So I had my water well put in and the pump house is a standard prefab fiberglass pump house and the well driller installed "heat tape" the plugs into the power supply and is wrapped around the piping (PVC & Copper) in the well house to prevent freeze damage..... well it didn't work for some reason and the last cold snap caused the PVC to crack in one place.

The well driller came out and fixed the damage as a warranty repair within 24hrs so its taken care of, but the question I have is....

Can you guys recommend a secondary minor heat source that would be a good long term back up?

I had thought about putting a shop light in the pump house with a 60w light bulb, but I don't want to use a standard incandescent bulb because it will burn out and I don't think an L.E.D. light bulb will put out enough heat to keep from freezing.

Any advice?

Here's what we do and it works well. Purchase an easy heat freeze thermostat (Google it). Install it on the outside of your pump house so that your getting the outside temperature instead of the inside temp. Then simply install a clip on light with a red flood lamp for producing heat on the inside of the pump house. Once the outside temp drops to around 35 degrees your light will turn on. I think they normally turn off at around 45 degrees. If you put the easy heat freeze thermostat on the inside then it will pick up the temperature from the lamp and it cycles to much so that's why we put it on the outside. Pretty inexpensive also. Most hardware stores in North and West Texas County's carry these items. Good Luck.

THIS - I bought one and they work great - also my pump guy said just put a small electric heater inside the house and it will take care of it

That heat trace on the pipe will work if you also insulate the pipe. Just heat trace and no insulation = frozen pipes.

Be very very VERY careful with heat lamps on well heads. Just moved into a new house with a new well. During the past month when the temps went single digits, I cut the top out of a 275 gallon plastic tote and put it over the well head. Here is where i messed up. I put a heat lamp, clip on, pointing towards the well head. Picture this, brass metal T on top of well head hooked to well head pipe inside. Pipe that goes down to pump, 750 feet, is "plastic pvc". See where i am going. The T warmed up and cause the threaded pvc to distort and slip out of the brass threads on top of the well. Luckily the power wire was tied around the well head and the pump only dropped 3 feet. If the wire had not been tied to the well head the pump and pipe would have gone straight down ripping the connectors off of the wire. When I called the well guys the first thing they asked was, did you put a heat lamp on it? I said, yes to keep it from freezing. They said well you had it TOO close to the well head. I figured that they were just pulling my leg. Talked to the repair guy when he came out. He said this is very common this time of the year and he gets a lot of calls. That being said, be careful putting heat lamps too close to well heads.

how would a heat lamp be any different than a incandescent light bulb as far as not burning out?

how often does it freeze in your area? Simply put a shop drop cord light with a 60 watt bulb, turn it on when it will be down below 35 and then turn it off when the temps start rising back above 35. I had to do that on my peach tree last night, works very well and even a plain incandescent bulb should be good for roughly 1,000 hours give or take

we just buy the cheap white radiator looking heaters and plug them in.they have a thermostat..never had a issue even 2 seasons ago when it was below freeezing for 4 days....

A heat lamp would be no different than a light bulb as far as burning out and that's why I'm trying to avoid using either one.

..... I live 3 hours from this place so running out there to plug in a light is not really an option, looking for something I can either leave on all the time and not burn out or has a built in thermostat to kick it on and off automatically.

I like the idea of the little white heaters with thermostat though, just trying to find one that's not a cheap piece of China made garbage.

I am fairly paranoid. I no longer have a well, but for years I used heat tape on the piping, plus two ceramic heating elements, in ceramic light sockets. I put each on a separate thermostat, and mounted them on opposite sides of the well, fairly low to the ground. Add a couple of sheets of 1" foam insulation and it will be downright cozy.

Our land owner put a heat lamp in the well house. It is connected to a switch that comes on at say 35 degrees then turns off when the temp. comes up. All automatic

thermacube...plugs into outlet in the well house, plug heat lamp into it, comes on at 35 or so....have seen single digits at my place and so far, knock on wood, no problems....3 seasons so far

I use a red chicken light from tsc