I inherited a house last year in the mountains that only has one water source, a buried concrete cistern. For almost a year now the cistern has been using a submersible pump that turns off and on depending on if water is getting used up in the house or not.
A few nights ago the temperature outside dropped down to 10 and the water worked for awhile the following morning and then the water shut off. I can hear the pump through the floor/wall and I can hear it when I open the cap outside on the cistern itself. None of the water in the cistern is frozen. Any thoughts on what the problem might be, and if there is a problem I should be able to notice, how do I get to the problem to fix it? The cistern probably has about 1800 gallons of water in it currently, and the cistern itself is completely buried with only the very top cap exposed above ground.
I am not a plumber, if this is a problem that a professional needs to look at, what kind of plumber do I need to get a hold of since the problem is a cistern and not a normal city-water system?