Richard
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My dad sent me an email. I've copied it below. My dad's comments are in blue and his plumbers comments are in black. The plumber is talking about the city engineer. Seems the engineer and the plumber are telling dad conflicting stories (as best I can tell). I told dad I'd put it here, to the Board of Experts for their thoughts. The house in question is my dad's mother in law's house. It's currently on a (weak) well and now that the area has grown, he's thinking about either attaching to city water OR, deeper well, or draw irrigation water from the lake. To get water from lake, it would have to cross "other" property, which as I understand it, is my dad's wife's sisters property.
Hi Richard,
The enclosed is from plumber who has done some work for us at park and house in Lexington. Working on plan for some things at the house to modernize (like get rid of lead/rusted pipes and more capacity so can sprinkle etc and probably get now available public water as deeper well may not do anything anyway).
House about 350 ft from water source. 3/4 meter costs about $2,000, with one inch double that. Unsure cost of of l.5 or2 inch.
Water company guy indicated to me over phone that is use, say l.5 or 2.0 line from meter to house you will have plenty of water and pressure despite use of 3/4 meter. It appears kim disagrees. I somehow agree with Kim because : if X (amount of water through a 3/4 pipe) enters Y (2 inch line with much more volume to fill) you would gradually, I assume, see the 2 inch line not be full. But again, maybe I am missing something as I kind of think water guy lead me to believe you would not lose discerible pressure in the 2 inch line. What about lose of volume--or would that be slow enough you would never know unless it ran all day?
Any thoughts???? To get some water from lake would need to pump up hill and across other property.
Hi and Good Evening
What the engineer is trying to tell you is..........in common knowledge would be something like this, have you ever had good water flow at a hydrant and put about three hoses together, and when you tried to use it only had a trickle at the outlet end? There is so much resistance along the walls of the hose of that small size, the pressure is there, but you have no volume.. Or maybe you have ran a hose connected to a hose to a garden, when you get out there, no flow, this is kinda what he is telling you.
By the use of the high capacity 3/4 water meter at the road, or source of water connection and supply, and by using a larger line to reduce friction in the pipe to the home, yes you will obtain adequate, and quite good water flow to the house, as this is right at 350 feet when I measured it, the line would have to be bigger, a 3/4 line would have no flow at the house, just like the hose I am talking about at the top of this page. However only so much water can get through a given size opening at a given pressure, and the water main will hold at what pressure? whatever it is it will be even and steady, and without getting into a lot of technical stuff, an 1 and 1/4 inch line is all that is needed for the 3/4 meter, 3/4 is 3/4 and only so much flow can come through it, no matter what some engineer says!! An exaggeration of this so you can picture it is put this 3/4 line into a six inch line , turn it on and watch, flows along the bottom of the line, the rest of the space is wasted, similar, not exact, but helps you understand.
Now bottom line is an 3/4 high capacity water meter at the water connection source with an 1 and 1/4 inch water main to the home will be adequate for serving the home and a couple standard yard hydrants along the way, especially as the yard hydrants will normally never be on when one is using the water in the home. HOWEVER IF YOU EVER DO WISH TO USE AN AUTOMATED SPRINKLER SYSTEM, TIE IN THE REQUIRED BACKFLOW DEVICE THAT IS REQUIRED AND PUT IN ZONES TO PUT IT BLUNTLY YOU ARE STANDING DOWNSTREAM OF THE COW WITH A 3/4 METER. IT SIMPLY WILL NOT ALLOW THE VOLUME NEEDED FOR A MEDIUM TO LARGE AUTOMATIC SPRINKLER SYSTEM-ADEQUATE FOR THE HOME AND A COUPLE SPIGOTS-I AGREE-SPRINKLERS NO!!!
Finally another consideration would be........money and cost, this and that........how much would it cost to deepen the well and or dig a new one, and is it possible to get enough flow for sprinklers if you wish to do so, or you can always pull water from the lake for sprinklers, pulling from the lake, depending on if you can run across, would naturally be more cost effective than city water, not only the meter fee, but long term in water usage fees.
