We discovered a very disturbing problem with one of our Energy Module when we were connecting our newly laid 22mm water pipe running from the Utility Room, to Tank Number Four that lies under the Kitchen and Bedroom One. We noticed that the water level was very low and after measuring it, there was only 130mm of water lying in the bottom, when there should have nearly 800mm depth of water. We are pretty sure that we had filled them up when we installed them years ago, but somehow, we have sprung a leak.
But, because it was so long ago, we have to make sure we do have a leak actually. To check this out, we connected up our pump that is already located in the bottom of the Rain Water tank underneath the Garage and diverted the pipework into the house, by using one of the existing 22mm water pipe that is travelling from the Garage to the Utility Room (this pipe will be used for transferring the hot water from the Thermal Solar Panels sitting on top of the Garage) and then connected it to our 22mm pipe that goes off to this Energy Module.
We included a water meter to measure the amount we transferred. We don’t mind using this source of water because it is free anyway, being pure rain water.
We managed to get it running after the usual hiccups and we put in about 900litres before the end of the day, just to see if we lost it again overnight. We created a little float stick and put on a zero mark beforehand and it is now reading 83mm.
Leak-measuring-gauge-on-25th
But, in the morning, Tuesday morning, there was no signs of any leaks. So we continued to transfer more water and by lunch time at 1pm, we got the water level up to 250mm or about 2750litres extra for this experiment. We thought that maybe it needed more head of pressure to ‘force’ the leak.
But again, 24 hours later, on Wednesday lunch time, it was still floating at the same 250mm mark.
Leak-measuring-gauge-on-27th-after-second-fill
So we waited another day and today, at lunch time, we checked the level and it is still holding steady. We are now going to give it a few days and weeks and keep an eye on it to see what happened.
It must be a very very slow leak and we may be able to cope with that, especially that we have found online a possible solution where a suspended ‘blocking’ particles can plug various leaks in ponds or swimming pools etc. It is not the most ideal practical solution because the instructions says that the water needs to be constantly stirred, to keep the mixture thoroughly suspended, and as you can imagine, our tanks are fully enclosed, have multiple internal ‘baffles’ and are buried under the concrete slab and not very accessible. It only costs about £20 for a bottle so it is perhaps worth a try anyway.
We have checked the other Energy Modules, and Number Five (the big one under the Great Room), Number Two (under Bedroom Two) and Number One (under Bedroom Three) are all still full. Only Number Three (under the Entertainment Room) is also showing only half full. We will have to do something similar with this Module too later on when we have established the various plumbing connections etc.