Can I reduce ALL my inbound water pressure?

Oh come on! We had five children in seven years, we managed to teach them good habits.

That's an admission of parental failure.

Mary

Reply to
Mary Fisher
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Oh, excellent idea! That would make sure it wasn't wasted :-)

Mary

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Reply to
Mary Fisher

Yes. Turning down the stopcock/service valve puts a fixed restriction in the pipe; when the water flows, the downstream pressure is reduced because there a pressure loss due to the resistance. The pressure loss depends on the flow rate. When there's no flow, the pressure is the same as in the mains/service pipe.

The main disadvantage is it's fixed; multiple simultaneous users could all get bog-all flow.

How many outlets are likely to be used in a house at the same time?

Reply to
Mary Fisher

Then just fit one of these

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line between each tap you wish to restrict, and turn them down as you require, leaving the main stop c*ck in the fully* open position. This will achive what you want, and also leave the loft tank, bath (assuming cold mains water fill) and outside tap on full flow.

Toby...

(Push fit ones here)

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*Fully open, then turned back 1/2 a turn, to help stop it seasing open)

Reply to
Toby

Seems to me it is quite feasible for me go to loo, wash hands, go back to kitchen where sink is still filling up for dish washing (WC cistern still filling), while partner is running bath (hence CW tank is filling), uses loo and then washes hands and then brushes teeth. (Actually our cisterns fill very fast so I would be unlikely manage that

- but they would only have to be a bit slower to achieve that scenario.)

With five people - you could probably increase that a bit.

Reply to
Rod

I realised that such a scenario would be offered. How often DOES it happen though - all those things at one time?

And if your wc cistern takes as long as that to fill you should get a smaller one, a dual flush.

Mary

Reply to
Mary Fisher

You're an optimist.. I have just had a thermostatic mixer fitted into the outlet of a combi.. Now its temp stabalised by the combi, then by the mixer and then by a Mira thermostatic shower. All of which claim to be safe. If the old bugger can manage to get that lot too hot I will shoot him!

Reply to
dennis

They are modern, smaller capacity cisterns. They fill exceptionally quickly due to some inventive plumbing (mentioned before).

A signficant part of that scenario *does* happen quite frequently. Quite often, partner has a bath and at the same time I do the dishes. The hand wash/cistern filling bits - well, not sure in detail, but the overall usage is very much in that direction.

Had I been out to challenge with a totally unrealistic scenario, I would have thrown in watering the garden and washing the car at the same time. (Sorry, no swimming pool so I couldn't claim I was filling that up as well.) :-)

Reply to
Rod

|> | |> |"HowieC" wrote in |> message |> |news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com... |> |>

|> |> I am thinking of such things as ... taps running whilst cleaning teeth, |> |> etc. |> | |> |Why run the water all the time while cleaning teeth? |> | |> |In fact why run the water at all? Use a tumbler. |> | |> |Mary |> | |> We have 5 people living in this house. Including 3 youngsters. |> You are proposing a huge addition to an already constant training |> exercise! | |Oh come on! We had five children in seven years, we managed to teach them |good habits. | |> Much simpler to make sure that less water comes out of the tap |> when it is used.] | |That's an admission of parental failure. | |Mary | Well. That's a response I didn't expect! Here I am, just trying to ask a question about the best way to reduce water usage and end up being told what a failure I am to my kids.

Anyway, I'm lying on the floor now, dazed. Fancy putting your steel toecap boots on and finishing me off?

Lots of love.

H.

Reply to
HowieC

Watering the garden and washing the car with potable water???

Reply to
Mary Fisher

|> Yes, but if two or more items need water at the same time, it |> makes them TOO slow. | |Then just fit one of these |

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|in line between each tap you wish to restrict, and turn them down as you |require, leaving the main stop c*ck in the fully* open position. |This will achive what you want, and also leave the loft tank, bath (assuming |cold mains water fill) and outside tap on full flow. | |Toby... | |(Push fit ones here) |
formatting link
||*Fully open, then turned back 1/2 a turn, to help stop it seasing open)

Now I have done this before. The only thing is that they end up siezing up. I suspect that they are designed to be either fully on or fully off. I live in a soft-water area but I suspect there could be even more problems if you have to deal with limescale.

