Following on from greywater...

 What about rainwater tanks in urban areas? What's involved with fitting a
small tank to the house? Are there companies who do this? i.e. not just
deliver a tank to your door.
Who here has one? Do you use it a lot?

Liz

 

fitting a

Depending on where you gutters are directing the flow from the roof
and where you plan to put the tank, you may need to have the gutters
redirected.  By that I mean that if the downflow pipe is currently at
the front of the hosue nearest the road and the rain from the roof
goes inot hte down pipe and into the storm water drains, but the only
place you have for a tank is at the back of the house then you may
need to have a drainpipe installed at the back of the house and the
gutters lowered to reverse the water flow to the back of the house
rather than to the front.

Are there companies who do this? i.e. not just

Yes.  Look in the Yellow pages.


I do but I live in the country and it is my only source of water for
the house. I use dam and bore water for the garden.

Unless you can get one that holds a fair bit of water or live in an
area with high rainfall, it may not be financially worthwhile but your
own particular circumstances and location will be deciding factors.
Bigger is better if it's going to be any use at all.  Sprinklers use a
lot of water if you use them.

 g'day liz,

once the tank is delivered and sited where you want it and the company
delivering it has installed the flow valve where you want it then
there after it is easier than cooking a cake to run the roof water
into it, like has been said there might be some consideration of where
downpipes are but most gable typ home have at least 4 , but running
downpipe shouldn't be too big a concern.

then of course the overflow pipe from the tank need to be connected
back the the storm water system usually where you cut into that system
to install the tank.

fitting a pump and a tap is just as DIY as the above, just need a
power point near by.

at present if you are going to get a company to install it for you
(not sure where you are?) there ae some rip off deals going around
esecially up here. and another if you realy want to get more water
efficient and get value for money from your tank then consider how
much water you want to provide and then calculate how often it would
ahve to rain to keep that tank at a level that will provide for your
needs. also ring around the rural tank makers they often can do a
beter deal than the local guy who seems to run on he's got a monopoly
principal.

generally i recomment 14,500 litre (3,200 imp/gal) tans as the minimum
for most households. someone with a reasonable amount of garden could
use 700 to 1000 litres of water a week or fortnight depending on how
often the need to water is.

currently in our home we are going through app' 25 litres of water a
week about 6 litres of that for the kettle and the rest for drinking.

we have just had delivered a 24,500 litre (5,400 imp.gal) tanks
delivered which i am in the process of running 2 downpipes to and then
i'll fit the pump and tap, no hurry there can't use any of the water
until it rains enough to put enough in there.

but we reckon for drinking and cooking and water the plants when
necessary (we use all our grey water on our gardens ie.,. dishwashing,
shower/bath, laundry & collected wee water, have done for over a
decade with nil ill effects on gardens plants or us, then we think we
have a fair bit of common sense and only apply it around the root
zones of the plants, w share our excess with friends and rellies no
ones been sick or dead yet even use some of it raw in salads), and
hopefull get enough to sue in teh laundry and to keep the pool topped
up, going to use those plastic 44 gallon drums under uncontrlloed
downpies sow e can ahve that water there to use as needed for the
above.

our loose plans are to buy another tank maybe the 14,500 litre one nxt
time so we can be self relient and not ahve to drink that sewer water
they intend pumping into our fresh wate system.

On Sat, 2 Sep 2006 21:37:32 +1000, "Staycalm"
snipped
With peace and brightest of blessings,

len

--
"Be Content With What You Have And
May You Find Serenity and Tranquillity In
A World That You May Not Understand."

http://www.gardenlen.com

 

sewer water is lovely stuff Len, lovely stuff. The drinking water we get
here in Hamilton has been through several towns and a few factories, and
seriously, tastes ok. Best thing is that after leaving hamilton and passing
through a couple more towns the recycled water ends up in Auckland. The
ultimate revenge.

rob

 Staycalm wrote:

The problem is usually where you can fit it.
There are sone nice slim tanks that solve a lot of space problems.
The rest of the problem is plastic lego (getting it into the tank and
surplus way)


1)you buy a tank that you can fit a tap to
2) you divert the rainwater intothe tank (remove old downpipe, construct
 diversion from plastic bits to put water into tank)
3) you arrange for disposal of excess rainwater (put overflow beside old
down pipe and cut into it)
4) you connect the hose and water the garden. easy.
5) you want a tap inside (mosty done by plumbers for their skill)
6)If you want to connect to toilet, then water board (sydney) says a
plumber must do it. you will also need to consider auto top up (float
valve) in this case.


Probably. I would be surprised if there isn't.



Rainwater tanks, colourbond, two
Yes, top on on water feature, which is currently an expensive bird bath
atm (pump broke) and for watering the garden when we want to.

Because we live in an urban area with high air pollution, we don't treat
it as specially pure for cooking, etc. It is easier to just fit a dual
water filter on the mains for "clean" water.

Nor have we connected it to the toilet for flushing the as that requires
a plumber (to do it legally and "pollution" of rain water  with flouride
seems silly to me (you need a top up value to keep a minimum head).

Nor, can I see the point of paying hundreds of dollars for a pump and
ongoing cost of electricity to pump rainwater into my toilet cistern
(other method).