WATER STUF FULL

At night, when demand normally falls to practically zero, the pump can make up the difference and refill the water tower. Because of the water tower, the municipality can purchase a 500-gallon-per-minute pump and let the water tower handle the peak demand. there is a big cost difference between a 500-gallon-per-minute pump and a 2,000-gallon-per-minute pump. Water demand might peak at 2,000 gallons per minute at 7 a.m. They go to the bathroom, take a shower, brush their teeth, etc. For example, in the morning, lots of people wake up at about the same time (say 7:00 a.m.) to go to work. There will be times during the day when water consumption is much greater than 500 gallons per minute. Say that the water consumption for a pumping station averages 500 gallons of water per minute (or 720,000 gallons over the course of a day). That can save a community a lot of money. One of the big advantages of a water tower is that it lets a municipality size its pumps for average rather than peak demand. If the pumps fail (for example, during a power failure), the water tower holds enough water to keep things flowing for about a day. A normal in-ground swimming pool in someone's backyard might hold something like 20,000 or 30,000 gallons (that's a lot of water!), and a typical water tower might hold 50 times that amount! Typically, a water tower's tank is sized to hold about a day's worth of water for the community served by the tower. In hilly regions, a tower can sometimes be replaced by a simple tank located on the highest hill in the area.Ī water tower's tank is normally quite large. So water towers are typically located on high ground, and they are tall enough to provide the necessary pressure. The water tower must be tall enough to supply that level of pressure to all of the houses and businesses in the area of the tower. A typical municipal water supply runs at between 50 and 100 PSI (major appliances require at least 20 to 30 PSI). Each foot of height provides 0.43 PSI (pounds per square Inch) of pressure.

Water towers are tall to provide pressure. This tower is located in Kill Devils Hill, near Kitty Hawk, NC. For example, take the water tower shown at the right. Although water towers come in all shapes and sizes, they all do the same thing: A water tower is simply a large, elevated tank of water. Tower, Tank and PumpĪ water tower is an incredibly simple device. The next time you drive by a water tower, you will know exactly what it is doing. In this article, we will look at how water towers work. Each water system has one or more towers.

WATER STUF FULL

You see water towers everywhere, especially if you live in a flat area full of small towns.

A big reason for that level of reliability is the water tower.

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