Hope this helps you , I am looking at the entire situation, and if you can get permission to run a line from the lake, later, for sprinklers, I will agree with the engineer. If you have to use city water for automated sprinklers, or plan to, I do not agree.
Hi Richard,
The enclosed is from plumber who has done some work for us at park and house in Lexington. Working on plan for some things at the house to modernize (like get rid of lead/rusted pipes and more capacity so can sprinkle etc and probably get now available public water as deeper well may not do anything anyway).
House about 350 ft from water source. 3/4 meter costs about $2,000, with one inch double that. Unsure cost of of l.5 or2 inch.
Water company guy indicated to me over phone that is use, say l.5 or 2.0 line from meter to house you will have plenty of water and pressure despite use of 3/4 meter. It appears kim disagrees. I somehow agree with Kim because : if X (amount of water through a 3/4 pipe) enters Y (2 inch line with much more volume to fill) you would gradually, I assume, see the 2 inch line not be full. But again, maybe I am missing something as I kind of think water guy lead me to believe you would not lose discerible pressure in the 2 inch line. What about lose of volume--or would that be slow enough you would never know unless it ran all day?
Any thoughts???? To get some water from lake would need to pump up hill and across other property.
Hi and Good Evening
What the engineer is trying to tell you is..........in common knowledge would be something like this, have you ever had good water flow at a hydrant and put about three hoses together, and when you tried to use it only had a trickle at the outlet end? There is so much resistance along the walls of the hose of that small size, the pressure is there, but you have no volume.. Or maybe you have ran a hose connected to a hose to a garden, when you get out there, no flow, this is kinda what he is telling you.
By the use of the high capacity 3/4 water meter at the road, or source of water connection and supply, and by using a larger line to reduce friction in the pipe to the home, yes you will obtain adequate, and quite good water flow to the house, as this is right at 350 feet when I measured it, the line would have to be bigger, a 3/4 line would have no flow at the house, just like the hose I am talking about at the top of this page. However only so much water can get through a given size opening at a given pressure, and the water main will hold at what pressure? whatever it is it will be even and steady, and without getting into a lot of technical stuff, an 1 and 1/4 inch line is all that is needed for the 3/4 meter, 3/4 is 3/4 and only so much flow can come through it, no matter what some engineer says!! An exaggeration of this so you can picture it is put this 3/4 line into a six inch line , turn it on and watch, flows along the bottom of the line, the rest of the space is wasted, similar, not exact, but helps you understand.
Now bottom line is an 3/4 high capacity water meter at the water connection source with an 1 and 1/4 inch water main to the home will be adequate for serving the home and a couple standard yard hydrants along the way, especially as the yard hydrants will normally never be on when one is using the water in the home. HOWEVER IF YOU EVER DO WISH TO USE AN AUTOMATED SPRINKLER SYSTEM, TIE IN THE REQUIRED BACKFLOW DEVICE THAT IS REQUIRED AND PUT IN ZONES TO PUT IT BLUNTLY YOU ARE STANDING DOWNSTREAM OF THE COW WITH A 3/4 METER. IT SIMPLY WILL NOT ALLOW THE VOLUME NEEDED FOR A MEDIUM TO LARGE AUTOMATIC SPRINKLER SYSTEM-ADEQUATE FOR THE HOME AND A COUPLE SPIGOTS-I AGREE-SPRINKLERS NO!!!
Finally another consideration would be........money and cost, this and that........how much would it cost to deepen the well and or dig a new one, and is it possible to get enough flow for sprinklers if you wish to do so, or you can always pull water from the lake for sprinklers, pulling from the lake, depending on if you can run across, would naturally be more cost effective than city water, not only the meter fee, but long term in water usage fees.
Hope this helps you , I am looking at the entire situation, and if you can get permission to run a line from the lake, later, for sprinklers, I will agree with the engineer. If you have to use city water for automated sprinklers, or plan to, I do not agree.
