How do public utilities work?

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What kind of system allows them to control water, gas, and electricity flow to a certain house?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

It’s not controlled. Water, gas and electricity are being “pushed” to every house all the time. It’s basically waiting there for you to be used. Water and gas are probably the easiest to understand. It’s just there in your pipes with some pressure behind it. Open a faucet and water starts running out that was already there. It’s not like the faucet sends a signal to the water company which then starts sending water to your house. What the water company does do is measure how much water you’re using, using a meter placed somewhere on (or right near) your property. In an extreme scenario, they could cut off your water supply, but this involves someone physically traveling to your house to close a valve (which you don’t have access to).

Utilities do need to make sure that there is enough supply at all times. So e.g. the water company (and possibly your building’s management) has to make sure the water pressure is high enough, using a combination of pumps and water towers. If the pressure is too low, then water won’t be pushed into your pipes and be waiting there when you open a faucet. There will either be no water at all or just a trickle.

Gas and electricity follow the same basic principles, though for the latter this is a bit harder to imagine. Basically you can think of voltage as taking the place of the water pressure. When someone starts using electricity, the voltage drops a little. If it drops too low (or threatens to), the electricity company has to make its power stations work harder (for instance) to compensate.

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