Water pressure optimisation

[treesall]

Has anyone experienced a massive drop in water pressure, only to be told by the water company that they are “optimising the water pressure” to protect the network, and as a result the pressure has been permanently turned down? Our pressure was great until a few days ago when it dropped off a cliff.

It has dropped over 5 bar (from 6.5 to 1.5) and now the shower barely trickles. They came out to test it today and said the kitchen tap is meeting the legal minimum and therefore there are fulfilling their duty. The engineer did tell me off the record that he can see it’s really very poor and that he sees this problem daily but that there’s nothing we can do.

several neighbours are experiencing the same issue and we are all complaining but it feels about hopeless!

I assume you are in UK. They have probably reduced it to lower the risk of leaks and burst pipes. I believe they are only required to provide 1bar, which is the same as a 10metre head of water.

My house is 10m tall, with a water tank in the loft, and gives good pressure on tbe ground floor shower from the tank in the loft. But it has been designed to give good flow (which is not the same as pressure).

Traditional British taps have large waterways to give good flow at low pressure. Imports from countries where pressures are higher tend to be smaller and give reduced flow. There are also service valves (ball valves) which have a small restrictive port inside, these can be replaced with full bore valves that give better flow. Have a look at my link and see if there are any of these under the taps. The Pegler is the big one. The cheap one is not.

https://www.screwfix.com/p/pegler-pb300t-compression-full-bore-15mm-tee-ball-valve-with-blue-handle/21860

www.screwfix.com/p/flomasta-isolating-valves-15mm-10-pack/32802

Also please post a pic of your shower mixer, and any visible pipes, I will see if I can suggest anything.

Do you have a combi boiler?

How old is your house?

Is the incoming water pipe copper, steel, lead, blue or black plastic?