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While fooling around with plastic tubing and compresson fittings around the house, I realized that some modern methods of connecting pipes are pretty fragile. It scares me to death to think of one of these tubes blowing out of its socket and nobody being home.
I have come to the conclusion that
it is probably most stressful at exactly the worst possible time: when nobody is home or everyone is asleep. With the exception of maybe the dishwasher or something, nothing is using water. Every fitting in the house is under serious pressure. This is unnecessary.
I propose a pressure-sensitive valve right where the water line comes into the house. Normally, the valve makes water pressure extremely low, say 2 or 3 psi. When someone opens a faucet or an appliance kicks on, the flowing water throws back a spring-loaded lever and the valve opens fully. When the water is turned off, the valve closes again. There is still the problem that if something started leaking significantly enough to throw the valve, the leak would still be under pressure, but there would be less chance of things leaking when they're not under so much stress. If one is really worried about a leak like that starting small, they could also go with the electronic system.
The valves would have to be adjustible to accomodate larger homes or tall buildings.
Watercop system
http://www.homecont...fnbr=374&sesent=0,0
A possible solution for the slow leak problem [fogfreak, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]
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A fine idea - but it makes me wonder. Is chronic pressure a reason for pipes to fail? You hear plenty about corrosion but not about pressure. |
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//A fine idea - but it makes me wonder. Is chronic pressure a reason for pipes to fail? You hear plenty about corrosion but not about pressure.// |
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Constant pressure is no more of a problem for a pipe than constant weight is for building materials. |
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That is a good question bungston and a good response supercat. Supercat, you cut in w/your anno just as I am posting mine:) |
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It seems the real problem is how to have a valve shut off if there is a leak, or serious leak. I am envisioning a system where all involved faucets when expelling water create a sound of inaudable frequency. If there is sufficient water flow and this frequncy is absent, the valve shuts off. |
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Wouldn't the sudden surge in pressure when the valve opened make it _more_ likely for a pipe or fitting to fail..? |
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The sound could be generated by a fluttering apparatus in the water stream. This should generate vibrations in the water column detectable at the water main. Water flow in the absence of flutter vibrations would trigger a shutdown. A leak distal to the flutter, however (such as the one that flooded my place 2 weeks ago - toilet float fell off and the thing ran and ran) - would go undetected. As would a leak at one site with a normally fluttering valve at another. |
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bungston, doesn't your toilet have an overflow? Also, methinks the fluttering piece would jam from sediment after about a month. |
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My toilet did have an overflow - a massive overflow. The fans and dehumidifiers are still running down the hall. The fact that it is fluttering means the sediment would wash free. Sediment / encrustations build up where water is still, I think. |
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Houses should be waterproof anyway...inside and out. |
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What I mean, [bungston], is that any toilet I've seen has an overflow pipe built into the flapper. Where are you from anyway? You might want to look into that. |
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[prufrax] is right; this is the hydraulic
hammer effect. It could be addressed by
controlling the rate of application of
water pressure. The newer plumbing
systems such as PEX seem to be pretty
bulletproof though. |
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