I think I will go for the PRV option fiorst and then deal with the individual taps with the flow-restrictors previously advised.

Thanks for your help.

NB: (For Mary); - If you are thinking of lambasting me for being a useless urinator and therefore a big embarrasment to my children in the public toilets. I must remind you that I'm still talking about restricting my _house_ plumbing water flow here. Nothing involving my useles parenting techniques. Promise.

Reply to
HowieC

|On Sat, 12 Jul 2008 06:35:11 +0100 someone who may be HowieC | wrote this:- | |>|What sort of showers are they? |>

|>Mixers. Gravity-fed (hot). Mains (cold). | |An extremely bad setup. Mains pressure varies, for example if |someone opens a nearby tap or flushes a toilet. When the mains |pressure reduces the water in the shower hose will get hotter. The |extreme case is if the mains fails altogether. In this case there is |no cold water at all at the shower, but the hot water is still being |fed by the cold water storage tank. The result is scalding at best, |at worst death.

So. My idea of a PRV at lower overall pressure would help solve that problem then? I cannot imagine how you can think that the BEST scenario on the system failure is to be scalded. (I won't even mention your suggestion that death could occur)! My hot water is just heated to a temperature which is pleasant on the skin. Why on earth would I want it any hotter? Is yours? Actually, I suspect that the cold water on my mixer showers is rarely on. But I do trust the equipment to do that job.

|Mixer showers should be fed from the same source on hot and cold, |either the cold water storage tank or the mains. In the case of a |cold water storage tank there should be a separate pipe from the |tank to the cold connection of the shower. This pipe should be |connected lower down than the connection to the hot water cylinder |is, so that if the storage tank runs dry then the hot water will |stop first. A little cold water before the water stops altogether is |a lot better than a little water at cylinder temperature.

I will never allow cold water to come from a stored tank. It is too risky a possibility that someone in the future will connect another outlet to it and risk serious health problems through ingestion. My mixer showers are perfectly adequate. They are quality thermostatic units and are specifically designed to deal with cold water at mains pressure and hot from a gravity-fed system. | |Thermostatic mixers are available which will work at low pressures. |They will guard against the failure of the cold supply,

Ahhh. See above.

|though personally I prefer to put my safety in the hands of a proper pipe |layout rather then some gadget which may fail at the moment it is |needed.

So _will_ they 'guard against failure' or won't they? (They haven't let me down yet). | |>|Are the non-kitchen taps connected to the mains or the storage tank?

All cold water SHOULD BE (and is) fed directly from the mains. | |From what has been said in the thread I agree that you need some |restriction in the flow to each tap. The incoming mains should not |be restricted normally.

No. I won't restrict the mains flow. But I think I will fit a PRV (as previously suggested), and set it to low pressure. This will ensure that less water is used whilst also balancing the pressure when more than one outlet is used simultaneously. It will also make the hot and cold water operate at more equal pressure.

thanks for your help, BTW.

H.

Reply to
HowieC

I hope it is at 60C or higher, otherwise you are risking breeding Legionella bacteria in your hot water tank!

Toby...

Reply to
Toby

You don't have to. We don't. Well - maybe the odd watering can.

Reply to
Rod

Or a light Moselle. The alcohol is antiseptic, and it tastes nicer.

Owain

Reply to
Owain

Replace the taps with spring-loaded ones as used in public lavatories.

Owain

Reply to
Owain

!

Famous last words comes to mind :-)

I repeat ... famous last words ...

Nothing is 100% certain in life.

Except death and taxes of course.

Mary

Reply to
Mary Fisher

We don't either, but he was suggesting that it might affect the water pressure in other outlets :-)

We have eight butts (including a huge plastic ex chemical barrel, a dolly tub, a plastic dustbin and another very large plastic barrel of unknown origin). And 'leaky' hoses going into the greenhouse and fruit cage.

Mary

Reply to
Mary Fisher

I do, but there is no water shortage.

Reply to
dennis

Can you buy those?

Seriously.

Mary

Reply to
Mary Fisher

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