Power Cuts & Unclosed Taps : Preventing Water Leakage, Solutions?
Submitted by iwp on June 4, 2009 - 03:55
Power cuts in the metro cities and tier A cities (like Pune) causes emptying of the elevated water tanks during the peak hours. Usually in a hurry, I forget to check all the taps before leaving for work. So when I come back, the house is flooded and this causes difficulties to others also & large amount of water is wasted.
I would like to know if there is any device/equipment which can prevent such waste of water and money. My idea of such device would be something which will detect that the tap is open and when the water tank is refilled, it should not allow the water to flow out from the tap. I would like to know if there is any such mechanical device.
Do let me know if any such device is available and the details of vendors of the same.
Irshad Danawala
Comments
1.
Dear Shilpa,
Only one respondent has offered a technology based solution. All others have responded that while in theory this is possible, but that is not a practical option, not even in cities and certainly not in rural areas.
But your letter is interesting. In a village where water is supplied for just 2-3 hours in the morning, I thought a long Q would be formed at the stand-post much before the water flow starts. If that is not the case, and water flows out for a significant duration before the first person arrives to fill the water, then obviously the village is not suffering from water shortage, and that is good news. Now, if the village is not suffering from water shortage then why is the supply intermittent? If the supply was 24X7 people would not inadvertently leave the taps open.
It is an established fact that intermittent supply results in wastage of water, not only due to taps being left open, but also because people store more than what they need and then throw out the “stale” water the next day. Besides, it also results in entry of pollutants in the supply lines when the supply is turned off and the pressure in the pipeline reduces; and causes considerable personal inconvenience – it binds at least one person of the family every day in a tedious chore of filling the water.
24X7 supply solves all these problems. However, to enable that to happen we need to
a) accept that piped water supply is not an evil;
b) accept that 24X7 supply is not a luxury;
c) accept that making profit by supply of water is not unethical;
d) stop being scared of paradigms such as public private partnerships;
e) generally, stop giving an ideological twist to what is essentially a problem in the domain of management + engineering.
Chetan Pandit
2.
My name is Shilpa dixshit and I am associated with a NGO which focuses on efficient working of gram panchayats and we support them by providing them guidance. I was surfing through the website and found a question regarding the water wastage due to power cuts. The scenario which the author has listed may be correct for urban area where due to power cuts the water wastage occurs from unclosed taps. In rural area, the problem is different. Generally water is supplied at specific points for a interval of 2-3 hrs in a day and that also mostly in early mornings. Villagers generally are not concerned about closing these taps. During my early morning visits, I have seen many times that this taps are unattended and water flows out of them. Also the water supply timings are not consistent and this leads to more wastage.
I want through the various answers which were posted on the site. The solutions like the PLC, self tripping device and electric sensors doesn't fit this scenario. These solutions even don’t apply to urban condition as these are costly solutions and cannot be applied at each place due to power requirement. Also expecting people to close there taps everytime doesn't seem to be a feasible solution. A self operated mechanical device seems to be a solution to this water wastage. Do let me know your thoughts/opinions on the same. This would be very useful to people like me. Thanks!!!
3.
During late 80s I have come across a project done by one of the Polytechnic student at Coimbatore who has used the PLC system, to design an automatic control to cut off submersible bore well motor when the water level come near the mouth of the pump.
Latter on several commercial product has come into the market. Similarly during the 1987 and 1992 drought period automatic switch on system has come into the market, when the Coconut plantation owners wanted avoid walking into the grove and switch on the motor manually while they are not aware at what time the Electricity Board will put on the power supply.
Now when the IT is every where and it is reaching such a height, you being at pune it will not be difficult to apply the same system in an inverse way. You can contact any IT Vendor who deal with power circuits and requesting him to design a PLC for your case. There are two ways this can be accompalished.
1. At the over head either the volume of water that crosses at the first outlet from the overhead. Here the PLC should be able to close the outlet flow if excess of volume of water than the normal usage occurs. Either through flow restriction or through time delay method.
2. At every major outlet if the flow crosses certain volume or pre fixed time, then the PLC should be able to cut off water supply.
The analogy is used in the Maruthy Cars, petrol pump starter can be thought off for the electronic triggering valve. These kinds of electronic valves are available in the markets and if the PLC is designed to suit this kind then your problem will be solved.
This will help to save the wastage of scares resources, though it may cost you a little bit of money and time.
With best wishes,
A. Raja Mohamed
Coastal Energy Private Limited
Chennai
bismi1234786@gmail.com 09443619352
A. RAJAMOHAMED AMBALAM GEOPHYSICIST COASTAL ENERGY Pvt Ltd, CHENNAI +919443619352
4.
Dear Irshad Danawala,
There are electronic sensors which detect the presence of water and they are sensors that will detect when some one wants to use the tap, all these sensors are for using the tap and automatically close the tap when not required.
But then you have mentioned power cuts etc... naturally when you dont have a backup power supply system in place these electronically operated systems will not function - plain logic.
More over, once open taps cannot be shut off once the tank has water, how do you expect the logic to function water can be used only with the tap is open and taps need to be open when there is water in the tank.
The problem of leaving taps open arises when people are faced with water shortages, one way to overcome this is by installing autolevel controlers which start and stop the pump as soon as the water level in the tanks change. People tend to be careless when they are faced with dry overhead tanks on a regular basis.
