mine was Doctor Beverly Crusher of Star trek the next generation.
You could use CPVC, requires just glueing and watching for expansion, also useable for water to 180 °F, for the main lines use 3/4 and closer to the faucets use ?
Use PEX and the new Shark fittings - the stuff is pretty amazing and will allow you do do some pretty fancy work in a very short time, far faster than with sweat-copper. The cost will be competitive as you can fish PEX right up through walls and around corners on a fish-wire as you would electric cables - so labor is greatly reduced. There is a company called Houseneeds (linked below) that will help you through the entire process, talk you through things over the phone (sometimes even at odd hours) and generally be very helpful - as well as sell you stuff at pretty good prices. Despite what some might think this is NOT rocket science. It just requires care, attention-to-detail and some basic practice. Were you to wish to go back in copper, or even with solvent-weld PVC/CPVC fittings, I would stop you and suggest you call a pro. But with the new PEX system and appropriate fittings things have gotten much easier both to understand and to do. NOTE: 1,300 feet rancher - about one very long day's work for two reasonably adept individuals to plumb the entirety including a water heater, washer, dishwasher, 2 baths, outside hose bib and so forth - *THAT* is the beauty of PEX plumbing. And that would include a central manifold with individual, valved hot and cold feeds to each location. Lose the manifold and do series plumbing - a short day for two, long day for one.
1/2 copper is what you use. I don't see any reason you couldn't use compression fittings if you are not going to get it inspected. I used high pressure PVC on a rental unit I have and ten years ago and had no problems.
Conservation of energy via Bernoulli equation Total energy of the system 0 Choose your reference location, let's say the ground (let's designate as location 2) and location 1 is 45 m above Energy at location 1: Flow energy_1 + Hydrostatic head_1 + Pressure head_1 Energy at location 2: Flow energy_2 + Hydrostatic head_2 + Pressure head_2 Losses (note: losses are dependent on flow velocity squared): 2 x elbow losses 1 x square-edge entrance loss 1 x open angle valve loss 1 x square-edge exit loss major pipe loss (find loss coefficient of 60 m galvanized steel pipe) Sum equations: Energy_at_1 Energy_at_2 - Losses
Do not listen to those saying use 1/2 inch copper. A gross generalization. Yes, 1/2 used at point of termination (directly under a sink, toilet, etc. The very smallest pipe to use as main lines is 3/4. I have used 1 on jobs exceeding 100' of main line. Consider this; 1 pipe not that much more expensive than 1/2.but 1 is 4 times (yes, four times) more volume than 1/2. Do the math, you'll see. (area of a circle, e.g.) Piping in industrial applications 1 1/2, even 2. Bigger the line, better the water pressure. Don't be afraid of soldering. Read a book. Practice a little. It's not as hard as it looks. Also, some hardware stores (Home Depot is one) sell presoldered fittings. In the long term, you'll be sorry if using compression or plastic. A critical matter: copper cannot be connected to other metals (other than brass) including mounting brackets (use plastic or copper coated clamps) If you must connect to galvanized or black steel don't just use a dialectric union, use a brass nipple on each side of dialectric union (at least 6 each) as a buffer. Otherwise your copper will quickly corrode. Keep future repair and alteration in mind too, allow for shut off valves and make main lines easily accessible, install tees with ball valves in areas you anticipate additions. Consider (if in your budget) designing path of pipe in a loop; in other words, where pipe enters house, travels toward sinks, showers, appliances, route the pipe so that it connects back near entry.not dead end everywhere. You will experience a huge difference in consistent water pressure. remember, new construction plumbing is usually performed by the lowest bidder; not in the best interest of the resident/user.
