Low city water volume but good pressure

[Jesse Salvatore]

building a new (large) home. City water tap was already on lot. 3/4” poly pipe to meter only yields 6 gpm but 80 psi. Would cost thousands to bore and retap to larger line/meter and city pretty much tells me that no one else ever complained. What is the simplest way to buffer (store) water and pressurize it so we can create sufficient flow/volume to multiple fixtures at the same time. There are hundreds of threads and suggestions for boosting pressure, but far fewer well written pieces on boosting flow. One poorly drafted piece (not on this board) mentioned using (un-wired) water heaters as storage tanks as they already have pressure relief valves. Just looking for the most reliable and straightforward option (preferably without float switches if possible).

 

[Valveman]

If you have 6 GPM at 80 PSI, you should get more flow and less pressure when you open the tap further. At 10 GPM I would expect the pressure to drop to say 40 PSI and so on. Flow and pressure are related. The higher the flow the lower the pressure. If you can get more flow as the pressure drops, you can simply add a booster pump and controls. But if the volume does not increase with a drop in pressure, a storage tank for the booster pump would be needed. Old water heaters are not a good idea. Just use a plastic storage tank.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Reach4]

City water tap was already on lot. 3/4” poly pipe to meter only yields 6 gpm but 80 psi.

Do you mean that there is a yard hydrant near the house site, and that it filled a 5 gallon bucket in 50 seconds?

 

[Jesse Salvatore]

Do you mean that there is a yard hydrant near the house site, and that it filled a 5 gallon bucket in 50 seconds?

Yes, exactly.

 

[Reach4]

It may be that the meter can supply a lot more, but the yard hydrant could be limiting the flow.

You can improve the flow to the house by running maybe 1.5 inch pipe into the house before you branch off. Is the meter near the street, or near the yard hydrant?

You might also regulate the water pressure in the house with a PRV bringing the pressure down to maybe 50 psi. That way the pressure in the house will change much less as the water usage varies.

 

[WorthFlorida]

Yard hydrants or spigots, they are usually piped with 1/2" and the spigots are 1/2". What I like to do is use 3/4" spigots. I change the fitting at the hydrant with a 1/2" to 3/4" in size. 3/4" spigots have slightly larger passageways therefore less restrictions with a little more flow. As Reach stated about the water meter, there probably is a backflow device and it could be adding some restriction.