Thread: Water tank size ?

Originally Posted by ltnt

Originally Posted by benbaaa

set up a pump bypass as well, ie a pipe from the mains direct into the house. That way, you still get some water into the house from the mains in the event of a power cut.

What? Gravity feed?

No, not gravity. It's hard to explain without a picture, but I'll try.

We have a single mains pipe in from the street. This feeds the tank. The tank feeds the on-demand pump, and the pump supplies water into the house. But when there's a power cut, the pump doesn't function, so we have no water. So, we got the guys to put in an extra length of pipe which simply bypasses both the tank and the pump. When there's a power cut, we can still draw water from the bypass mains supply. The pressure is crap, but it's enough to wash dishes, fill buckets and whatever.

Nig, When I had my house built 5 years or so ago, I had a hot water heater tank installed under the sink cabinet in the guest bathroom. It's capacity is approximately 10 gallons (38 liters), can be turned on and off, is insulated and keeps the water hot for an extended period of time, requires hot water tubing to be run to the showers and sinks faucets that you want to have hot water dispersed and works well without having the unseemly hot water heaters that are so often visible in the shower rooms. As I recall, I purchased this hot water tank at "Home Works"... They had different sizes.

the mains where we live is often very weak, hardly gets enough pressure to fill the tank some days

we have to water the garden using the tank and pump

they should upgrade it as where we converted the house, which is not far away, the mains pressure is excellent

All of these set ups must have a bypass in case of a power cut, you simply change over some valves and you can have water directly from your street supply or from your tank and pump.

One trick some assholes do is to just put a pump in from the street supply to boost their pressure but this reduces the pressure to everyone else's homes. May be the reason you have crap pressure.

Originally Posted by Bung

One trick some assholes do is to just put a pump in from the street supply to boost their pressure but this reduces the pressure to everyone else's homes. May be the reason you have crap pressure.

I most houses in Bangkok do this. Small Hitachi whatever sucks from the mains pressurizes the house.

My office shop house is like that, as is my neighbour as is...

There is enough mains pressure to get water to the ground floor sink or to clean a car outside with a hose but not enough to get to the "executive" toilet on the third floor.

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Friend built a bar. They had underground tank with a simple ballcock, pump to fill from underground to a tank on the roof above 3rd floor. Power outage they had water on the roof, water outage they had about 2500 gallons on the premises for toilets etc.

There was a booster pump on the roof to give enough pressure to a shower on the floor below the water tank.

Originally Posted by ltnt

Originally Posted by benbaaa

but it's enough to wash dishes, fill buckets and whatever. __________________

Are you single story or double?

Single.

Originally Posted by Bung

All of these set ups must have a bypass in case of a power cut, you simply change over some valves and you can have water directly from your street supply or from your tank and pump.

One trick some assholes do is to just put a pump in from the street supply to boost their pressure but this reduces the pressure to everyone else's homes. May be the reason you have crap pressure.

I was one of those assholes, before they renewed the mains in the road. The water pressure was so pathetic, you could have an early morning shower but 15 hours later the damn tank would still be filling. Illegal, yes, inconsiderate, yes, effective, yes.