What Are the Major Plumbing Systems in a Residential Home?
Normal household plumbing has two main purposes to serve – bringing water inside the property for human use and removing the wastewater out of the property using an interwoven structure of pipes, valves and various other fixtures. Typical house plumbing is normally consisted of three different system each one of those having their own unique components and those three systems are –
- Water supply system
- Drain-water vent system
- Storm/rainwater drainage system
The water supply system
The water supply system which is also called potable system by many professional Plumber Sydney is responsible for bringing in potable or drinkable clean water inside your property from the water mains and its subsequent distribution to different parts of the house. The supply is controlled by installation of a water valve on the main pipe line where pipes from inside your property are connected with it. A water meter is also installed there for keeping track of the total amount of water that will be used inside the premise.
Plumbing for potable water inside a home focuses on two major areas – the kitchen and the bathroom. Plumbing system installed inside a kitchen is mostly hidden in the walls and brings both hot and cold water for the different fixtures. On the other hand bathroom plumbing for potable water is more reliant on pressure and separate pipe systems are normally used for hot and cold water supply.
Drain-water vent system
Though the potable water system and the drain-water vent system never overlap but they do connect with each other all over the home through various fixtures like sink, dishwashers, faucets, shower heads, wash basins, washing machines, Hot water System Sydney etc. Fixtures are generally defined as points where clean water is used and turned into waste water which then carried away from the building by the drain-water vent system. This particular system is almost completely dependent upon gravity for waste water removal and has three main components –
- Drain traps
- Drain vents and
- Drain pipes
As the Drain waste vent system depends upon gravity it is considerable more complex than water supply system and each of the above mentioned components have their own purposes to serve. The pipes are there to carry waste water out while the U shaped drain traps are there to prevent any kind of back flow. The purpose that drain vents serve is to supply air inside the pipes to manage smooth flow of water inside them.
Storm/rainwater plumbing system
The primary purpose of this system is to carry rainwater away from a property and while installing this system maintaining certain specific characteristics is really important to make the system function effectively and smoothly. These systems can also be classified in two types – pump-based systems and gravity-fed systems. The gravity-fed system is more suitable if the slope of the land is favorable for it but otherwise pump based systems are to be used. Depending upon the situation and requirements one can opt for rainwater harvesting and modify the system accordingly otherwise the rainwater can be simply carried away from the property to a local river or water body.
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