What capacity water tanks do I need?

 Hi all,

I live in metro victoria, and I'm installing a water tank or two in my
back yard.  I have lawn that I never water, and a moderately large
vegie garden.   Any idea about what capacity I'd need to look at?  

My current plan is for 2 tanks totalling around 9,000L.  Is this
enough? Way too much?  I'm new to all this :)

Future plans include hooking the rain tanks up to the toilet cisterns,
perhaps even the washing machine.

Thanks!

Tom.

 

A quick google turned up this commercial page which may help you to
decide.  The other constriction, of course, is how much of your yard
you want to give over to water tanks.

http://www.polyworld.com.au/calculations.htm

 g'day tom,

we usually recommend nothing under 14,500 litre capacity, it will
generally cost you more to buyt 2 smaller tanks than one larger tank,
don't know about down your way but ring the rural tank makers you will
find out most if not all will dleiver and site in your area.

if you have some idea of rainfall where you are and you know the area
of roof that the water is going to be captured from a quick way to
calculate is '1mm of rain on 1 sq/mtr of roof = 1 litre of water'

most gardeners can sue between 1,000 & 1,500 litres of water a week or
fortnight, that is calculated on average town pressure and 1 hours
watering.

we just had a 24,500 litre tank delivered all connected to pump and
downpipes (diy) $3100, from one of our rural tank suppliers.

so go bigger than smaller if you want to use for drinking, and laundry
etc.,. not hard for you to work out your water consumption, you will
find most homes use around 1,000 litres of water a week at least. and
on naverage they will empty a 5,000 litre tank in a month at least.



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

 

I have a 10000L tank for the vege garden (about 10m square) and it lasts 4-6
weeks if there is no rain and I have to keep watering weekly.  So 9000L is
not far too much.  As others have said it also depends on your likely
rainfall and catchment area.  Consider also that most houses have guttering
set up to run to several downpipes, unless you put a tank under each or go
to the expense of re-running the guttering to go to fewer places you may not
be able to harvest all the water off your roof.

David

 yes david,

these modern macmansions got almost 2 downpipes per side plus 2 for
the garage so very very ahrd to get good catchment going for you, we
have managed to without huge expense reposition the flow of the
guttering block off one downpipe, put a dam into one section of
guttering to force the water to go our way, and get 2 downpipes into
the tank.

but it isn't realy enough but nought we can do new homes are not built
for conserving anything, and for some there is barely room to walk
around the house outside, so owners forced to buy very small and very
inadequate tanks.

we got 22mm of rain alst night and with an eco designed home we would
have had in excess of twice the amount of water we eventually got
saved.

On Thu, 28 Sep 2006 01:54:58 GMT, "David Hare-Scott"

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