Can my water supplier test the flow rate at the meter?

[markius]

I have poor mains water flow rate in my house.

I've just renewed all of the internal pipework in 22mm copper leaving only 3m of 1/2in steel pipe between the meter and the new stop tap (22mm full bore lever).

Static pressure is about 1.7 bar but the maximum flow rate I can achieve is ~7l/min. At 7l/min the pressure drops to @0.2bar. This is **** poor in my opinion.

Before I dig up the front garden to replace the final section of 1/2in steel pipe (probably to be replaced with 32mm MDPE) can I get my water supplier to test pressure and flow at the meter to eliminate problems with their sections of the supply pipe?

Cheers

 

[rules&rulers]

You can ask your water company but good luck there.

 

[Agile]

It seems to match their working parameters which seem to be a static pressure of 0.6 bar and an open pipe flow rate of 6 li/min.

Pretty useless minimums in my view!

 

[markius]

I though minimums were 1.0bar and 9l/sec. Not sure if that's static or dynamic though.

 

[AGAS]

It seems to match their working parameters which seem to be a static pressure of 0.6 bar and an open pipe flow rate of 6 li/min.

Pretty useless minimums in my view!

different water companies have different parameters

 

[Agile]

I though minimums were 1.0bar and 9l/sec. Not sure if that's static or dynamic though.

That would be a massive flow rate, 540 li/min and what you might expect in a big leak from mains in the street!

 

[markius]

How did you do the maths to get to 540l/min?

 

[boringoldcodger]

Markius asked
"How did you do the maths to get to 540l/min?"

I tend to imagine it's 60 secondsworth of 9l/sec.

 

[markius]

Haha getting mixed up with my seconds and minutes

9l/sec would make for a lovely shower!

 

[ianmcd]

Haha getting mixed up with my seconds and minutes

9l/sec would make for a lovely shower!

you wouldnt be able to heat it or stand under it though

 

[markius]

you wouldnt be able to heat it or stand under it though

I don't know... You can heat anything given enough energy.

The water company is coming on Monday to measure flow rate at the meter. Hopefully it's as bad as indoors and I can convince them that it's bad enough to warrant replacing their tap off the communication main.

 

[John D v2.0]

I don't know... You can heat anything given enough energy.

The water company is coming on Monday to measure flow rate at the meter. Hopefully it's as bad as indoors and I can convince them that it's bad enough to warrant replacing their tap off the communication main.

You'd not be able to do it in a house without a cylinder. You'd need all the gas and electricity supplied to two houses to get that warm enough.

Anyway how about any neighbours, what's their flowr like? Could be a collapsed pipe or a broken/nearly closed valve

 

[markius]

The guy a couple of doors down did a flow rate test for me and got exactly the same results. His house is the same age as mine (>100 years).
One thing to note is that the 7l/min is very consistent. I've never seen it drop to less than that unless I open two taps on my supply. If it was a main valve problem I'd expect to see reduced flow when the neighbour is washing his car but that doesn't happen.

 

[John D v2.0]

Actually the converse, if it was a valve problem/closed his wouldn't affect yours.
Sounds like the pressure is just generally low, perhaps due to the altitude relative to the pumping station. If you can replace all the pipe back to the tee where it joins the main, you'll get better flow but the same static pressure.

 

[markius]

If the valve was upstream of us both, it would cause him to affect me and vice versa.