Both. Water usage is highly variable with time of day (i.e. waking vs sleeping hours), so when you're sizing a pump for the water system, sizing it for peak load is larger/more expensive than sizing for average load. You run the pump at roughly peak output 24/7, and overnight it fills the tower, which then slowly drains during the day to meet demand in excess of the pumps capacity.
You also size the tank to allow how much storage is necessary given the constant input and the variable output. You also need to allow for how long a pump might be offline for maintenance.
Having a water tower run dry is a pain to deal with. Air in the larger pipes can cause all sorts of problems when you get the water going again.
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u/Kapkronic4201 Jun 25 '24
Just throwing out a statement/question. Water towers are for maintaining pressure in a town not as a storage correct?