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Water Tower Pumps and Controls | Pumping Systems - Water towers maintain a ready limited supply of water for communities in the event the water main goes down. Many towers are used for emergency situations for the fire department to have water for fighting fires and for water fire suppression systems to have a supply of water for the emergency if it should arise.
Water Tower Pumps and Controls | Pumping Systems
Some water towers use gravity to fill the towers but other water towers need a pump and controls to make sure the tower is filled. This water tower needed a large pump and pump controls to fill the tower and to control the fill of the tower. First, the tank needed a way to monitor the level of the water so the pump or controller doesn’t overfill the tank. Monitoring a tank of this sort for level control is referred to as telemetry.
The process of telemetry for this tank is pressure controls. Based on the weight and the volume of the tank pressure can be used to determine the level of the tank. Sensors are used to record the pressure of the tank and the pressure transmitters are tied into a PLC program to maintain a setpoint pressure inside the tank.
Water Tower Pumps and Controls | Pumping Systems - Setpoint Pressure Control
The setpoint pressure corresponds to a level inside the tank. That way a desired safe level can be maintained by the pump controls. The tank does have an overfill tube so if the tank overfills it will drain into a sanitary drain and to prevent the tank from overfilling a float is used as an emergency stop for the PLC controls to backup pressure sensors.
The water coming from the water tower can be used for drinking, fire safety, showering, and other domestic uses so before the tank is used for the first time it goes through some quality testing after it is sanitized.
Water Tower Pumps and Controls | Pumping Systems
Technical Resource: Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Technology
