Water Utilities Companies in Texas operates several hundred water systems. The average system has two 10 HP or 15 HP pumps and a 10,000 or 20,000 gallon pressure tank. Because these pumps produce several hundred gallons per minute, and a 10,000 gallon pressure tank only provides about 1200 gallons of draw down, the pumps can cycle 200 to 300 times per day. This cycling is destructive to the pumps, motors, starters, and switches. Cycling also causes water hammer that burst pipelines, wasting tremendous amounts of treated water, as well as the energy used to produce it.
Some of these systems have documented 49% loss of water. Water hammer from pumps cycling can cause thousands of tiny stress fractures, or blow out an entire section of pipe. Thousands of tiny stress fractures waste millions of gallons over time. A main line bursting, waste millions of gallons in a short time. Eliminating water hammer can save tremendous amounts of water and considerable amounts of energy, while reducing pipe line repair costs.
To eliminate the pump cycling, a Cycle Stop Valve was added to each pump. See the pressure recording chart in Figure #1. The pump cycled on and off 300 times the day before the CSV installation. After the CSV was installed, you can see that the pressure remained at a constant 66 PSI indefinitely. Water hammer was eliminated the minute the CSV was installed. Pipeline breaks are virtually eliminated and considerable head way is being made repairing water lines. A major difference now being, that once the pipeline has been repaired, it stays that way.
After only a few months of service there has been a noticeable reduction in lost revenues. As more of the leaks in the pipeline are found and repaired, less and less water and energy is being wasted.
