Water Tank

In todays world we find it hard to understand what it was like not to have running water delivered right to your sink.  Well water, creeks, and streams were the usual sources of clean water.  As villages and towns grew, it became apparent that the need for a fresh water supply that allowed customers the ability to open up the tap and have it flow inside the house was what everyone wanted.  

Why Do We Need Water Towers?

Have you ever experienced a "water failure"? That is, have you ever turned on your faucet and found that no water came out of it? If you get your water from a municipal water system, the answer is probably "no."
We have power  failures all the time. Cable TV  goes out fairly frequently. Although less common, the phone system  goes down every so often, and it is now common to get an "all circuits busy" message when making long-distance calls. But the water in any city or suburb is always there. Water pressure is very reliable.
A big reason for that level of reliability is the water tower. You see water towers everywhere, especially if you live in a flat area full of small towns. Each water system has one or more towers. In this article, we will look at how water towers work. The next time you drive by a water tower, you will know exactly what it is doing.

Water Pressure

Each foot of height provides .43 PSI (pounds per square inch) of pressure.  A typical house’s water pressure is between 50 and 100 PSI.  The water tower must be tall enough or on a hill tall enough to supply that level of water pressure to all buildings in the area of the tower (called a pressure zone).  Water towers are able to supply water for a period of time even during power outages, because they rely on gravity into pipes.

How They Work.

Water towers are tall to provide pressure.  Each foot of height provides 0.43 PSI (pounds per square Inch) of pressure. A typical municipal water supply runs at between 50 and 100 PSI (major appliances require at least 20 to 30 PSI). 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. So water towers are typically located on high ground, and they are tall enough to provide the necessary pressure. In hilly regions, a tower can sometimes be replaced by a simple tank located on the highest hill in the area.

Shapes and Sizes

Some water tower tanks are sized to hold about a day’s worth of water for the community served by the tower.  This allows a town to size its pumps for the average rather than the peak demand daily load. The peak daily demand is the amount of water used on the day that had the highest water use.  Sizing the pumps for the average daily load can save communities money in construction and operations.

Heritage Farm Water Tanks
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