Stored and mains fed systems

Stored.

A low pressure system, with the cold water mains coming into your house being used to fill large storage tank situated is high up in your home as possible, usually in the loft. The water that comes out of your taps is fed from the storage tanks, with the result that turning off the mains cold water doesn’t instantly stop water coming out of your taps. In fact, if the tanks are particularly large it can take 15-30 minutes for them to empty and for the flow from your taps to cease. In an emergency this can be a particularly anxious 30 minutes, so if your home does not use stored water you need to find out where the valves are that will turn this water off immediately. Harringay Plumbers know this system.

Mains fed systems.

A high pressure system, where all call water comes directly from the main supply, so switching off the cold water stop tap will immediately, or almost immediately, stop the cold water taps running. This mains cold water is also used to ‘power’ your hot water, meaning that its the pressure of the cold water that’s used to push the hot water out of your taps. As such, turning off the main stop deprives the hot water of pressure and the hot water taps stop running as well. Bear in mind that you might still have a vessel where the hot water is stored but without the cold water mains pressure to push hot water around, it can’t reach the taps and just sits in this hot water cylinder where it can do little or no harm. A Harringay Plumber knows about this system. Most houses will have a mix of stored and mains fed water. For example, the cold water will be mains fed to the kitchen then delivered from storage tanks to the bathroom, whilst all the hot water will be from a stored supply. There are many advantages to a high pressure system but the important one is that turning off your mains stop tap will immediately turn off all hot and cold water in your home. The only disadvantage is that an awful lot of water can leak out what you’re trying to find your mains stop tap, unless you’ve already found it, tested and told everyone else in the house where it is.




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