Although this has become critical this July there are other times in the year when I have little stored
2026: Mains Supply
Paths to the break in pipe | From West over the bridge andfrom the breakto the bridge. The meter/stopcock is on the 'main' road, to the right, looking at the bridge to the east.
August 12th108.5668 @ 08:20 | At 08:50 watering veggies stopped at 09:20 | Tap off
August 4th It's appears as though the major leak is in the area Craig worked on in John's filed. Mark has said he will talk to John about digging at the border to install a block to help decide if the break is in John's field or down line. Will wait till next weekend before any action is taken.
August 3rd 08:45 Continuing from yesterday going to read meter and turn on stopcock in 'field'. Meter was spinning [1Lt video] Meter reading @09:03 is 106.3935 and 107.1672 @ 11:36 (See Comment 4)
August 2nd 18:25 to 18:29 Tested leak and 1m48 to loose 1Lt so around 35/hr. Took video too. There is a second break at https://what3words.com/asteroid.gracing.bothered and a third athttps://what3words.com/cyber.switch.replace
August 2nd18:25 Check meter. 104.3318 Decided to remove the stop Mark had attached and reconnect, but forgot to turn off at the meter at 104.3343. Once I did the reading was 104.6058, so again some 250Lt lost in 4 hours. 60Lt/hr or less than 1/min (See Comment 4). Anyway got distracted going home and didn't water or turn meter off.
August 2nd 13:37 Sadly mark had already turned the water on and was 104.0828 b time I got there and 104.192 at 14:21 when turned off. Mark had cut the pipe and stopped it to see if it could be determined where the leak maybe. So Turned back and leaving for some hours to see if the meter stops spinning. So the total water 'in the pipe' was 870Lt, which is over the top for 200m of pipe
August 1stUsed approx 1m³103.3332
July 29thThe current leak is 6Lt/min | 360Lt/hr | 8.6m³/day | or about £27 a day : Unless of course the pipe was just filling up �
July 29th Went to check how Mark is getting on with the repair. The meter read 101.5611 so some 250Lt used, probably when Mark did the second repair and tested. By time I had tested the repair under pressure, by watering the reading was 102.3360 so used some 780Lt. Then tested the leak and 12 secs for 1Lt. Final reading 102.3374.
July 29th Went to check how Mark is getting on with the repair. There is no tap yet but the connection has been updated and doesn't seem to leak. I turned the water on, watered and went back to see what the repair was like under pressure. No leak ✅Updated Repair w3w (developed.ferrying.heave)
July 19th Went with Gavin to meet Mark to talk over the break. Mark said he will replace the leaking joint with a tap at my suggestion and surround the fix with a box. etc. All really helpful.
July 18th 17:43 | 101.3118 Went to check leak. � Then turned off. See Mark tomorrow and consider how to check the fix won't leak, cover with a protective 'bucket'. Maybe use a tap �Location of Leak and Repair
July 18th 13:20 | 97.629 Ok water flowing ✅
July 18th 11:16 Mark from the Coach House just sent me a message saying he had accidentally cut through the pipe and is in the process of repairing it, so will go and turn on again to see if it is flowing to the land.
July 17th On my way 'home' Mark drove by and stopped to say hello and asked . . . I said it was coincidentally as I was thinking about asking him if anyone had recently worked on the area as I knew work was being done to install another supply.
July 17th 18:55 Fully open so water flowing somewhere. Seems there must be a serious break in the pipe that won't 'allow' any to flow between the parts, so a big break and more. ✘ Forgot to take final reading . . . . .
July 17th 18:06 94.410 No output at all, but meter showing flow. � Leak � Broken pipe likely.
July 17th 17:08 Very low pressure and not outputting, so going to open mains further.
July 17th 16:00 93.2704� Backed up a bit.
July 15th Wondering if I will use it ?
June 14th From 90.9244 to 93.2718
June 5th From 89.9503 to 90.9242
May 29th From 88.8052 to 89.9???
