Water Tank for Shophouse

[up-country_sinclair]

My MIL bought a shop house a few months ago, and it has terrible water pressure--particularly on the second floor.

My wife and I were thinking that we'd like to install a water tank and a pump to help improve this situation, but we really have no idea where to begin.

Some of the questions I have include:

1. Should the tank be on the ground floor or on the roof? I think it should be on the roof so that gravity can work for us, but my wife (who's probably right) says it should be on the ground floor because it will be in the shade and easier to install.

2. How big of a tank would be needed for four people?

3. What kind of engine/pump would we need to buy?

4. And perhaps most importantly, what is this going to cost? I'm not looking for the best water tank/pump in the world, but I don't want anything to break down in the next couple of years solely because I tried to save a few baht now.

Any other advice or suggestions from those with experience would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[Crossy]

1. I would put it at ground level if you have space. If your mains pressure is poor then it won't fill a roof tank without assistance (so a second pump needed). Also a 1500 litre tank weighs 1.5 Tons when full, are your floors strong enough?

2. If you don't have significant periods with no mains water I'd be looking at 1000-1500 Litres.

3. How many floors is your property? Multiple showers? Armed with this info visit your local pump shop, you're probably looking at something around 300-500 Watts.

4. For tank and pump, from < 10k Baht to rather more (our Grundfos pump was 15k).

Set it up something like this:-

[IMHO]

How many floors is the shophouse? if > 2 it's going to need a fairly expensive pump to supply decent pressure and flowrate from a single ground level tank.

Generally speaking, the way it's done for 3-4 floor shophouses is to install two tanks - one at ground level that fills from mains pressure only, and another on the roof, with a pump between the two (which needs a good head-height, but doesn't need massive flow rate). Depending on what sort of water pressure you'll be satisfied with, a 2nd pump on the roof may or may not be needed.

Edited April 23, 2014 by IMHO

[wayned]

If you're only looking at 2 floors a 1500 liter tank at ground level would be fine. Crossy's diagram says it all. I use a Mitsubishi WP-255Q2 which gives plenty of water pressure and is cheaper that the Grundfos pump. I paid 6270 baht a couple of years ago and have had no problems.

[up-country_sinclair]

1. I would put it at ground level if you have space. If your mains pressure is poor then it won't fill a roof tank without assistance (so a second pump needed). Also a 1500 litre tank weighs 1.5 Tons when full, are your floors strong enough?

2. If you don't have significant periods with no mains water I'd be looking at 1000-1500 Litres.

3. How many floors is your property? Multiple showers? Armed with this info visit your local pump shop, you're probably looking at something around 300-500 Watts.

4. For tank and pump, from < 10k Baht to rather more (our Grundfos pump was 15k).

Set it up something like this:-

pump setup 2.jpg

There are 2 floors--but the first floor ceiling is very high. I'm guessing more than 15 feet.

There are two showers--one on each floor.

I've only visited the house a couple of times, but it does seem like there are a few periods during the day when there isn't much water pressure coming from the mains. How should this affect which tank/pump I buy?

Now that you mention it, the construction of her shophouse doesn't seem that great, so it would probably be best to keep the tank on the ground floor. The last thing I want is the whole place collapsing under the weight of the water tank.

Thanks for all the replies.

Edited April 24, 2014 by up-country_sinclair

[eyecatcher]

I can't add much to those excellent answers which reflect the exact set up we have in our 3 storey spa.

But we found the advantage of having the upper floors fed via gf tank and small roof tank is that you always have a supply of water even when the frequent water shutoffs occur let alone general fluctuating pressure almost daily.

The pump simply fills the roof tank in its own time so pressure ok.

And of course lots of free hot water at this time of year.

[eyecatcher]

I can't add much to those excellent answers which reflect the exact set up we have in our 3 storey spa.

But we found the advantage of having the upper floors fed via gf tank and small roof tank is that you always have a supply of water even when the frequent water shutoffs occur let alone general fluctuating pressure almost daily.

The pump simply fills the roof tank in its own time so pressure ok.

And of course lots of free hot water at this time of year.