Thread: Water tank : roof or basement ?

The water will still flow when the power goes off or when the pump goes on the blink if your tank is on the roof.

Originally Posted by Perota

For me it makes more sense to install it as high as possible, therefore the top floor is the obvious location. But our contractor wants to install it in the basement with a pump to push up the water whenever it's needed. I don't think it's a good idea, I would rather have the pump working once in while when the water falls below a certain lever rather than every time someone washes his hands or flushes the toilet. The contractor disagree and his killer argument is that if we have the tank on the last floor, there won't be enough water pressure for the bathroom on that floor.

What's your opinion ?

Listen to your contractor.

Why?

1. The water has to be pumped, one liter out of a tap means one liter of pumping regardless. So their is no saving, in fact the higher your tank, the more expensive it is to pump.

2. If the tank is in the roof, you will not have usable pressure anywhere in the house. Water will run from taps, but without any force.
To get enough pressure to run an electric shower, your tank needs to be 10 meters above the showerhead. A few feet aint gonna cut it.

On demand pumps are quite and efficient and certainly cheaper than building a big arsed water tower just so you have western style pressure at the tap.

Just put it in the basement, aesthetically more beautiful and you need a pump anyway in case you're using 2 taps at the same time.

It's (arguably) going to be more expensive to build a basement just for the tank though, you should really ask him how he's going to make sure the basement's walls, floors and joints are waterproof, that way you'll know if it's a good contractor for the job or not.

Our 2,000 liter water tank is in the ground. It will be further covered over in the future.



The pump works fine and I have good pressure (Mitsubishi 250 W pump) up at the other end of the house for my shower. With the size of the house and having 4 bathrooms, I may install a second pump. This way one pump supplies one end and the other pump goes to the other end, with a normally closed ball valve as a cross-connect.

Steve

roof.

Originally Posted by stevefarang

Our 2,000 liter water tank is in the ground. It will be further covered over in the future.



The pump works fine and I have good pressure (Mitsubishi 250 W pump) up at the other end of the house for my shower. With the size of the house and having 4 bathrooms, I may install a second pump. This way one pump supplies one end and the other pump goes to the other end, with a normally closed ball valve as a cross-connect.

Steve

Nice plumbing Steve...same sort of work of art we have...lol. Guess yor gonna have float level valve of some sort?

OP...UG tank concrete or plastic?

I guess if you have sufficient access for cleaning or repair UG is okay.

Lots of places have a tank on the roof don't know if it is for gravity feed or pumped thereafter. A roof tank will ,of course, give you access to the water by gravity, though limited, through the pump in the event of power failures ( not that that ever happens).
Either tank will need a level switch/float if fed from town water ...a bit of a pain....

^^^

Yes, the tank has a float valve.

What looks like a piece of art is actually quite interesting.
There is a bypass line with in-line check valve that goes around the tank and the pump.
You also see the sink drain line in the background, going to an in-line grease trap, before heading off to a dry well.
And there's also a termite killing injection line going under the house, in the mess as well (the capped line to the left of the pump).

Steve

Originally Posted by stevefarang

^^^

Yes, the tank has a float valve.

What looks like a piece of art is actually quite interesting.
There is a bypass line with in-line check valve that goes around the tank and the pump.
You also see the sink drain line in the background, going to an in-line grease trap, before heading off to a dry well.
And there's also a termite killing injection line going under the house, in the mess as well (the capped line to the left of the pump).

Steve

What is the danger from termites with a 99% concrete house? Don't think they eat concrete or maybe they do in LOS? Perhaps it is the cavities created by the nests?
Or house has no such piping or issues but we do have trees and logs around the house which attract them ..perhaps they act sacrificial anodes or something? the
Actually initially did have a problem in one downstairs door frame (pole home with finished "under" area)...seems the bottom legs were in contact with the dirt...gotta watch them builders...probably could not find a saw so dug down instead....lol

Originally Posted by crepitas

Originally Posted by stevefarang

^^^

Yes, the tank has a float valve.

What looks like a piece of art is actually quite interesting.
There is a bypass line with in-line check valve that goes around the tank and the pump.
You also see the sink drain line in the background, going to an in-line grease trap, before heading off to a dry well.
And there's also a termite killing injection line going under the house, in the mess as well (the capped line to the left of the pump).