2022
August 14th From 87.7075 to 88.8052
August 9th From 86.0943 to 87.7072
July 18th From 85.0435 to 86.0939
May 12th From 84.6019 to 85.0429 First use this year. Only 30Lt diff from last record (red)
2021
Jun 22nd From 83.8998 to 84.5702. Dry summer but rained a little yesterday so thought I'd ensure it wasn't just a surface soaking
Apr 24th From 83.**** to 83.8998. Gavin turned on water late afternoon
Apr 21st From 82.5912 to 83.3959. Water was used to wash down the wagon after work on the exterior.
Note the raised strip across the track and the black pipe to the left.There is now a permanent water pipe to the bottom of the triangle field. The plastic pipe runs through a heavy duty steel conduit some inch or two below the track.
Date Missing?? From 81.5164 to 82.5912. First use this year. Only 100ml diff from last record (orange)
2020
June 1st From 76.3680 to 81.5163 Leaving tap on over night.
May 27th From 74.6461 to 76.3679 Left tap on all day.
May 25th From 73.0190 to 74.6460
May 19th From 71.1373 to 73.0189. Continuing dry spell since March
May 11th From 70.1539 to 71.1372. First use this year. Only 10Lt diff from last record (yellow)
Here is a photo of the location of the meter, forth from the left, although there is another either side of the four shown but they are often not visible being closer to the traffic disturbance.
2019
May 20th From 62.5671 to 63.8371. First use this year. Only 20Lt diff from last record (yellow)
June 28/29th From 63.8376 to 65.7269. Left tap on for 24hrs. and although 2m3 have been used I doubt I used even 1m3
July 9th From 65.7263 to 67.5281
July 25th From 67.5281 to 70.1538
2018
July 17th From 59.4388 to 61.3838 :: July 21st From 61.3842 to 62.5669
June 23rd From 57.2506 to 59.4984
May 16th From 54.387.81 to 56.487.92 :: May 23rd From 56.487.92 to 57.2499
First use this year. Little rain over the last month, although a sprinkling today, and none foreseen for the next week. Turned supply on around 8am. Watered, immediately, filled containers and watered again late afternoon. Will leave on overnight, despite the leakage and water again in the morning.
From 54.387,81 to 56.487,92 is 2.10011 m3 used though I expect half of that is leakage. Trying to edit a video and from that see the amount of water used over 1 minute for example.
October Update
The water has been turned of for some time now so I have called SWWater and given them a 'customer reading' of 328. The accurate reading as of 13:00 17th October is 327.6279.
It seems the pipeline does indeed hold some 350Lt and most seems to get used and does not leak away whilst the mains tap is closed and their is no pressure.
I have just written a new page on the main site detailing the amount of water used over the preceding years. This has been brought about by doubts about neighbour use and careless or accidental damage to the pipeline resulting in a noticeable leak.
Steve and I checked the meter yesterday and discovered 100ml per 30 seconds usage with taps off. This equates to a litre every five minutes (12Lt/Hr : 288Lt/Day : <35CuMetre/Quarter). A cost of some £55 per quarter.
19th May
Yesterday evening on my way to the village I turned off the water at the mains. Water was leaking at 100ml/25seconds. The reading was 0325/1656. Intend to check again this evening. Next reading
The last official reading of 311m3, an estimate, was on 23rd March The current figure is 325 so that's a use of 14m3 in 4 weeks. At that rate it will be 56 for the quarter. At £1.57 that's £88 + the standing charge.:`(
20th May
100ml/25 seconds -> 1Lt/250s -> 10Lt/2500s ->
100Lt/25,000 -> 1000Lt/250,000 sec
or 1 cubic metre in 2d 21h 26m 4s
That's 54.2592pence per day. Averaging over £49 per quarter
I am keeping the mains switched off until water is wanted and will get the next reading proper, then be more specific in calculating usage/leakage. Method to Estimate Leak
22nd May
From the above figures, the estimates next bill of £88 + standing charge and the leakage at £49 there's still a usage of £39 which equates to nearly 25cubic metres of water. This figure maybe high due to the last reading being an estimate.
