Reduced water pressure at night

Poppy9

A year or so ago my OH noticed that there was no water pressure in our house between 12am - 7am. He was working shifts and was unable to shower as there was not enough water pressure to work the shower properly. Come 7am and it works fine. He reported to Welsh Water and they came and checked that the water was fully turned on at our stop !!!! and the one in the road. Both were fine and they said there must be something wrong with our shower or plumbing. Since then OH hasn't worked shifts for months but has started back doing them this week. On Tuesday he got up at 5.30am for a 7am start and the shower wouldn't work as there was no water pressure. His irritation woke me up at 6.45am:rolleyes: and I rang the water company. Spoke to a foreign gentleman who I had difficulty understanding but he told me that there was no problem with our water supply and there was no way they would be turning down the water pressure at night as it would mean employing someone to turn it off and on twice a day. I did mention perhaps it was automatically done by computer but he was adamant that they didn't turn down the pressure overnight. Wednesday morning, again OH unable to shower as no water pressure so I rang Welsh Water again. This time a very helpful chap said he would speak to the local depot and get someone to ring me. Today finally someone rang and spoke to OH. He confirmed that they did turn off the water pressure overnight because demand decreases and the pressure on the valves causes leaks, therefore they turn it off. He said he would have a look but didn't think he could do anything about it and we would just have to live with it. :mad:

As you can imagine not very happy with this response. We pay over £40 per month for our water supply yet are unable to use shower before between midnight and 7am. We of course run a bath, but this uses much more water. Also OH hates baths as he thinks it's silly to sit in dirty water!!:o

Any suggestions who we can complain to?

Ken68

http://www.ccwater.org.uk/server.php?show=nav.336.......helpful phone number.......or OFWAT
http://www.ofwat.gov.uk/

Nice to see you have times and dates, useful for gaining compensation, perhaps even a reduction in your annual bill.

Loki_2

Request an Inspector to come before 7am to do a pressure and flow test. The water companies have to provide at least 1 bar of pressure at the first tap at all times.
Loki

Poppy9

Welsh Water or Dwr Cymru are ignoring me and just saying they will pass to the depot. So I contacted the consumer body in the link given by Ken and they have responded to say they have passed my complaint onto Welsh water and asked them to respond to me directly cc them. They say in the letter if I am unhappy with the outcome to get back to them. Needless to say Welsh Water haven't been in touch yet and we still have no water pressure at night so OH is having to bath before and after work. He's not a happy bunny!!

stuarttunstall

Here is a puzzle that has me, our builder and a plumber baffled......

For about 4-5 weeks now the cold water supply in our bathroom has been low... but we just put that down to one of those things.... got up 6.00am yesterday morning, no cold water at all in the upstairs bathroom, but hot is OK... flushed the toilet, this did not fill...

Went downstairs, kitchen, toilet, and washbasin all OK...

Called the water company, to be told nothing was reported with there supply, so it must be an issue in the house... withing 15 mins, by 6.45am the upstairs water is running OK again, in fact better than it has for 4-5 weeks...

This morning, again around the 6.00am mark, the pressure was very low in the upstairs bathroom, only just running, and cistern filling very slow... downstairs all OK again... called the water company again, and by 8.00am ( when we tried upstairs again ) all running OK again.....

We have had a plumber out today, who is well and truely baffled... we have worked out that, although we have a tank in the loft, this only feeds the hot water cylinder, all cold taps, shower, and the toilets are fed by the mains supply... the only thing he did find was the tank did not fill that quick...

So, what the hell is going on in my house..... We can only suspect that the water company must be turning the pressure down during the night for the last 4-5 weeks, causing the loss of pressure, and complete loss of water yesterday upstairs... but why? each time they say there are no issues, but the last two days, just after speaking to them, the water has pressure has increased, or as yesterday come back on.... coincidence or fact?

If it was an internal fault with the house plumbing, I would have thought it would be apparent all day, not just very first thing of the morning.... likewise if it was a water company "fault"..i.e not self inflicted, it would again be all the time... we are all convinced the water company must be doing somthing to cause this....

I am going to see what it is like in the morning, again around 6.00am... if down or off for that matter again, ther water company can look out...

We can't check with neigbours as they are all still in bed at that time

I am baffled... any plumbers out there know what the hell is going on?

As we have a coal fired back boiler, we can't run the fire with no water in the system... so at the moment we run very little water from the hot side...

HELP!!!!!!!

Stuart

Cardew

stuarttunstall wrote: »

As we have a coal fired back boiler, we can't run the fire with no water in the system... so at the moment we run very little water from the hot side...

HELP!!!!!!!

Stuart

Surely the coal fired back boiler is a sealed system - you are not using the water in the back boiler - the hot water in that system passes through a coil in the the hot water tank i.e. indirect heating.

Seems pretty obvious that your water pressure is low during the night.

DVardysShadow

Not the least bit baffling. Your hot water is fed from a tank in the loft. If you draw off the contents of the tank, at the low pressure time, that will be it, no more water. Downstairs is OK in low pressure periods, but upstairs is not, becuase the pressure is just about adequate to keep the water level between the floor.

stuarttunstall

DVardysShadow wrote: »

Not the least bit baffling. Your hot water is fed from a tank in the loft. If you draw off the contents of the tank, at the low pressure time, that will be it, no more water. Downstairs is OK in low pressure periods, but upstairs is not, becuase the pressure is just about adequate to keep the water level between the floor.

When we went to bed last night, around 11pm, the water pressure to the upstairs was fine... no more water was run until 6.00am this morning when the pressure was found to be low again... so what would cause the pressure to drop over night, when all the taps, both upstairs and down are fed from the mains, not the tank? the only explanation I can see if the water company dropping pressure at night.

stuarttunstall

Cardew wrote: »

Surely the coal fired back boiler is a sealed system - you are not using the water in the back boiler - the hot water in that system passes through a coil in the the hot water tank i.e. indirect heating.

Seems pretty obvious that your water pressure is low during the night.

Why is it obvious the pressure is low?

I am not 100% sure how the system works, all I can work out, is that the tank in the loft feeds the hot water cylinder, this must then, some way feed through the fire to heat the water up... as I say I am not sure how it works.. I just know that if we turn the water off and drain the tank we need to let the coal fire go out...

The main concern is why the pressure drops over the last 2 nights,,, when it is OK last thing, but low or off as yesterday by 6am

Cardew

DVardysShadow wrote: »

Not the least bit baffling. Your hot water is fed from a tank in the loft. If you draw off the contents of the tank, at the low pressure time, that will be it, no more water. Downstairs is OK in low pressure periods, but upstairs is not, becuase the pressure is just about adequate to keep the water level between the floor.

Surely the OP is complaining about low cold water pressure upstairs; and that cold water is direct from the mains.

we have worked out that, although we have a tank in the loft, this only feeds the hot water cylinder, all cold taps, shower, and the toilets are fed by the mains supply...

stuarttunstall

Cardew wrote: »

Surely the OP is complaining about low cold water pressure upstairs; and that cold water is direct from the mains.

That is correct, the hot water seems OK, we just had no cold water at all for a while yesterday, and very low pressure today... downstairs is OK

The strange thing is that both yesterday, and today we called the water company, and both times withing 30mins or so all is working... as if they switch it back on...

This has happened before on 3-4 occasions not related to this weekend... if we wake with no water to the house, and it always happens first thing...and report it to the water company, there is always no fault... but within half hour water is back on... just like they switch it back on....