Water Supply

Devildog · Jan 19, 2002

I have black plastic running from the well to the house and Like GlennT I have the pump kick on at 30 psi and shut off at 50. We have elevated tanks at our water system where I work that keeps a constant psi of around 80. Here in Va you are required to have a minimum of 20psi which isnt much. We have a 13 mile transmission line and some of the people on it enjoy a soothing 135 psi, Now thats what I consider to be excellent psi in a shower/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif
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Take care all, Jim

Bird · Jan 19, 2002

<font color=blue>Here in Va you are required to have a minimum of 20psi </font color=blue>

Texas, too. If it drops below that, the water company is supposed to send all customers a notice to boil their water for a couple of days.

<font color=blue>135 psi, Now thats what I consider to be excellent psi in a shower</font color=blue>

Yeah, if you don't blow your plumbing apart./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif Don't most residential water heaters have manuals that call for a maximum of 80 psi?

Devildog · Jan 20, 2002

Bird, I dont know about to 80 psi on the hot water heaters, I'll have to look into that cause we have a bunch of hot water heaters around the plant. We also have some customers that get a free lifetime supply of water. When our local government purchased land for the facility back in the 60's they had that worked into their contract/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif
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Take care, Jim

Bird · Jan 20, 2002

Jim, I know I've seen that 80 psi limit on some water heaters and suspected it might be on all. What I don't know is whether it's because of a possibility of damage to the water heater with higher pressures, or whether it's because the relief valve might "pop off" too easily with higher pressures. I'd suspect the latter. However, I have an installation manual for a water heater that says to "pressure test" the system at 100 psi (air or water) for 15 minutes after installation.

Egon · Jan 20, 2002

Bird
The pressure tests are always at pressure higher than the working pressure. Quite often about 1.5 times the normal pressure. Normal pressure 60 psi, test at 100 psi with psv set at 80psi. Those having the higher supply pressures may have a regulator to bring it down.
Most pressure tests are done with a non combustible fluid like water to avert flying shrapnel if failure occurs.
Just guessing on most of this.
Egon

Devildog · Jan 24, 2002

Hey all heres is an update, And being the maintenance mech here I should know these things/w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif But all our water heaters are from lowes and there called envirotemps, Pressure tested at 210 psi with a maimum working pressure of 150 psi, Now if i can remember to check mine out when I get home and see what it is(CRS) Also has anyone installed one of them new tankless hot water heaters, I seen them while in lowes and they run about $500 but they say that you dont need the water heater/w3tcompact/icons/hmm.gif
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Take care all, Jim

RJohnson · Jan 24, 2002

Devildog,
I have been looking at the tankless water heater system. The only problem that I encountered is, that for alot of existing home, the electrical service in the house will not handle the amperage requirements of the system. Also depending upon how many bathrooms, you may have to have an auxilary tank for peak demand. You know when all of the relatives visiting you have to shower at the same time/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif.

Randy

MarkV · Jan 24, 2002

I put one of the electric tankless water heaters in our weekend home. It made a lot of sense to only heat water when we were there. I can’t say I have been real happy with it up to this point. The thing will sure heat water but the problem I have is it’s activated by water pressure. That is probably fine on a city system with constant pressure but on my well the pressure varies enough to kick it in and out often. That well water gets real cold when it kicks out during a shower./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

I haven’t tried adjusting the pressure switch yet and it may be that simple. They are used a lot in Europe and for the most part there pressure is not good over there. It may also be fine with a larger pressure tank connected to the well system. This is my first well system and I am still learning. Our water heater required two 220v feeds that total 60 amps.

MarkV

Devildog · Jan 24, 2002

You guys are right about it getting real cold/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif I have a well system with a bladder storage tank, I also have 12-2 wiring 220 to the existing hot water heater with a 40 amp breaker. Im sorta checking into this now cause it wont be to long before our hot water heater pukes.
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Take care, Jim