650m water pipe with 11m rise

clonagh

Hi All,
I'm planning a house (pre-planning stage) which I'm hoping will be 650m from the nearest water main and will have to rise about 11m to get into the attic. The topography between the water main and the proposed dwelling is pretty flat. Does anyone know what size of pipe I would need to bring in from the main to have decent pressure at the house? I don't know yet what the pressure in the main is like. A well is not really feasible.
Thanks.

Lu Tze

clonagh wrote: »

Hi All,
I'm planning a house (pre-planning stage) which I'm hoping will be 650m from the nearest water main and will have to rise about 11m to get into the attic. The topography between the water main and the proposed dwelling is pretty flat. Does anyone know what size of pipe I would need to bring in from the main to have decent pressure at the house? I don't know yet what the pressure in the main is like. A well is not really feasible.
Thanks.

It will depend on the pressure in the main unfortunately. That's a long distance for a service

delfagio

That's a very long distance for a service pipe run.

One thing is how you plan to get it from the watermain to your house. Will the service have to pass through other people's properties?

Is Irish water responsible for getting the service pipe the 600+m distance. If so this may have a significant cost depending on the type of surface finish that it passes through...i.e. concrete paths, roads, grass margins etc.

Regarding the connection, I'd contact the Local Authority and ask what pressure is on the existing watermain first to see what it is. If it is say 2bar pressure on the main then this would be enough to get the water up into your attic as you say it is a total of approximately 11m rise in height. So the pressure entering your attic tank would be 1bar approximately.

If the pressure in the watermain is less than 2bar there may be pressure issues trying to get water up into the attic tank.

For a service pipe that long, a 32mm service pipe would be preferable and can reduce to 25mm entering the property.

clonagh

Thanks fellas. The 650m is through my own land(my wife likes the view from this location so we're going to try for planning here first). The pipe will be buried under the proposed gravel driveway. I'll talk to the council tomorrow and see what the pressure is. Thanks again.

Water John

Delfagio is about right on pipe size. Any pipe for water that is under 100mm has drag that limits the water flow.
You may need to install a lift pump at ground level in the house. Alternatively, have a closed pressurized system, Watertech type pump, in the house, instead of attic tank.

clonagh

Thanks Water John, do you happen to know the cost of 32mm pipe and or the pump you mentioned?

K.Flyer

Council may tell you that the water pressure is fine, but your neighbours will know better, might be worth asking them.
You are looking at a huge long run for the water, pipe sizing is going to be crucial to ensure an adequate pressure / flow supply and greatly depends on the pressure at your connection point and what the maximum size tapping they will give you.
Find out max connection size allowed and pressure on the supply at that point.
You may have to consider a pump assisted system if the supply is not particularly adequate.

clonagh

Thanks K.Flyer, I'll try and get some info from the council tomorrow.

Water John

Mostly agree with you Flyer, however the connection size is not that important, once you connect to a larger pipe straight away again. Thus the squeeze is over a short length.
Unless pressure is very poor, you should get a flow. You can always then put storage tank at ground level and work from there.

Something around a euro a metre. Don't need heavy duty. The blue pipe medium density PE should do. Bury it at 1.2m and surround with sand or pea gravel.
Don't know the pricing on pumps.
The 11m rise will take 1 bar. If its a localised system, try and locate the reservoir and its height relative to your house.