Water Pressure and Flow

[Steevo123]

The water supply to my house feeds several properties (4 houses, 11 beds total) locally, all from (i think) a 1" (32mm?) supply which travels 500m from the meter before splitting to each property. Water pressure at the meter is approx 4 bar.

As you can imagine, if two upstairs showers are used in the house at a time, or other properties are using water also, the supply tends to struggle a big. This is especially true given my house is higher up than the other properties supplied.

Is there anything I can do to boost the water flow rate? I'm thinking that the supply pipe should really be significantly bigger than 32mm to feed all properties. I'd rather not try and tackle this yet....but out of interest, what size pipe would be recommeded for such a supply please?

TIA

 

[bernardgreen]

Best option is to get the water supply company to up-grade the supply. Could be expensive, how does the one meter water bill get split between the four houses. Sub meters ?

This is one case where a storage tank in the loft come into its own for all but drinking water supplies. It can fill slowly when there is pressure in the mains and then provide a good, constant ( low ) pressure supply to baths, showers and toilet cisterns even when the pressure in the mains is reduced by other houses using water.

 

[simond]

I'd suggest you also consider an accumulator as an alternative to a larger pipe. The larger pipe will not necessarily make any significant difference - but the accumulator will bring very noticeable improvement.

 

[bernardgreen]

consider an accumulator as an alternative to a larger pipe

isn't a tank in the loft a low tech accumulator

 

[Agile]

Is it really 500m ?

That's a very long distance and I find it very hard to believe!

Tony