nigelforbes

Some limited pump water table knowledge here: It doesn't make a lot of sense to me to use stainless steel pipe over the typical blue pipe. We have a 35 meter well that is lined with blue pipe that has been in place for several years and works just fine. Cost to drill a well in the North was/is around 1,000 baht per meter, add another 20K for a decent submersible pump and control box. Those ponds are interesting, are sure they don't reflect ground water level, they do around where I live. Ponds, solely to store water would have to be lined with a constant feed, otherwise evaporation and absorption into the ground would see them empty in no time.. Our water table sits at about 3 meters in the wet season, at the end of the dry season it's around 10 meters.

Get a room please, I'm trying to sort out my plumbing. Ta!

A pump will be installed although not straight away. The design attempts to accomodate an emergency water supply via the tank in the short term but also be capable of accepting a pump later. I accept there will be very little pressure from a ground level tank without a pump although there should be enough to fill a toilet cistern, a washing machine and wash hands via a basin. The water outages are not protracted but they seem to be frequent. The water tanks typically measure two meters high, a toilet cistern water inlet is at under one meter, the connection to the washing machine is also under one meter. That means there should be half the water in the tank available for emergency use, 500 liters, that should be more than enough to get them through temporary outages, for a limited period of time. Yes, we could just instal a tap at the bottom of the tank and string a hosepipe around the place and use clay pots but we're trying to get away from that. And anyway, that configuration would need to be adapted when the pump is installed, hence, I'm trying to accommodate both scenarios and still move forward, not backwards

Can I respectfully ask that you read the thread? The house currently has a City water supply that has good pressure which feeds the three outlets on the first floor bathroom. The purpose of the tank is to provide continuity when the City supply is interrupted and to replace the clay pots that you now propose I install!

My wife worked for BA for 25 years, trust me, those are the laws for every country and airline, if you want to test it, go for it and see how far you get!

The airlines at the point of departure are the ones that check this, if you don't have the return ticket when one is required, you wont be allowed to board. The reason the airlines are on the hook for this is because they are the ones who have to transport you back again, if you don't meet the entry requirements.

A possibility, except it means pipe work running around the inside of the bathroom walls which is not the best thing..

You need to read the thread, we've moved on from that.

Here's the final schematic, in case anyone things they can meaningfully improve on things.

Here, fill yer boots! This is the BOT MPF projections as of 28 March (delivered 12 April), projections mind you, not actuals. The actuals are due on 10 May. https://www.bot.or.th/English/MonetaryPolicy/MonetPolicyComittee/MPR/Monetary Policy Report/MPFEng_April2023.pdf

Based on what poster OTWW wrote, I've decided on 3/4 inch pipe from the meter to the tank (circa 40 meters) , 1 inch from the tank to the base of the building (4 meters, into which a pump can be installed later) with six spurs going into the building from the 1 inch pipe. Short runs can be 1/2 inch, anything longer than that can be 3/4 inch followed by 1/2 inch to the point of use. This simplifies the bi-pass pipe size which can be 3/4 inch (feeding into the 1 inch pipe. Thank you all for your comments.

This may help you. Just read the opening post, that paints the picture.

Many thanks for your help with this, much appreciated.

Troll post reported and put on ignore list.

Thank you for those things. I don't know the distance from the city mains supply in the road to our meter, my guess is similar to your, around 4 meters. The distance from the meter to the tank location is around 20 meters (I guess). If the latter were replaced with say three quarter inch pipe, would the flow not be limited by the size of the pipe from the mains to the meter, which is half an inch? Secondly, you say not to use half inch pipe anywhere that is unnecessary, does that include the final run through the walls of the house, to the outlet at the point of use?

All half inch everywhere but easily changed.

Used to? This is MiL's house, it's a very poor basic village in the middle of nowhere, we had great difficulty getting her to stop using stone jars of water in the bathroom.

I think I'm as per the schematic I posted earlier, half inch to the tank, half inch along the mains bi-pass and three quarter inch from tank to house base (via a pump later) and half inch in to individual outlets. Remember, the primary purpose is to provide a supply when the City supply stops. Remember also, that concurrent usage of outlets is absolutely minimal and that existing pressure from City supply is very good. What problems does anyone see?

True, assuming only the tank supply is used, without a pump and there is no City supply. But under normal operating circumstances, the City supply will be available and this is already capable of feeding the upstairs outlets with good pressure and flow.

We have similar at our house. Water supply is via the City supply but the tank is there if there is no supply....it is seamless and requires no intervention although, as you say, components can be isolated if required. The tank is unable to supply the upstairs outlets because of height and gravity etc., that means the City supply still operates and feeds those outlets, via the bi-pass, when the tank is full and the ball valve is closed. Or am I missing something here?

I think what I’m leaning towards is to maintain the half inch pipe from the street to the tank, that can’t be changed anyway. Three quarters inch from the tank to the base of the house and half inch pipe from the base of the house to the individual outlets. A pump can be inserted into the three quarter inch pipe later. The bi-pass from the City supply to the pipe at the base of the house can stay as half inch and will join into the three quarter inch pipe. Downstairs flow and volume via the tank/City supply combo should continue to be OK, but upstairs flow is likely to be poor at times.

The purpose of installing the tank is because City supply is sometimes shut off for days at a time, the tank gives MiL a water supply reserve for use at such time. Yes, I would like to be able to instal the pump and the tank at the same time because this would simplify matters greatly. I won't bore everyone with the reasons why this is problematic, please just accept that it is unlikely to happen in the short term.

Sure, from the tank to the pump is not an issue and if only the tank supply (minus the pump) was being used, one inch up to the branch is still OK. BUT that means the City supply (half inch) that bi-passes the tank has to mate into a one inch (or three quarter) feed that in turn leads to the branch mentioned previously. Half inch supply into a one inch pipe wont work well at all.

That is economic stimulus by the incumbent government, I don't know that incumbent government should cease functioning just because there's an election looming. OK so some people will see it as attempts at bribing the electorate, that can't be helped.

"Feed pipe should be same size as pump output. So choose the pump, 3/4” or 1” to get good flow. Not 1/2”. I have no control over the feed pipe size, it's half inch from the street, into the meter and the same from the meter into the house. I can't use 1 inch distribution when the feed pipe is only half an inch. The water level in the tank is significantly higher than the height of the downstairs outlets hence downstairs gravity feed via the tank is not likely to be an issue. As said, upstairs outlets cannot use the tank supply because of the height difference, BUT, it can continue to use the City supply feed that bi-passes the tank. The only issue with that scenario is as Transam said, when the tank is being filled by the City supply, upstairs flow will be near to zero. But once again, there is unlikely to be more than one outlet point in use at any point in time for 98% of the time. Perhaps MiL will do a load of laundry and flush a toilet at the same time, in which case the cistern will take time to refill.