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Pressure pulse systems pty ltd
SINGLE-PIPE OSCILLATING SYSTEMS
The ‘Pressure Pulse System’ is a new Australian invention created and designed by John Ford to eliminate the countless litres of potable water that vanish down the drains whilst waiting for hot water to arrive at the tap / faucet outlets.
A typical hot water system usually has a water heater that is fed cold water and is heated to provide a continuous volume of hot water in the tank. Pipes lead from the hot water tank to the outlet faucets (taps) along long lead lines. The piping therefore holds cold water while the tank holds the hot water. When a faucet is emptied the entire cold water in the lead lines between the heater to the faucet needs to be emptied before the hot water from the tank finally arrives at the faucet.
Therefore, a substantial waste of water occurs each time hot water is required.
Hot water delivery systems can be constructed to be types that aim to conserve water and energy. There are typically four main types of systems:
a) Hot Water Re-circulation System
b) Crossover System
c) Water Save System
d) Trace Heating System
A) Hot Water Re-circulation System
The hot water re-circulation system comprises a re-circulation pipe extending from a furthest connection back to the hot water heater. A pump is required to affect the re-circulation flow.
The main requirement of this system is that a second pipe needs installing to connect the water heater to the furthest point in the system and include a pump to enable the return of water back to the water heater for reheating, which then keeps the water up to temperature. The pipes can have a volume of 5 or more litres of water in them. As all the water in the pipes needs to circulate and recirculate continually when in use or not, there is the expenditure of energy by the pump and excess energy by the water heater.
When a tap is in use there can be substantial amount of cold not recirculated heated water that is dispensed and wasted until the recirculated heated water finally reaches the require faucet. Therefore, multiples of the 5 or more litres of water can be wasted as expelled cold water before required heated water is expelled at the faucet.
Therefore, this system has the faults of:
a) Pump runs continuously during set period of use.
b) Only recirculates hot water to that furthest point, leaving cold ‘dead legs’ to all other points.
c) With added length of pipework, the heat loss from the pipework is now double, even with insulation on pipework. The water heater must make up the loss with additional input of energy.
d) Costly to install and not practical on existing installations.
e) All hot water pipework must be insulated to reduce energy loss.
B) Crossover System
The Crossover System comprises a return pipe that also extends between the furthest point and the water heater. It also includes a pump to recirculate back to the water heater. However, this system has the difference that it is like a hot water recirculation system but does not have any return pipework installed. Instead, there is a crossover valve and pump installed at the furthest point to allow the hot water to return to the water heater via the cold-water pipework.
However, this system has the faults of:
a) Same as the full circulation pipework installation, plus: part of the cold-water system can rise to 37°C temperature.
b) Hot water is now being mixed with cold water before it returns to the water heater, which results in warm water in the draw off to toilets. This water could also end up as drinking water at taps/faucets. Cold water tap/faucet on the kitchen sink needs to be left running to get cold water.
c) Hot water should not be used for cooking or drinking for the following reasons:
i) Heated water may cause the plumbing system to release lead, nickel, etc.
ii) Cold water is fresher, as hot water stays in the system for longer periods, and longer stagnation may cause higher bacterial levels.
iii) Hot water is exposed to more pollution sources from tanks and heating system.
iv) Level of micro-organisms is higher in hot water plumbing, and corrosion rates in copper, brass, stainless steel and galvanised pipes are higher.
C) Water Save System
The Water Save System comprises the initial flow of cold water being saved from the system for re-use in toilets or rainwater use. However, this system has the faults of needing to pipe the collected water somewhere: storage tanks, pressure vessels. It turns fresh drinking water into grey water/rainwater, and it still takes too long to come up to temperature. Also, it has all the same faults as the crossover system.
D) Trace heating system
The Trace Heating System needs to be fitted with electrical heating trace tape to all the pipework on the hot water system. Therefore, trace heating takes the form of an electrical heating element run in physical contact along the length of a pipe. However, this system has the faults of being expensive to install and expensive to run. A long period of time is needed to heat the water in the pipework. It needs to be on 24 hrs per day to be effective.
It can be seen that known prior art liquid delivery systems have the problems of:
a) Wastage of water
b) Inefficient treating of liquid
c) Wasted energy in treating volume of piping or treating at all time
d) Only providing benefits along one line
e) Requiring excessive extra piping, heating tape or modifications to plumbing
f) Not readily adapted to existing systems.
The Pressure Pulse System eliminates the need for a second pipe to circulate the hot water between the heaters.
However, it will be recognised that the invention is not limited to this field of use and can be used in various other capacities for supplying treated liquids/gases of all kinds.