What Factors Affect the City Water Supply Pressure for Plumbing Design?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around understanding the factors that affect city water supply pressure in relation to plumbing design. Participants explore how pressure is determined before connecting a building's plumbing system to the city main line, considering both theoretical and practical aspects of water supply systems.

Discussion Character

  • Technical explanation
  • Conceptual clarification
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • One participant questions how city water supply pressure is determined prior to connecting a building's plumbing system, noting that pressure typically changes when a system is added.
  • Another participant compares the relationship between city supply pipes and building supplies to a manifold system, suggesting that the pressure at their junction remains unaffected by flow takeoffs to the building.
  • A subsequent reply seeks clarification on whether the pressure from the city supply to the building changes once the building's piping grid is installed.
  • It is noted that two main factors affect water pressure in a building: the flow of water and the height from the pumping station, with the assertion that pressure remains constant when no water is flowing through the system.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express differing views on how the installation of a building's plumbing system affects the pressure from the city supply, indicating that the discussion remains unresolved with multiple competing perspectives.

Contextual Notes

Participants do not fully agree on the impact of building plumbing on city supply pressure, and assumptions about flow rates and system configurations are not fully explored.

firavia
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In plumbing we need to know the pressure in the city main supply , my question is how can the city give us the minimum pressure of its supply for our building let's say before pluging in our whole plumbing system to the city main line ?

usually the pressure at a node is determined when it is connected to a system , if we add anything to the system let's say a new floor with new fixtures the pressure at the same node will change to balance the whole system , so how the pressure of the city wall supply is determined to the engineer before he design his system ?
 
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The relationship between the large bore city supply pipes and the much smaller bore individual building supplies act in the same way as a manifold in a central heating system supplying multiple small bore pipes to individual radiators.

The difference between the bore of the city pipe and the bore of the building supply is such that pressure at their junction is unaffected by any flow takeoff to the building.
 
do you mean that the pressure of the supply from the city pipeto my buliding dosent change when my building piping grid is installed ?
 
There are two things that will affect the water pressure in the building. One being the flow of water, where pressure at the valve/faucet/whatever will decrease with an increase in total flow rate. The second being height, how high the water is from the pumping station.

So if your system has no water flowing through it, as in all sinks toilets and what ever are not being used, the pressure at the node will not change no matter what you add to your piping system.
 

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