The water you get may not be local. Apparently there is a scheme in hand to build a nationwide water grid, so ever more likely in the future.
They are planning to use some canals/river systems as part of it.
The hot water F&E tank was dripping into the bathroom today. for the second time in as many months, and the third time in 3 years.
Of course, this requires 2 things to happen together: Both the floatvalve has to fail to seal and the overflow (to the outside) has to be blocked. The first time it happened, I didn't think about the overflow, change the float valve and all was well for a couple of years.
When it happened a couple of months ago, I changed the valve again but I also I shoved a flexible rod down the overflow and hit a very solid obstruction, which eventually yielded. Unfortunately, being on the frist floor, I couldn't find anything to identify what it was after it had popped out and bounced off into the garden.
For it to happen again so soon smacks of something building a nest in the pipe: I can't imagine that drip of (soft) water could lead to enough of a build up to block the pipe in a couple of months, even though some 'particulate mattter' (aka cr@p) must be getting stuck in the float valves. Any idea what it could be?
(The question is purely out of interest, as the whole lot will be scrap in a few months, when I fit a completely new system elsewhere.)
Snails?
probably, they block the spout on my watering can if I forget to empty it. It implies that the overflow was dripping for some time before the snails went in.
I was just thinking that. Also much water these days seems to come with added limescale, even in traditionally soft areas. I think its a cunning plot to sell more vvalves pipes etc. Brian
Certainly the feeling on the end of my flexy rod could have been a snail. I'd sort of been thinking some flying thing might be building nests but I'm sure snails have the appropriate mission impossible skills...
Ours is fairly soft, but that doesn't stop things failing. Maybe selling poor quality fittings is a way to sell more fittings .....
Mason bees regularly block our neighbours 15mm expansion overflow from their combi. Don't think they'd block a 22 mm pipe though.
Tim
This idea pops up from time to time, but there are several major obstacles to it, not least the different characteristics of water from different areas. Mixing acidic waters from the North with basic waters in the South would upset the local ecologies. It would also need massive amounts of energy to pump the water and there would need to be large water storage areas, to provide balancing ponds and reservoirs. If there were space for those in the areas that need more water, they would already be reservoirs.
Were it ever to come about, pipelines would be the only practical engineering solution. Too much water is lost to evaporation from surface waterways and the canals were not designed for moving water, so many would need to be rebuilt and strengthened.
Define "local". Ours (and the towns) used to come from an adit on the fell side about 3/4 mile away. That's local, limestone so a bit hard but not excessive kettle descale of pure white scale once/twice a year unlike St Albans where it was kettle descale every month with scale all manner of greens and blues.
A few years back they put in a new 6" main from Burnhope Reservior at the top of Weardale. Nice soft water, no scale and very little colour. Burnhope Reserviour is about 10 miles away. Local? I guess so compared to Birmingham (73 miles from the Elan Valley) or Manchester (96 miles from Thirlemere).
Bristol draws most of its water from the River Severn via the open water main called the Sharpness Canal. ISTR that there have been some major water mains works in the area between Manchester and Liverpool recently to improve distribution but without a national water body with clout major interlinks between the various private water companies ain't going to happen.
In message , at 09:22:42 on Thu, 23 Apr 2015, Nightjar remarked:
It came about many years ago: eg EOSTS which moves water from Norfolk to Essex partly in riverbeds and centuries before the Llangollen Canal from Horseshoe Falls to Trevor was built as a water feed.
There are relatively local schemes like the Thames Water Ring Main, but no national water grid.
In the West Country, South West Water has reservoirs up on the local moors, and discharges into local rivers at rates as needed, for extraction downstream to supply centres of population.
In message , at 17:28:19 on Thu, 23 Apr 2015, Nightjar remarked:
Did anyone claim there was?
Harry said it was proposed.
And so it is.
In message , at 21:13:30 on Thu, 23 Apr 2015, Nightjar remarked:
He said schemes were proposed, and that *some* canals/rivers would be used as part of it. I've named two already in place.
A major problem to using canals is that you will get flow, which will require boats with more power in order to actually move. Also AAUI canals are frequently lined with clay, this will flow with the water, destroying the water seal.
In message , at
10:27:31 on Fri, 24 Apr 2015, Capitol remarked:Same as using boats on navigable rivers. If the flow is more than about
15mph it can get a bit hairly, but that's with a regular boat.Canals have been flowing for 200 years without that being a problem.
as far as i know there is already a system of using rivers to pump into and abstract lower down flow.
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