Hello, my house is fed with a plastic mains water pipe that runs underground for a distance of around 80 metres. The external diameter of this plastic pipe is approx 22mm and the internal diameter is around 15mm. There is a water meter down at the property boundary with the main street.
Static pressure was measured to be around 2 bars, depending on time of day and year. Sometimes it's more and sometimes less.
We have a 170 litre megaflo installed, for around 20 years now. The megaflo came with some sort of pressure reduction valve which I removed almost 20 years ago, and I think it made things slightly better in the shower (very hard to tell really), but sometime back a plumber who was doing work on the boiler insisted that I should fit a reduction valve and he fitted one again.
The problem is that we do not have adequate pressure in the house, for showers or even washing hands in the sink. For example if I flush the toilet, the water coming out of the nearby sink tap almost stops and I get around 1-2 lt/min.
For example when someone is in the shower you must not even try to wash your hands, turn on the washing machine, flush any toilets, nothing. We must all wait until the showers are empty.
I have another property which is fed by 15mm cold water mains that runs around 300 meters from the road where it joins the mains. The pressure in that house is tremendous, scary even. You can use multiple appliances, bathrooms and what have you all at the same time and the pressure does not seem to decrease at all. The showers in that house are an experience. Based on that I do not think that my issue on this house is the incoming water mains (22mm plastic with 15mm internal), but the mains pressure down the road.
To improve matters I was thinking of installing a water pump, there are plenty to choose from, there are mains ones and "shower" ones, so I would like to think aloud of the possible combinations and effects.
1) I could install a standard, single shower pump on the cold water pipes as it enters the house. The pump will start when it detects some flow. That might help the cold water coming into the house.
2) I could install a "mains" water pump like above. I am not sure what the differences are, in any case they are all expensive. I know these mains water pumps reach around 12 lt/min - I do not know how this translates in practice to my showers and general water use in the house. Will I be able to flush the toilet without annoying whoever is in the shower?
3) I could install the mains pump along with the large pressurised tanks - again I am not sure how this will work in practice - and of course it is much more expensive.
Static pressure was measured to be around 2 bars, depending on time of day and year. Sometimes it's more and sometimes less.
We have a 170 litre megaflo installed, for around 20 years now. The megaflo came with some sort of pressure reduction valve which I removed almost 20 years ago, and I think it made things slightly better in the shower (very hard to tell really), but sometime back a plumber who was doing work on the boiler insisted that I should fit a reduction valve and he fitted one again.
The problem is that we do not have adequate pressure in the house, for showers or even washing hands in the sink. For example if I flush the toilet, the water coming out of the nearby sink tap almost stops and I get around 1-2 lt/min.
For example when someone is in the shower you must not even try to wash your hands, turn on the washing machine, flush any toilets, nothing. We must all wait until the showers are empty.
I have another property which is fed by 15mm cold water mains that runs around 300 meters from the road where it joins the mains. The pressure in that house is tremendous, scary even. You can use multiple appliances, bathrooms and what have you all at the same time and the pressure does not seem to decrease at all. The showers in that house are an experience. Based on that I do not think that my issue on this house is the incoming water mains (22mm plastic with 15mm internal), but the mains pressure down the road.
To improve matters I was thinking of installing a water pump, there are plenty to choose from, there are mains ones and "shower" ones, so I would like to think aloud of the possible combinations and effects.
1) I could install a standard, single shower pump on the cold water pipes as it enters the house. The pump will start when it detects some flow. That might help the cold water coming into the house.
2) I could install a "mains" water pump like above. I am not sure what the differences are, in any case they are all expensive. I know these mains water pumps reach around 12 lt/min - I do not know how this translates in practice to my showers and general water use in the house. Will I be able to flush the toilet without annoying whoever is in the shower?
3) I could install the mains pump along with the large pressurised tanks - again I am not sure how this will work in practice - and of course it is much more expensive.
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