TANK WATER GUARD (Switch system protecting the loss of household Tank water due to open and forgotten taps or hose burst) Inventor Johannes Nijhuis 5 I) DEFINITION: 10 Particular for households, depending for their drinking water supply on the storage of rainwater in abovo or underground tanks, it is of the upmost importance, that no water is lost due to a left open tap or a broken pipe or hose pressurized by the water supply pump system. This invention guards for this potential loss of water by allowing a certain 15 amount of water be used for a limited continuous pumping time. Sometimes people forget to turn off a tap before leaving the premisses or even worse; a connection or pipe, breaks in the pressurised supply circuit. This can result in a case that the pump will empty the water storage tank, without the knowledge of the house owner during his absence. And even worse; kill the pump 20 due to running dry after the emptying of the storage is completed. The Tank Water Guard allows only constant running of the pump for a set time. Every household fresh water supply system is equipped with a feeding pump, with a capacity, which will constantly run when a tap is fully open. In other words, 25 that as long as this tap is fully open the pump will not switch off because it reaches its max. pressure. The invention is based on this situation, (If a pump was used so big that it stops now and than with a full open tap, this invention can't be used). The invention novelty is based on the fact that it is not just a timer, but electronically measures electrical current to flow through the supply cord to the 30 pump as long as the pump is running. As soon as the pump stops, the invention will detect the lack of current and reset a internal timer for a set time. This means, that under normal circumstances this timer will be reset over and over again, not disturbing the normal use of the freshwater supply. Only when the pump runs constantly for longer than the set time, the system will interfere and switch off the power supply to pump. 35 By just switching the power supply to the Tank Water Guard off and on again the system is fully reset and ready to protect loss of water again. The invention is connected to the system by means of simple plug and counter plug between the outdoor electrical wall socket and the pump. 40 Page 1 of 7 II) BACKGROUND: 5 .It seems to happen to many people, that they left the tap open and running topping up a spa, swimming pool or for other reasons. But it can also happen, that the washing machine connection come of or any other pressurized water pipe during, ones absence. Many parts of Australia have frequent water drought problems and particular in the country side and outback the storage amount of drinking water very importance, When many thousand of litres of water are pumped out and wasted it 10 must be replaced which can cause days of waiting and high prices in dry periods. An extra problem is that most water pumps cannot run dry for a longer period, so one might loose al the drinking water and the expensive supply pump. 15 Il) HOW DOES IT WORK FIGI 20 Plug (5) on power cord (7) powering the water pump motor (15), is removed from the electrical wall socket (1). The plug (5) of the pump power cord is pushed into the socket plug (4) of the Water Guard (3). The plug (2) of the Water Guard (3) is pushed into the wall socket (1). FIG2 25 220V wall socket (13) powers the water pump (5) through the Water Guard (2). Microprocessor (15) detects any power running through the Water Guard (3) and will hold on relay (17) by means of the spool (16). This will activate on turn the spool (19) of timing relay (20) during a time period activated by timer (18) which is set bu the manual time selector (4). As soon as the time runs out, timer (18) will activate the 30 relay (20) cutting off the power to the pump (5) and signal to the microprocessor (15) The microprocessor holds the supply to the pump (5) as long the power supply (13) stays on, When this power is switched off relay (20) will switch back to the previous position and when the power is switched on again the pump will run. When the maximum water pressure is reached (In de accumulator 6 fig 1) 35 this pressure is sent to the pressure switch (9) which will disconnect the pump relay (7) by spool (6), stops power to the pump motor (8) through wire (11). When this happens within the set timer setting is run out, Microprocessor (15) will no longer detect a current, and switch the relay (17) by spool (16) taking the power of the spool (19) of the timer relay (20) and reset the timer for a full set timer 40 period. This will continue doing till the time once runs out and the safety system as mentioned in line (25 - 34) 45 Page 2 of 7 Con't FIG.1 5 When the Tank Water Guard (1 to 5) is connected up, power will flow through the Water Guard , plug (5) and lead (7) to the pump relay (13) to pump motor (15) to drive pump (14) to suck water through pipe (10) from storage tank (11), to put pressure on line 10 (8) and to tap (9). When the max, Set water pressure is reached , pilot line (12) will trigger pressure switch (13) to switch off the pump. Pressure is maintained in pressure accumulator vessel (6) to prevent too much continuous starting and stopping. 15 On the Tank Water Guard there is an outside switch (15) which can set the max. running time of the timer to 10,15,20 or 30 minutes. NOVELTY AND ADVANTAGE OVER TIMER SYSTEMS. 20 If one would use a normal timer this timer has to be manual set every time one opens a tap for a longer period. The invention is not the timer it self but the fact that it has an automatic self resetting timing system controlled by the fact if the is a amperage flowing to the pump motor or not. 25 Due to this automatic resetting, based on the detection of amperage trough the pump supply, makes it possible to insert this system without any side effects in the power supply and forget about it. It will safeguard the water storage, day and night, even when the owner is on holiday. 30 35 40 45 Page 3 of 7