"Rick Blaine" wrote in message
...
"Bob F" wrote:

My hose faucet running full blast puts out about 15 gal/minute.


Well, the houses will have outdoor taps, but are prohibited from
doing any
irrigation. I suppose washing a vehicle could draw the amount you
indicated.

So you can't even grow vegetables?


No pressure tank? Does the pump run full time?


When water is being demanded, yes. Thought that was a little unusual
but the
other houses in the development use the same arrangement with no
problems.

There must be some kind of reservoir to maintain pipe pressure until
water demand occurs. Or does the pump run continously if a faucet is
dripping slightly.


Connecting the 2 pipes together before splitting to go 3 ways would
help assure that noone gets short-changed on water.


That was my first reaction, but now I'm not so sure.

If there is a problem, increasing the pump pressure should solve it.
(Bigger pump) I wouldn't expect it. Without watering usage, high
demands should be short lived. A pressure tank at your house could
solve that.

That's my backup plan if there's an issue. I'll just put a 1500 gal
storage tank
near the house and draw from that.

That should almost never be necessary. This is of course dependent on
the "booster pump" at the source being strong enough. You could put a
booster pump at your end with a pressure switch to turn on only when
the supply pressure gets too low. The storage tank at your end
(storage? not pressure, right?) will mean you have to supply all the
electricity to pressurize your water - another expense.

You could increase the pipe size from the road to the houses, cutting
losses through the pipes, effectively making them "appear" shorter to
the pump, increasing the capacity of the system.

The fire sprinklers are probably the determining factor.

Bob