Steve

What is the danger from termites with a 99% concrete house? Don't think they eat concrete or maybe they do in LOS? Perhaps it is the cavities created by the nests?
Or house has no such piping or issues but we do have trees and logs around the house which attract them ..perhaps they act sacrificial anodes or something? the
Actually initially did have a problem in one downstairs door frame (pole home with finished "under" area)...seems the bottom legs were in contact with the dirt...gotta watch them builders...probably could not find a saw so dug down instead....lol

No, they won't eat the concrete, but there is a concern for our lovely wood flooring and all the other (future) wood furnishings to be added. I'd rather err on the side of caution, as it could be kind of difficult to retrofit such a system in our little house.

Plus, we also noticed that we are seeing more ants in the house. The termite application is made every 3 years (or so I'm told). That was 3 years ago, about 2 months ago. So it could also have an impact on ant control as well ?

Steve

a link for water pressure tanks in Thai - Thaisaenghuad Co., LTD.

Originally Posted by stevefarang

Our 2,000 liter water tank is in the ground.

About same I have except I have a filter to remove sediment and nasty smell of village water prior to water going into the tank.

I have a 200 liter boiler type water heater located in the attic. When power goes off I have 200 liters of water I can get from the water heater. Little pressure but better than no water at all when power is off. Also, attic is warm so cost of heating the water is slightly reduced.

I considered a water tower but decided against it. To get significant pressure, tower is going to be very high and pumping the water up as or more costly than underground or ground level tank. A water tower may be the answer if power outages a frequent and long lasting but if not, go with ground level storage tank.

I build all my water storage tanks underground and usually under the garage floor area.

It is easier maintain, to pipe into and you can collect rain water if your shrewd about your planning.

I also have water storage tanks called Solar Cell Heaters on the roof and pump the water into them.

Not only do I get good pressure but also very hot water going to the showers and the kitchen.

Originally Posted by Norton

Originally Posted by stevefarang

Our 2,000 liter water tank is in the ground.

About same I have except I have a filter to remove sediment and nasty smell of village water prior to water going into the tank.

Yes, we will eventually put in a filtration system, although I'm not sure if it will be upstream of the tank or after the pump. We have some kind of funky slight yellowish water from the public system.

Originally Posted by thailazer

Had tanks at two rental houses and after seeing what grows inside, did not install a tank on our build. Our water system is completely sealed from the ground to the tap. No issues with water in two years, except for the brief power outages, and happy to know there are no tank shrimp swimming in my shower water.

How does that set-up work ? Is it a well pump that kicks in when a tap/faucet is opened ? If it's a well, how deep did you drill ? This is something I'd like to eventually do at our place.
Tank shrimp ? Oh lovely... I might have to dose the tank with some bleach once in a while to keep them at bay.

Originally Posted by Loy Toy

I build all my water storage tanks underground and usually under the garage floor area.

It is easier maintain, to pipe into and you can collect rain water if your shrewd about your planning.

I also have water storage tanks called Solar Cell Heaters on the roof and pump the water into them.

Not only do I get good pressure but also very hot water going to the showers and the kitchen.

Haven't thought about collecting rainwater yet. It could be possible, given the location of our water tank and the south facing roof.

We do have a solar hot water heater for the bathrooms on the west end (master bathroom and guest suite bathroom) and it makes very hot water, really hot water. LOL

You can see our solar hot water heater, on the west end, and our storage tank over on the southeast corner of the house. The tank will eventually be buried, as we fill in that part of the property.



Steve

stevefarang... We are lucky in that we live in an area with natural springs so our well is only 8 meters deep. The 250 watt Mitsubishi pump is at the well head ( 2 inch bore) and it feeds the irrigation system and house directly with no tank.

If we had a submerged deep well pump we would bunker water in tanks just to save wear and tear on the well pump would be a hassle to work on when it fails.

Regarding killing life in the tanks in the past rentals, we dropped in these crystals that turned into chlorine. (Forget the chemical name at the moment but the tank suppliers sell it.) Did it once a week to keep the various bug nymphs and shrimp from taking over. Don't know how they got in there as the tank doors sealed fairly well, but they did.