Home DIY

How do you know that one or more neighbours haven't installed a pump already and that this is the reason you have shite water pressure?

Ahh, I see where you're going - it's war! I'll need a really, really big pump.

Bingo!

But before we enter into a somewhat soggy version of MAD, the water pressure is always the same, it doesn't get better or worse around the times the neighbours are preparing to leave the house etc.

I did have the water board look into it, their verdict was 'properties of this size should have a main supply pump, but you don't, so you can't expect to have good water pressure'.

I'd fit a pump in a second (they're £250 from Screwfix) if I didn't worry that I'd nuke the neighbours supply. Although with that said, I'm not hugely friendly with our neighbours. Hmmm.

Did they ever tell you what the mains pressure was?
How many storeys is your block?
Reason I asked about a sprinkler system is that you would normally be given a 90mm to your building and hopefully have a storage system for the system to operate from and then with that it could be a shared storage system to provide you a gravity feed

Th average person uses 110-130lpd.

Mains pressure to the block? I can't recall if they did. I think our pressure at the flat is around 0.45 bar.

Four stories at our end, five at the other end, and it's on top of a hill.

Ok, I found the email from Thames Water:

"On the 10.08.2015 a logger was deployed at the nearest hydrant to the property which is at the junction of Taymount Rise and Grassmount. I have attached the data and graph; the graph shows a pattern of the pressure increasing and decreasing throughout the day and night depending on the demand. The data clearly shows the pressure during peak demand doesn’t go below 4.3 Bar or 43 meters head, which is much more than the statutory requirement."

Yeah the incoming pressure. This is key to determine whether it’s the water board job to do something.
0.45bar That’s real low - are you on the second or third floor

First floor. Incoming pressure is a minimum of 4.3 bar^^

Damn.
Clearly the demand is too much if pressure is that low
So either get an internal pump or look for a restriction with the pipe work

I’m happy to fit a pump- but would that reduce my neighbours pressure to effectively zero?

If not I’ll book it in tomorrow

All the pump will do is ‘push’ the water faster

If a break tank could be better be much easier. Something small like 125l or so
As it always been this low or more recent?

Always been this low. Problem with a 125 litre tank is that I literally have no where to put it.

Look for a combined system in that case

?

Ok, I found the email from Thames Water:

"On the 10.08.2015 a logger was deployed at the nearest hydrant to the property which is at the junction of Taymount Rise and Grassmount. I have attached the data and graph; the graph shows a pattern of the pressure increasing and decreasing throughout the day and night depending on the demand. The data clearly shows the pressure during peak demand doesn’t go below 4.3 Bar or 43 meters head, which is much more than the statutory requirement."

This was my patch as well.

I think there’s systems with a tank and pump as an all in one system

I don’t know much about it as you can tell I only dealt with the water network itself

In my experience you either give up the space for a tank and pump or you put up with weak showers. Things like the megaflow cylinders can go some way to improving things, often they are just enough if you're not desperate to have a huge shower flow rate.

I think the calculation you used doesn't take into account the fact that you have some water flowing into the tank even when the tank is feeding the pump. So you are feeding water at a consistent rate of say 1.2-.45 in ball park terms. Your tank could be at least 30% smaller, probably more. You don't end up feeding the shower at 6bar.

It helps if you have a combination of cold and hot pressure from a hot water tank though. So that's 2 smaller tanks, one hot and one cold.

Fantastic. Send me deets!

The smallest tank I could find is a Stuart Turner unit which is 60 litres. I’d have to redesign the utility room in order to install it.

Our cooker broke, finances didn't allow for the electrician to install 30a to then get a nice electric oven with gas cooker.
The new, cheap combi thing from oranier has a better oven than the one before, but heat still only comes from below, you need to keep a tray under your cakes, no grill means no crust etc.
It's ok to use, but limiting.

Edit: @aggi

Our main shower has two heads, one depending from the ceiling and the other a hand held affair.

Both would appear to be rated at 9lpm at 3 bar. I think we've got 4.5 lpm at 0.45 bar.

Looking at the 60 litre mainsboost tank/pump, apparently it can supply only 30 litres of water, so 4.5 lpm from that added to the 4.5 lpm from the mains would give 9lpm for 6.6 minutes.

We're going to need a bigger tank. But I have nowhere to put one. So I think this idea is dead.

What's this in my toilet? Seems to be a rotating soap thingy, but it doesn't match the most popular (only) brand I can see online. Mine has rather large bolt threads and a flexible arm. Properly fixed on the wall as well. Weird.

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Enemas. Or for a toilet roll holder?

Ha. It's right on the sink though, by the tap.