the well, the separator tank comprising a lower liquid reservoir portion, an upper discharge separator portion and an opening for discharging gas from the separator tank to the atmosphere;
• a compressor, fluidly coupled to the well and to the separator tank, the compressor configured to reduce the air pressure within the well by extracting air from the well such that higher pressure groundwater is drawn into the well, the compressor further configured to conduct the air extracted from the well into the upper discharge separator portion of the separator tank;
• a pump within the well below the well casing operable to pump groundwater out of the well to either a water tank, to one or more irrigation devices, or to both the water tank and one or more irrigation devices;
• and
• a heat exchanger fluidly coupled to the compressor and to the lower liquid reservoir portion of the separator tank;
• wherein the lower liquid reservoir portion comprises oil that circulates through the heat exchanger, the compressor and back to the separator tank.

A method of extracting water from a well, comprising:

• reducing the pressure within a well to a pressure that is lower that the pressure of the surrounding ground using a system comprising a pump, a water tank, a compressor, and an exchanger;
• causing groundwater from the surrounding ground to be drawn into the well due to the pressure differential between the well and the surrounding ground;
• and
• extracting from the well the groundwater drawn into the well.