For example a 3cum under estimate will mean that the current months usage will be 3 less and then the figures for the next quarter will be reduced by 3 per month of some 9cum. Sadly I won't be able to assess this accurately as the mains is off so the next reading will not account for the same amount of leakage.
Assess the quantity of water in main pipeline:
There are two way of doing this.
1. Estimate the internal dimensions of the pipe and
2. Measure the amount by draining a full pipe.
Whereas the second is more accurate I am not in a position to store the water, or easily measure it.
So the first option will hopefully provide me with an approximate figure of how much storage I would need to keep the water from the drain of a full pipeline.
Estimate
I 'think; the pipe is Imperial 1.25 inches with an internal diameter of 1". This equates to 12.72x 3.142 = 506m2 >> 1 metre contain about 0.50Lt -> 100mm 50Lt.
Updated Length 24May 09:49
Best estimate from 1:25,000 OS map is 675m Updated
That's 338Lt. So if I get storage for 400Lt that should be fine. However in the past I'm sure there was more than 400Lt.??
If the pipe is 1.5" with approx 32mm inside diameter that would give 16x16x3.142 or 80.4Lt/100m or a total of approx 543Lt.
The later figure seems more likely, so will check the pipe diameter again, then when convenient, drain to confirm.
The extension I have fitted is MDPE 25mm SDR 11 which should have a minimum wall thickness of 3mm, giving a max of 19mm ID, so that's 2.8356sqcm and 28.356Lt/100m. This equates to some 45Lt in my extension. Check it!
10th June 12:24
Turned the water on basically to fill the pipe. The reading when turned off again was 326.305 minus the previous figure of 325.1567 is some 1.148 cu.metres, which is lot. I was expecting 400 to 500 although Vera may have used over 100. I used 10Lt before leaving. Will check with Vera later.
11th June 17:12 Vera has used about 200 lt and I have drained the pipe to the caravan of about 47lt. This latter measurement is in line with my estimate and I'll check it again. However that leaves about 900lt in the pipe??? -:- 12th June Vera used another 60lt.
13th June I managed to get only another 22.5 lt since Vera last opened the stop-cock.
14th June 10:53 Taken another 10lt so that means Vera has opened the stop-cock and sued more water maybe.??? Call her later.
15th June 09:16 Vera can't get any more but I have taken another 45lt.
Total taken so far: 395Lt(Me:135 Vera:260)
18th June Whilst Vera monitored down-line I opened the mains tap and let 295lt into the pipe. Vera then took 95lt and I took 185. (280lt total) Meter reading is now 326.5900
21st July Opened mains until the meter stopped and got 345Lt in the pipe. Vera took 115 LT and I have about 150Lt 17th Oct By time I opened the tap again, today approx another 60 lt have been taken. The summary being that about 325 Lt have been taken from 345 recorded.
May regularly seems to be a dry month year on year. It's the time when many seedlings are put out and seeds that have been sown need watering. So each year, it seems I turnthe mains wateron.
I have had some stored, but both drinking water and other less potable are in short. As it rained a little today it made sense to artificially water so there is enough to really soak in, and not just pamper the soil surface, the problem being that roots will only grow towards water and surface roots are vulnerable, not least to drying soil.
As I'm using a lot (1m3 plus) it also makes sense to use up the last water collected from the track, the potable water is collected in a wheel barrow. The buts that collect the rain from the track, over the year, also collect gravel and fine soil as well as organic debris, and at this time of the year is a host to thousands of mosquito larva. So clearing this smelly organic soup is best done when there copious other water to wash and clean up.
Here are a couple of images of 1. A compost heap and 2. The heap covered in the sludge from the bottom of the tubs.