This can be so set that when ever there is electricity for an hour the upper tank gets filled, power cuts are of long duration only of thursdays, on this day one could be a bit careful or the whole building water supply can be cut off between 9 am to 8 pm. ( during this time people usually are out of the house) All the overhead tanks normally have provisions for something like this.
A more simple and practical approach to this problem is required and it will be more useful that any electrical or electronic system.
Regards
Dr. Anil Lalwani
http://www.wellwaterworks.com
5.
Dear Irshad Danawala,
I have not come across any device that will prevent water from emptying from taps whenever an empty tank is refilled with water. I believe that water is becoming such a scarce resource that one simply needs to close a tap whenever one opens it, even if there is no water coming from it because the overhead tank is empty!
Sorry I can not offer any other solution.
Regards
S.S.Ranganathan
Advisor
Ion Exchange
Bangalore
6.
Dear Irshad Danawala
Whenever overhead tank is empty there would be no flow to any tap even after filled overhead tank unless a self tripping device is not reset manually. This will save your home from unwanted flooding.
This simple to construct arrangement can be put in the main outlet of water tank.
A siphon pipe can be placed in outlet of the tank,curved upwards to the height of the highest water tank level with a vent valve placed on the top of the curved siphon. This vent valve be fixed with a solenoid valve taking input command from water tank level. whenever water level is zero this vent valve will be open . even after filling of the tank water can not enter in main outlet until this vent valve is not closed manually. This arrangement will save your home from flooding.
2nd solution to this problem is to change your habit and ensure all taps are closed before leaving home.
I think 2nd solution is more ethical and human than first one where you become slave of the system instead master in 2nd solution.
regards
Singlaak
AK SINGLA
PARADIP REFINERY TOWNSHIP
PARADIP
ORISSA
7.
Dear Ms. Shilpa Dixshi,
This has the reference to your quest for mechanical auto plug / closure fitting for the taps.
Like you I have seen many such scenarios not only in rural areas but also in urban town ships and slums.
I have also seen in areas people using the pressure shut off valves. At some locations screw type closure fittings.
I have also noticed several streaming, pissing and weeping water taps throughout carries.
I have also noticed people using simple plugs made of from fuel woods and cloths to stop water taps.
Interesting if you discuss with people about different system of model that they can adopt they will say " we need to hold the mechanical auto pressure valves for many minutes before their pots/ pockets gets filled. This is they is due to low pressure and ask you to increase the pressure. If further you go deep and analyse many of the brass and steel taps reaching old / waste goods selling iron shops / merchant. I am writing this not just to answer you. This is my experience in late 80s and early 90s in The southern states. I also noticed even this phenomena in very scarce resource base locality like coastal belts.
Its not the technology or the mechanism availability. It is the level and scale of the social responsible behavior or cult of the community of the locality or area.
It is the level of education and scale of social responsibility of the community that is going to adopt the technology. People, will naturally adopt the easy to use techniques or technology or social engineering. The easiest is to just keep opening of the tap.
Hence, the solution to your quest is not any mechanical auto plugs, this is available plenty and even the low cost plastics, in the market, but it is providing the education and awareness creation to the community.
After creating awareness and education elucidation of the easy to use and cost effective solution from the same community. Then you will get a response similar to the use of plugs made at no cost with fuel wood and waste cloths.
As an NGO you can employ this technique or social engineering process to get quick, cost effective and easy to use and adoptable model to attain the goal.
I am not writing a hypothetical case ( wooden plug and waste cloth ), I am giving you a case that evolved as solution to the same problem which I faced in Rajiv Gandhi Technology Mission Drinking water project in coastal district of Tamil Nadu in late 80s.
The education system and solution elucidation process, you frame should get automatically printed in their mind set, like that telling them that you not wasting resources now, you are harming the resources of your grand grand children, depicting with all audio visual about how bacterias and other works get into the ground water body how the multiply to million and so on. With available soft wares you can carry them in your mobile or lap tops.
With best wishes,
A. Raja Mohamed
Coastal Energy Private Limited
Chennai Mobile: 09443619352
bismi1234786@gmail,.com
A. RAJAMOHAMED AMBALAM GEOPHYSICIST COASTAL ENERGY Pvt Ltd, CHENNAI +919443619352
8.
Dear Irshad,
With the recent advances in electronics and IT, surely it is possible to construct such a device. e.g. you could replace all your taps with electrically operated ones, install motion detectors in all rooms, and connect the two through a Programmable Logic Controller so that when all the motion detectors report “no occupancy”, the taps get closed. The question is not whether this is possible, but whether this is the best way. e.g. would you next require 100% backup so that even if one of the sensors or PLC fails, the backup system will takeover ? How far will this go ?
Simpler, you could use spring actuated taps that remain open for a fixed period of a minute or so, and then close automatically, like the ones used in airports or hotels. Still simpler, install a master valve where the pipeline from the OH tank enters your house, and just remember to close this one master valve when going out. High technology is not always the best solution.
Chetan Pandit
9. Device to save water
I have invented a device to address the specific problem mentioned in your post. You may check the details from my patent application from the following link http://www.wipo.int/pctdb/en/wo.jsp?WO=2007099549
Thr device shall be in market in an years time..
Regards,
Milind Kotwal
10. Your water saving device
Dear Mr.Kotwal,
Yours is a very interesting device.It appears that the device will be available some time in April next year.It would be very nice if you announce this on indiawaterportal, as there would be a lot of interest in the product.
Regards
S.S.Ranganathan
S.S.Ranganathan
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