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additional water line to distribution system

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sweetfood

Chemical
Jul 7, 2008
21
We are looking into adding 1-1/2" line to the existing water distribution system in the plant in order to bring water into the new area. Approx.10 gpm of water will be used at equipment every 10 minutes and not continuous water usage. Do I need to route piping so that water is always circulated and open a valve as needed? Or can I have dead end line and open a valve as needed? I am not piping engineer and truly need some help. Thanks.
 
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That looks like enough water flow in such a small line to keep the pipe clean and fresh w/o a circulating loop, provided the line is not too long. It might be nice if the line diameter could also be sized so that you have a complete volume change every hour or some similar "reasonable" criteria.

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"Pumping accounts for 20% of the world’s energy used by electric motors and 25-50% of the total electrical energy usage in certain industrial facilities."-DOE statistic (Note: Make that 99% for pipeline companies)
 
Well, new line will be actully long...it will be around 600 ft. For such a long piping, you would recommend flow to be circulated? We would probably go with 1-1/2" piping for possible another user in the future.
 
10 gpm through a 1-1/2" line will result in less than 2 fps velocity, not enough to adequately flush the line. Sediment may build up. With a recirculating line, the velocity would be even less. You may want to use a smaller pipe (1 inch would be sufficient) or provide a flushing valve at the end to allow periodic flushing of the line.
 
Yes. Much better for a 600 ft length.

**********************
"Pumping accounts for 20% of the world’s energy used by electric motors and 25-50% of the total electrical energy usage in certain industrial facilities."-DOE statistic (Note: Make that 99% for pipeline companies)
 
Volumn of 600ft long and 1-1/2" diameter pipe is ~ 55 gal. If user uses water for 2 minutes at 10 gpm every 10 min, after about 30 minutes there will be enough water used to flush the entire pipe. Would this be enough frequency of water movement in pipe so that there won't be any sediment issue??
 
If you're using clean water to begin with, I'd think its OK. You could also consider a side valve for flushing from time to time, if there is any question about that.

**********************
"Pumping accounts for 20% of the world’s energy used by electric motors and 25-50% of the total electrical energy usage in certain industrial facilities."-DOE statistic (Note: Make that 99% for pipeline companies)
 
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