|
BED & BREAKFASTS OPERATIONS USING A
MARGINAL OR INADEQUATE WELL
The world is warming to the romantic
getaway that often includes a stay in a Bed & Breakfast. This industry
is steadily growing. Many farms that were not profitable, historic
building that were neglected, and family homes that were too big have
been renovated and turned into a Bed & Breakfast (B&B).
Renovation will almost certainly include the addition of bathrooms
so each guest room will have their own. A home that had one or two baths
may suddenly have six or more and some of those may include a whirlpool
tub. There is going to be a lot more water used and most of it will be
needed between 7:00AM and 10:00AM.
Chances are that the existing well will not be adequate and in
some areas, because of geology, it could take several new wells combined
to provide adequate yield to service the peak demand flow rate required
to supply all of this plumbing.
Let's look at some of the numbers that
quantify the problem using a 6 bathroom B&B that has a whirlpool bath in
the two premium rooms as an example.
The worst case scenario would be six
couples awakening at the same time and those with whirlpools wanting to
fill them while the others tried to shower. AND because everyone wants
breakfast, this all occurred in a 1 ˝ hour period of time.
To calculate the maximum flow rate
required:
| 4 showers @ 3 gpm |
12 gallons per minute |
| 3 (˝ of the toilets)
filling at the same time @ 3 gpm |
9 |
| 3 ( ˝ of the lavatory
faucets running) @ 1.5 gpm |
4.5 |
| 2 Whirlpools filling @
10 gpm |
20 |
| 1 Kitchen faucet (making
breakfast) @ 2.5 gpm |
2.5 |
| |
48.0 gpm |
You could make do with 50 gallons per
minute as long as you forbid the use of outside water, clothes and dish
washing during the peak demand period and verified that the clock on the
water treatment equipment was always properly set. This is the minimum,
a capability of 60 gpm or more would be comfortable.
Water usage over the peak demand period:
| 8 showers 15 min x 3 gpm |
= 45 gal x 8 = 360
gallons |
| 2 Whirlpool Fills 90 gal
x 2 |
= 180 |
| 16 toilet uses @ 1.6 GPF
w/50% double flush 24 x 1.6 |
= 38.4 |
| 16 Face care/shave @ 3
gal 16 x 3 |
= 48 |
| Cooking Breakfast -
dishwashing is later |
50 |
| |
676.4 |
Water usage for
that 1 ˝ hour period could be 676 gallons. For the sake of this example
let's assume that the existing well is 8 gallons per minute. Since it's
not a good idea to base a business venture on using the entire well
yield, let's set the system up to use ˝ of the available yield. Planning
this way, the well could loose ˝ of its yield before plumbing
performance would be affected.
To calculate the storage required:
| 90 minute peak demand
requires |
676 gallons |
| Water collected from
well @ 4gpm for 90 minutes - |
360 gallons |
|
Minimum storage
required no safety margin |
316 gallons |
Looking at tanks that are readily
available we find that a 425 gallon tank or perhaps two 220 gallon tank
piped together would produce a 30% safety margin. Once the system is in
use additional storage is easily added if reality shows that more
storage is necessary.
So you see
it is possible to deliver 60
gallons per minute and inure the sustainability of system performance
using a well that appears to be inadequate. Well Manager® does this
every day.
|
