Well supply water pressure problem

[Tim S]

Replacing the main run of pipe with 22mm would be better, branching to 15mm to feed each tap etc, keeping the 15mm as short as practically possible.

I've lived in a house with the cold water tank in the top of the airing cupboard below ceiling height, and flow was adequate where taps were about

3' below the base of the tank.

Failing that, maybe a booster pump?

Cheers

Tim

[Chris Bacon]

It'll be helpful. I should do it.

[David Hansen]

On Tue, 25 Apr 2006 15:31:39 +0100 someone who may be freddyuk wrote this:-

Yes. Also, increasing the diameter of the pipe supplying the fittings to 22 or even 28mm.

[mike]

freddyuk wrote in news: [e-mail]:

The tank is sited on the floor of the loft so about 9 feet from

My experience is No.

I did this in my bungerlow, it was a lot of wasted effort, and made no (noticeable) difference.

I added a booster pump, this helped a lot, but now I would say don't use the Grundfos UPA, like I did - it failed after 18 months and theres no support; ths electronics is in a tiny PCB on flying leads from a tagblock, and yet they won't supply a spare.

I would try a Stuart Turner, I theeenk they do spares.

Fatter pipe as others have suggested, might work.

If you do go for a pump, put 22mm on the supply side, with no obstructions, and a full bore ball valve as a stop c*ck, and preferably place the pump low down.

mike

[fred]

In article , freddyuk writes

I have a well supply which feeds a cold water storage tank in the loft of a

ground level. If i raise the tank into

will the flow improve a lot?

You currently have a head of about 6 1/2 feet between utility taps and the water level in the loft tank (9 + 2(tank water level) - 3.5(sink outlet height)). Raising the tank by 3' will increase the head to 9 1/2' and should give you a 50% increase in flow. As others have said, for a weedy head like that a larger pipe will make quite a difference and a plastic pipe routed through the loft might be quite an easy fit. 22mm pipe has twice the area of 15mm and will give you quite a bit more than twice the flow due to some fluid dynamics theory or other. Increase the hot pipe as well and of course it will take twice as long to get hot water to the tap.

HTH

[freddyuk]

I have a well supply which feeds a cold water storage tank in the lof

of a bungalow. The services connected to the tank are fed in 15mm pipe over a distanc of around 30 feet laterally (utility room) The flow from this pipe i poor. The tank is sited on the floor of the loft so about 9 feet fro ground level. If i raise the tank into the roof space by say a metr will the flow improve a lot?

Thank

-- freddyuk

[john2]

Not sure about this. From my civil engineering lectures yonks ago, the static pressure will obviously go up 50% but the flow rate from a fully open tap is likely to only increase as the square root, ie. 22%. That is for zero pipe resistance. If pipe flow resistance is included, it also goes up 50% at a given flow rate, so cancelling a lot of the pressure increase.

john2

[fred]

I had looked for a parallel with electrical resistance, voltage and current and had assumed that the resistance to flow would be reasonably constant. If the parallel was true then twice the 'voltage' would give twice the 'current'.

I'm happy to be enlightened though.

[freddyuk]

Well the easiest option is to raise the tank so i will do that and pos the results! I am rerunning the tank supplies anyway. The low pressur problem is in pipes buried to the outside utility room so not an eas job to dig it all up!

Thanks for the advice

-- freddyuk