Bulk water provision?
Given the issues with water provision in recent years, I wondered if it would be worthwhile having some central provision instead? E.g. a giant tanker at the top of the site, possibly with some piping leading down the site and taps at lower locations (powered by gravity, no pumps required). There are companies that do bulk water delivery for events, e.g. https://www.watermills.net/events-and-festivals.html
Alternatively, given the existence of one mains water tap on site this year, is there prospect of getting any more of those? :)
Paul Phare Thu 5 Sep 2019 1:23PM
While these are all great ideas, you need to consider that the landlord has put in a tap for us down by the water treatment plant. I assume this is water that comes from the land, treated locally and pumped to the main house and gardens. It might therefore be worth considering running a pipe up the hill to save people having to go down to the tap
Adrian Godwin Fri 6 Sep 2019 9:24AM
Perhaps, but don't make too many assumptions.
There may not be enough pressure to go up the hill. The main house is quite low and we don't know if the plant also supplies the gatehouse.
We don't know the capacity of the filtration plant. While a single tap that's a long walk (and long carry!) for many visitors was not heavily used, making it easily available for 500 people might be neither polite nor practical.
Paul Phare Fri 6 Sep 2019 9:54AM
How about building a water tower somewhere up the hill and supplying it from the tap. Pressure should be enough to fill the tank (even if slowly) to supply 500 people
Adrian Godwin Fri 6 Sep 2019 11:28AM
It's true that, at the limits of a pump's pressure, it will often still operate at reduced flow. But that isn't true forever : there is a hard limit in height beyond which it won't pump. That limit depends on the design of the pump.
It's possible to get around this problem by adding a further pump to provide the extra head of pressure needed to get to the top of a water tower, but that would need electric power etc.
The more important question though, is whether the owners would want that. If we exceed the capacity of the filtration system we might affect the house supplies, be offering inadequately filtered water, or cause additional maintenance costs.
Paul Phare Fri 6 Sep 2019 11:35AM
Sure, I wouldn’t doubt there are issues with this idea, but I think it’s worth investigating along with the others. In terms of the height; I’d imagine the pumps have to push water to the top floor of Alex’s house which will be higher than we need so I very much doubt we will be at the limit of what the pump can deliver. Also if we have a header tank with capacity enough for one day, it could be refilled during the night when the house doesn’t need it. All this would have to be discussed with Alex
Adrian Godwin Fri 6 Sep 2019 11:37AM
Yes, absolutely fine if it's with Alex's support. I just wanted to point out that there are both physical and financial issues to consider. Also, I think the top floor of the house is probably similar to the theme camp hill, but not as high as the free camping field.
Paul Phare Sat 7 Sep 2019 11:45AM
Ah okay, I was only thinking of theme camps. There is a water trough up by free camping though I'm not sure where that water comes from.
Adrian Godwin Thu 5 Sep 2019 11:45AM
As Case says, I am interested in the possibilities of building a ram pump (water powered water pump) to take water from the ford to the theme camps. It would be quite a low flow rate, transferring non-potable water to Case's filter set and then my ice machine.
However, I discovered there's already two pumps on site - a ram pump and a slightly younger engine-powered pump. These are in a small wooden shed at the bottom of the waterfall, not the brick building where the tap was placed (which I assume also has filtering equipment).
This could be used to provide a shower (as could the waterfall alone ..) or a washing source but it would be a struggle to get it as far as the free camping site.
I see water direct have 1000l 'aqube' palletised drinking water at £389 - this seems a lot cheaper than the 2000l tank but maybe there are hidden costs such as delivery. https://www.water-direct.co.uk/product/aqube/
Adrian Godwin Thu 5 Sep 2019 12:09PM
I think this is the same company that provided the toilets : if they're local and we're using them for other services they might be more economical. https://tardishire.co.uk/site-water-services/water-bowser-hire/
Case · Thu 5 Sep 2019 10:53AM
I looked into bulk water provision a couple of years ago. A 2000 l tank with a refill during the week was quoted at £4,400 from water-direct. This was 7 days provision, and is expensive because it is drinking water. At 5 l/person/day, this is 114 people's water for the week, £38 each. Probably more expensive given the inaccessibility of the Cornwall site.
Increasing the number of tanks would probably reduce the cost, as the refill is the expensive bit. I don't know how big a road tanker is, but probably big enough to fill a couple of bowsers. Without the refill we would either have to sign a waiver saying it being non-potable is fine, or the hire company would simply not deliver it. (I found this varied between suppliers). I think we are simply too small to make commercial water hire feasible.
Adding piping that we create removes the guaranteed potable bit, so might mean some people don't want to partake, and for others this might be cost prohibitive.
I'm all for communal water, but we should think carefully about it. I don't know the flow rate of the tap on site, but it's possible we could build a suitable pump (looking at @adriangodwin here). I believe there was talk of metering this connection and possibly charging us for it.