Water Pressure

countrycats

We have recently moved to a property with very intermittent water pressure- most days we lose water altogether for some time- maybe 10 minutes sometimes a few hours which affects our appliances and has stopped our boiler working. Sometimes we dont even have any water to drink. The water company say its because our water comes a long way from the local village and they cannot help- They saywe need to install a tank and pump to cover when there isnt water at our own cost, although they may contribute to the cost- is this our responsibility to ensure we have water or the water companies responsibility? We are very rural one of only two houses and a farm on this water main and we all have the same problem.

Section62

countrycats said:

We have recently moved to a property with very intermittent water pressure- most days we lose water altogether for some time- maybe 10 minutes sometimes a few hours which affects our appliances and has stopped our boiler working. Sometimes we dont even have any water to drink. The water company say its because our water comes a long way from the local village and they cannot help- They saywe need to install a tank and pump to cover when there isnt water at our own cost, although they may contribute to the cost- is this our responsibility to ensure we have water or the water companies responsibility? We are very rural one of only two houses and a farm on this water main and we all have the same problem.

There is a legal minimum water pressure for public supplies - this is measured at your property boundary, so if the boundary is a long way from the main or the house much higher, the legal minimum may not be much use to you.

https://www.ofwat.gov.uk/households/supply-and-standards/water-pressure/

Having moved in recently, one of the things worth doing is to check all stop valves (including the one at the meter) are fully* turned on.  (*for old-style multiple-turn valves they should be fully opened and then closed by say 1/4 turn to help stop them sticking)

With intermittent pressure issues, it is possible there is some kind of activity taking place on the farm which is using a large volume of water.  Is it a livestock farm, or pure arable?

Bendy_House

As S62 says, WBs are obliged to provide a minimum flow of water to your boundary - for Thames Water, for example, it's 9lpm (unless they've dropped it further!).

So, that's the first thing to check.

There are solutions, and they aren't that costly, but do require a bit of space - about the same as a hot cylinder. Two essential types - one has a pump that fills the accumulator (although some allow it to fill naturally under the current supply, and then pump the contents to the house), and the other type - if your actual water PRESSURE is ok at times of flow - simply charge up and pressurise under mains pressure. They then release this to your house as required.

So, if your water flow and pressure are not too bad overnight, then the non-pumped type (eg Challis) should work as it'll fill and pressurise overnight. These are less than £1k.

If you need to pump the water into the tank first, this is limited to 12lpm, but the advantage is if the tank empties, then it'll still draw 12lpm from the mains to keep you going, and that's an ok rate for most things. (I can see problems in your case, tho', as sometimes the flow stops altogether, so you could end up 'sucking' your neighbour's supply! So, I think that option - like a pump-supplied Challis or Salamander - might not work).

And then there's the Grundfos. These fill up naturally under the mains flow like a normal cold water tank. Obviously, when there's no mains flow, they won't fill, so you choose one large enough to supply you for the day that'll fill up fine overnight. These then pump the contents out on demand - the pump fires up whenever you open a tap. The Grunds are about £1.5k?