On Mon, 17 Jan 2005 04:53:28 -0800, Martin Pentreath wrote:

I'm still looking for a way of improving my water pressure and rate of
flow (barely over 1 bar and 11 litres per minute).

Thames water have given me a price of £1400 to replace the furred-up
0.5" lead communication pipe from the main in the street to the
boundary of my land with 32mm MDPE. This could be the ideal lasting
solution, although there is no guarantee that the pressure in the main
in the street is that great, so I can't be sure that the rate of flow
would be increased all that dramatically.

My plumber has suggested putting an accumulator in the cellar as an
alternative. I've googled for information on these things, but I don't
seem to be able to find anything very useful. My understanding is that
an accumulator is a large cylindrical tank fed from the main with a
pump which pressurises it so that everything fed from the accumulator
is at decent pressure, is that right? Does anyone have any experience
of these things? The plumber reckons that it would cost about £500 to
install. I'm tempted to go ahead with this, but I'm a bit put off by
the idea of a noisy pump whirring away underneath the living room
floor every time anyone opens a tap.

Accumulators solve the problem when the pressure is OK sometimes and bad
at others (like at 7am when everyone is running a shower).
They do not have pumps. AFAIK

If the pressure in the main is over 1 bar 32MDPE will be a very good flow.

--
Ed Sirett - Property maintainer and registered gas fitter.
The FAQ for uk.diy is at www.diyfaq.org.uk
Gas fitting FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/GasFitting.html
Sealed CH FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/SealedCH.html