Under pressure dum d-d-dum dum... Options for high water pressure?

[DIYNotIan]

Hi all

I've got a lot of plumbing work coming up in the house soon and had a plumber visit yesterday to quote. Whilst here he checked the water pressure and said it is one of the highest he has seen, at 8 bar. I've roughly calculated the flow rate before and it came out at 30L per minute.

The house will have a standard shower (oil boiler, NOT combi) and an electric shower.

He said it would be best to put in a regulator [EDIT - sorry, I meant PRV - that's what he recommended] after each stop cock (the parts of the house seem to be fed separately). Just wanted to check that you guys agree? Are there any disadvantages to reducing the pressure?

Many thanks

 

[kidgreen61]

Surely the solution would be to put a pressure reducing valve in, just after stopcock.
This won't affect flow rate.

 

[Keithmac]

You should thank your lucky stars, we are at the other end (p1ss poor water pressure and volume), Salamander Homeboost has made ours somewhat manageable.

 

[muggles]

Get an unvented cylinder if you don't already have one, to take advantage of your high pressure. You'll be able to ditch the electric shower and have two decent mixers

 

[DIYNotIan]

Surely the solution would be to put a pressure reducing valve in, just after stopcock.
This won't affect flow rate.

Sorry, my mistake. I meant PRV, not regulator. I'm just not used to the terms.

That's good news RE the flow rate. So does that mean the garden hose won't lose any power/flow rate? We don't use it often, but when we do it's nice as it is now...

Get an unvented cylinder if you don't already have one, to take advantage of your high pressure. You'll be able to ditch the electric shower and have two decent mixers

Nice idea, but the reason for the electric shower is that it will be at the far end of an attached barn, which seems to be fed separately (i.e I think there's a split after the meter which goes to the two separate parts of the building). We don't need a hot water tap in there, so just cold water and an electric shower. Running hot water into there would be quite expensive and disruptive I'd imagine. It's around 20 metres as the crow flies, so god knows how far when you put in the twists, turns, ups and downs. As such, it seems to make sense to keep things as they are and go electric in the barn. Also serves as a back up should the boiler break down.

Huge thanks for the replies and input

 

[DIYNotIan]

Someone recommended I get in touch with Dwr Cymru, which I've now done, and they are sending an engineer to take a look with a view to reducing the pressure if needed. Fingers crossed!

If they do decide to reduce, what would the ideal pressure be?

Cheers

 

[DIYNotIan]

Hi all

A chap from Dwr Cymru visited recently when I was out, but did whatever he needed to do and I got a call a couple of days later saying they are happy to reduce the pressure with a pressure reducing valve. Great news! Dwr Cymru aren't able to give me any details regarding the work invloved. I'm hoping that the company actually doing the work will get in touch before they come, but not certain they will.

So I wondered if anyone knows what I should expect?

- Will they have to dig up the ground around the meter for the installation?
- Do you think they'll ask what pressure I want it to be reduced to or just do what they think is best?
- Is there an ideal pressure?
- Do you think the pressure will be adjustable after the installation?

Huge thanks for the help

 

[Madrab]

Careful, I would avoid having the water company control your water pressure, especially if you have great pressure and high flow. If they reduce the pressure then that's it, it'll be done using their equipment on their side of the main and it'll stay at that, you won't be able to legally adjust it yourself.

If you have control of the mains on your property then you are able to fully adjust it up or down as and when needed. Much better position to be in IMO

 

[DIYNotIan]

Hmmm... That's food for thought. If I were to speak to them beforehand and they were to tell me they are reducing to - say - 3 bar, would you still say the same?

Perhaps I'm being tight, but my house is in two parts and the main in splits somewhere after the meter the feed the two separate halves. As such, I'll be needing two PRVs and the associated plumbing. Won't break the bank, but will definitely cost more than nothing. But at the same time I don't want to shoot myself in the foot so definitely one to mull over (although not sure what Dwr Cymru will say if i tell them I've changed my mind, after having raised the job in the first place).

Thanks for your help

 

[Madrab]

My recommendation would be to cancel the job, especially if your property is in 2 parts. Are you only having one bathroom? As suggested, why are you putting in an electric shower? Much better ways to utilise the mains supply and give you excellent bathing etc. In my experience a lot of problems can start when the supplier starts playing with things and getting 2 PRV's fitted is no big thing nor a huge expense.

Yes you would want the pressure reduced to around 3 Bar, any more is just wasted and can cause noise and wear issues in the pipework/outlets/boiler but ideally you want control of that yourself.

 

[DIYNotIan]

Hi Madrab

Thanks for your reply.

The set up I have is a main house with an attached converted cowshed. The main house has a bathroom, WC, and kitchen. The cowshed has a shower room at the far end (no hot water pipes go there, hence the shower is electric). I think the pipework splits of at some point underground at or just after the meter.

We prefer to use as little water and energy as possible, so prefer a weaker shower.

How much roughly would the cost be to supply and fit two PRVs?

I can certainly see the sense in having control ourselves. But on the other hand, if the water company reduce the pressure to 3bar I'm struggling to see why that would be a bad thing. The only time we need decent pressure is with the garden hose and we hardly ever use that as we have a stream in the garden and use that for watering when ever possible.

Not saying you're wrong by any stretch. Just exploring it fully (with our needs in mind) before deciding whether to call and cancel the water company.

Thanks again.

 

[Madrab]

Of course @DIYNotIan there is absolutely no issues around saving water and if you have no real desire to be in control of the mains water and will be happy with you supplier making the modifications then fair enough with zero cost to you.

Usually the requests on here wish to make modifications to allow more control rather than less.

PRV's start at around £30 and go up the way, fitting costs would be down to the trade doing the work, hard to put a price on that given every location's prices are different.

 

[HERTS P&D]

What happened to your plumber who you first called out and gave you the correct advice?

Andy

 

[DIYNotIan]

What happened to your plumber who you first called out and gave you the correct advice?

Andy

He disappeared on us. He was here for well over an hour discussing the various jobs we need (two refits and several other bits and pieces). I gave him a couple of weeks and then chased the quote. He replied saying he'd had family problems and our job was "on his desk", but never heard back from him after that.

Not the first time it's happened with tradesmen in this area.