The fundamentals of pumped water systems continues this month by examining how calculate the pressure drop due to friction loss in a typical residential system.
This month, we will use this information to calculate the pressure drop due to friction loss in a typical residential system. The system is broken into two parts — from the pump to the pressure tank and from the pressure tank to the highest or farthest fixture in the house. In the first part, the pump must be able to produce enough pressure to get the water to the pressure tank, to overcome the pressure loss in the piping system between the two and to charge the pressure tank to its operating pressure. For the second part, the operating pressure range of the pressure tank must be high enough to provide sufficient pressure at the most demanding point in the house taking friction loss and vertical head into consideration. This is why it is necessary to calculate the pressure drop due to friction for both sections of the system — pump to tank and tank to the most demanding fixture in the house.