How Much Water Do Water Towers Hold

How Practice Water Towers Work?

(Image credit: Olivier Le Queinec | Shutterstock.com)

Information technology's no surprise that water towers shop water, only it's less well known that they too store energy.

The whole process starts at the h2o treatment plant. After the h2o is treated, electronically powered mechanical pumps transport it through pipes, either to serve an firsthand need (remember showers, dishwashers and h2o sprinklers) or to a h2o tower for storage.

"On a normal twenty-four hours, people are turning on their faucets and flushing their toilets," said Enos Inniss, an assistant teaching professor of civil engineering science at the University of Missouri. "The h2o that people are non using — information technology has to go somewhere," and that somewhere is the water belfry. [The Surprisingly Foreign Physics of Water]

Many water towers are tall and look like behemothic lollipops. Because the pumps from the treatment plant send the water up into the water tower'southward tank, the h2o gains potential energy, or stored free energy. This energy allows the water to flow out of the tank, turning its potential energy into kinetic energy (energy of move) when needed, Inniss said.

"The Giant Peach" water tower in Gaffney, South Carolina. — "The Giant Peach" water belfry in Gaffney, Due south Carolina. (Image credit: Laura DiMugno)

Moreover, the taller the water belfry, the more potential free energy the water has, he said. If a water belfry is holding water for a small area that's nearby — a cemetery graveyard, for case — it might sit on the ground, similar i that Inniss said he saw recently on a road trip.

Just if a h2o tower is designated to hold h2o for a big metropolitan area that's far away, it will likely exist tall and take an enormous tank. A standard water tower can concur 50 times the volume of a regular backyard swimming pool, which holds about twenty,000 to thirty,000 gallons (about 76,000 to 114,000 liters) of h2o, co-ordinate to HowStuffWorks.

For instance, "The Behemothic Peach" water tower in Gaffney, South Carolina, which also serves as a tourist attraction, is 150 feet (46 meters) tall and holds 1 million gallons (3.8 million liters) of water, according to the U.Southward. Geological Survey.

"The taller you go, the more pressure you lot can create within of the system because information technology has farther to fall," Inniss told Live Science.

H2o towers typically fill upward when demand for h2o is low. This ordinarily happens at night after most people go to bed. The pumps at the h2o handling plant continue to send out water, but instead of going to people's sinks, the h2o goes into water towers for storage.

Blue and white water towers in Kuwait. (Image credit: Philip Lange Shutterstock.com)

Then, during the morning rush — when people are running water to brush their teeth, take showers and brew java — that stored h2o, in addition to the water coming from the treatment plant, is available to through pipes to homes, Inniss said.

Water towers also ensure that there'south a supply of water during power outages, at least until the h2o runs out. During an electricity outage, the pumps at the water handling plant would likely finish working (unless there's a generator), Inniss said. Only considering the water in the tower already has potential energy, it doesn't demand more electricity to period out of the tank. [5 Means Humans Waste H2o]

"In one case the tower is empty, then I now need a pump to move the water through the piping again [from the water treatment middle]," Inniss said.

In big cities such as New York, many apartment and function buildings have water towers on elevation of their roofs. These h2o towers not only serve an immediate demand, but also requite some cities an iconic look, Inniss said.

Other h2o towers also serve as art, including the Brooks Catsup Canteen H2o Tower in Collinsville, Illinois, and a corn-shaped water tower in Rochester, Minnesota.

Follow Laura Geggel on Twitter @LauraGeggel . Follow Live Science @livescience , Facebook & Google+ . Original commodity on Alive Scientific discipline.

Laura is an editor at Live Scientific discipline. She edits Life'due south Little Mysteries and reports on general science, including archaeology and animals. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Scholastic, Pop Science and Spectrum, a site on autism research. She has won multiple awards from the Order of Professional person Journalists and the Washington Paper Publishers Association for her reporting at a weekly newspaper near Seattle. Laura holds a bachelor's degree in English language literature and psychology from Washington University in St. Louis and a primary's degree in science writing from NYU.