I'm not sure what you have now so it's hard to say, but as you have 3 bar static it should help. The alternative would be to retain your existing main and install an accumulator, which would still take up space but wouldn't be noisy or need electricity to run it
No water in loft
- Thread starter MasumAH
- Start date
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I was told we have smaller than 25mm. And as srhawksy states, "Bigger diameter mains = better flow, same pressure.", so does that mean we'll have water in loft while bath taps are running in 1st floor? Cos Thames Water state with bigger supply pipes, water flow will be higher and hence it'll be able to support simultaneous taps..
Is your whole house piped up in 15mm with multiple branches?
Water flow through pipes is like electricity flowing along a wire. The same basic equations apply
For electric Current = Voltage divided by Resistance
for water Flow = Pressure divided by Resistance
The smaller the bore in the pipe the higher the resistance per metre of pipe, the longer the pipe the higher the resistance.
There is and extra complication with water flow which is that if the water is going up hill then there is a pressure drop due to the weight of the water. The pressure reduces by 1 bar per 10 metres ( or 32 feet ) Hence 1 bar supports a lift ( at zero flow ) of 32 feet.
In days of old it was considered only necessary that water could be supplied to the ground floor and maybe to a tank in the loft. The flow to the tank in the loft need only be a trickle as the tank had all day to refill and given that the height of a loft water tank in most homes would be about 20 feet above ground. Hence water pressure of 20 feet water gauge would get at least a trickle of water into most domestic loft tanks. So a minimum of 0.66 bar ( = 21 feet water gauge ) was considered adequate for the average house. It didn't matter if the supply to the loft tank stopped when the drinking water tap was turned on as the tank would fill whenever the tap was not turned on.
Unfortunately the "improvements" to plumbing and subsequent removal of loft tanks means that the mimimum pressure of 0.66 ( or 0.7 ) bar is too low for many users of water.
For electric Current = Voltage divided by Resistance
for water Flow = Pressure divided by Resistance
The smaller the bore in the pipe the higher the resistance per metre of pipe, the longer the pipe the higher the resistance.
There is and extra complication with water flow which is that if the water is going up hill then there is a pressure drop due to the weight of the water. The pressure reduces by 1 bar per 10 metres ( or 32 feet ) Hence 1 bar supports a lift ( at zero flow ) of 32 feet.
In days of old it was considered only necessary that water could be supplied to the ground floor and maybe to a tank in the loft. The flow to the tank in the loft need only be a trickle as the tank had all day to refill and given that the height of a loft water tank in most homes would be about 20 feet above ground. Hence water pressure of 20 feet water gauge would get at least a trickle of water into most domestic loft tanks. So a minimum of 0.66 bar ( = 21 feet water gauge ) was considered adequate for the average house. It didn't matter if the supply to the loft tank stopped when the drinking water tap was turned on as the tank would fill whenever the tap was not turned on.
Unfortunately the "improvements" to plumbing and subsequent removal of loft tanks means that the mimimum pressure of 0.66 ( or 0.7 ) bar is too low for many users of water.
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Majority is piped with 22mm pipe, and then branched out with 15mm real close to fixtures.
Majority is piped with 22mm.
So, increase in supply pipe diameter, will mean near enough same pressure as the static pressure will be less to start off with but with less resistance due to increase in pipe diameter?
Increasing the pipe diameter will not affect the static pressure. It will reduce to loss of pressure along the pipe for a given flow of water through the pipe as the resstance to flow is less in a larger pipe.
If the static pressure on the incoming main is too low to lift water into the loft then no matter how large the pipe the will be no water lifted up into the loft.
If the static pressure on the incoming main is too low to lift water into the loft then no matter how large the pipe the will be no water lifted up into the loft.
Water does reach the loft (and decent) with the exception of when either Kitchen or 1st floor bath taps are open fully, that's when there's no water in loft. So in this scenario, does bigger incoming supply pipe diameter (upgrade to 22mm to suit what's inside property) mean there will still be some water in loft when either Kitchen or 1st floor bath taps are open fully?
Edit, I'm out.
It isn't how much flow there is , it is how much pressure is avialable to lift water as high as the loft. Or more precisely how much pressure is lost when water flows through the
resistance of the pipe work from street to taps.
resistance of the pipe work from street to taps.
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