To clarify, there are two pumps. Both pumps are above ground (at least as far as I can tell). The jet pump sits behind the cistern. It pumps water out of the cistern, to a pressure tank, and then out to the yard (for house bibs) and and to the house. There are 4 shutoffs after the pump-- one is shuts off all the water. One shuts off water to the house, one shuts off water to the front yard, and the other shuts off water to the barn/workshop.
(the piping has been modified a bit but still isn't right, but I can't really mess with it myself w/o breaking something & having to call the pump guy again). He put the check valve in the wrong spot & the pipe still goes over the pump which I know can lead to air bubbles in the line. But, he's the only well/pump guy who will come out. Anyway, I now have stainless steel piping going directly in to the pump on the inlet side because the PVC kept breaking.
This is the compression pump.
It is hooked to some metal pipes that get very hot. I've been told it is using air pressure to pull water up in to the cistern. The wiring has been elongated and wrapped in electrical tape since this picture. I wasn't happy with exposed wires that someone could bump into. It's an awkward setup. The power for this pump comes from the D-Box on top of the cistern. The cover won't fit on the new D-Box without interfering with it's movement for some reason so I may need to make a cover for it. When the float lever drops below a certain lever, the compression pump kicks on to refill the water. I *think* the jet pump is supposed to be able to sense if the cistern is too low so it won't try to pump, but i don't know if it does bc I've had problems with it running when the lever got stuck & the cistern didn't refill. Hasn't happened since we changed out the switch though.
I'll have to get updated pictures.