Water guide

Everything you need to know about water pressure

Water pressure is important to all businesses and essential to industrial activities. Low water pressure may just be a nuisance for small companies, but it can severely affect production cycles and cost businesses money in missed minimum orders and slow production cycles.

In this guide, we look at water pressure in detail, what affects your water pressure and how to resolve low pressure.

What is water pressure?

Water pressure is the force that pushes water through the pipes. It determines the flow of the water to your taps, showers and other fittings.

The level of pressure you have can depend on several factors, ranging from the height of the local water tower or reservoir to the usage in your local area. The other factor is where your business premises is located within the region; premises located on elevated ground generally have a lower water pressure than business premises located lower down.

Low pressure will cause your business numerous problems, from poor water pressure within the facilities on your site (showers and toilets) to inefficient production cycles, adding extra time to the process of producing goods.

We cover what to do when you’re experiencing low water pressure later on in this guide to ensure you tackle the problem immediately and correctly.

What causes low water pressure?

There are many causes of low water pressure, ranging from poor pumping facilities in your area to leaking pipes. Here are some of the most common causes of low water pressure:

High water demand in your area
Obstructed valves
Poor pumping facilities or low power pumps
Clogged pipes
The water mains are too small
There is reduced pressure from the water mains as a result of leakage.
Equipment failures or blocked service pipes.

You may also be interested in: How to reduce your water consumption as a business.

What are the official standards of water pressure?

The Guaranteed standards scheme (GSS) sets the official water pressure standards that document that the water companies shall maintain a minimum pressure of water in the communication pipe serving the premises supplied with water of seven metres static head.

The official standards apply to household and non-household properties; you can review these here.

What to do if the water pressure is low?

When you first notice that your water pressure has dropped, you should carry out a maintenance check to ensure no issues with the plumbing on your premises. Check for leaks on the premises or if a stop tap is open.

If these checks come back negative, next, you will call your water supplier, and they can undertake pressure checks and look at the water flow. This will determine if it’s an issue with their pipes or yours.

Depending on the findings, it will be either your responsibility or your water suppliers responsibility to fix the outstanding issue with the water pressure.

Next, we look at how you can improve the water pressure on your premises.

How to improve water pressure

Here are a few ways you can improve the water pressure to your premises. From regular maintenance to where your business is located, they all impact the water pressure to your business.

Maintenance

Companies can maintain internal pipes by scraping away any corrosion and adding a new lining. Maintenance of the pipes within your property is key to improving the water pressure and keeping the water quality high.

Use a commercial pump

Using internal pumps to boost the pressure is a great way to increase your internal pressure. It’s important to implement these correctly as having your water pressure too high can cause damage to the plumbing fixtures, which may result in flooding.

Location

Your property’s physical location can have an adverse effect on your water pressure. If your premises are high above the water pipes, this can cause low pressure due to gravity.

This also occurs when the tanks are stored lower ground within your property, causing the pressure to decrease.

Water pressure vs flow rate: what’s the difference?

Water pressure is essentially the force exerted on your water to push it through your pipes and the larger plumbing system.

The flow rate is the amount of water passing through your pipes at any given time. The flow rate is determined by the width of your pipes as well as the amount of pressure flowing through them.

Therefore the higher the water pressure, the greater the flow rate.