Water Pressure

[John]

Any truth that Water Boards turn down the pressure at weekends to reduce the likelyhood of leaks?

[Andy Bennet]

I didn't know they could change the height of the water towers.

[Roger Hayter]

They'd have difficulty lowering the reservoir which is in a village 100m above us! More generally, I think they use gravity for distribution where they can. Must depend on local topography.

[Andrew]

yes, and at night. They do it to reduce wastage through leaks (that they know exist but don't fix !).

When Grenfell tower became a fiery torch, LFB were asking Thames water to increase the water pressure to help them fight the fire.

[Dave Liquorice]

No but the mains has pressure reducing/regulating valves in it. Every

10 m (33') or so of vertical height gives a 1 bar of pressure difference. Our water used to come from an adit about 50 m above us with a pressure of about 5 bar. The town on the same supply is 120 m lower, without pressure regulation they'd have mains water at 17 bar (250 psi)...

[Brian Gaff (Sofa)]

Not that I'm aware of but pressure seems to vary due, no doubt to trends of usage over time. I was under the impression that there are sensors all over the place looking at pressure, so if it drops then they may have a leak, and if it goes up then the pumping can be adjusted, one does not want to blow the joints apart due to everyone not using water.

Brian

[John]

I am quite liking the idea of telescopic water towers! I suppose some prssure drop is due to useage - but at this time I would have expected it to be fairly constant day by day - yet weekeds always seem low. If it is due to usage then it suggest the pipe sizes may be too small.

[charles]

Because that's when people water their gardens

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[alan_m]

They used to have telescopic gas storage tanks.

In its full glory My parents used to live in the shadow of this gasometer and television reception used to depend on if the gas holder was at it maximum or minimum height

[Max Demian]

Did they light all the rings on the cooker to make it go down?

[John]

alan_m [e-mail]> wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Marvellous constructions.

[harry]

It's well known practice to run the system at the lowest pressure possible to reduce wastage and also to reduce leakage from underground hard to detect leaks.

On large buildings it's possible to cut consumption by up to 25% by installing a PRV. Especially office type buildings.