Flushing loo manually with rain water

Ken68

I don't put my toenail clippings into the ordinary rubbish, because it might jam up the council machine .

Ken68

I see the average Anglia region water/sewage bills for 2011/12 is £380. With those sort of savings , payback time for a DIY project would only be a year or two.

[Deleted User]

Ken68 wrote: »

Yes ,Very, have being doing this probably for 5 years now. Have lots of tanks orf lots of sheds, even though do run out sometimes and then use the council wheelie bin.
Bills are £25 a year Anglian Water SoLow tariff, this includes mains water for cooking, showers and laundry.
Am presently researching the use of Brita filters for making tea from rainwater. Not sure if this is safe and wouldn't mind your thoughts on this.

no definitely not, unless you perhaps boil for several minutes as well but that would defeat the object. I have several water purifiers stored in the house, the type that travellers use in africa and they will clean up the dirtiest of water. Butt water will be our lifesaver if ever we had a freshwater supply breakdown but only by using the purifiers

[Deleted User]

while on the subject of butt water. Mine is sparkly clear because of using ceramic hoops in a bag. I had the first ones from harrod horticultural but made my own bag for another butt from a washing tablet net and ceramic rings for a fishtank. Very much cheaper and loads over, they will last for many years

Cardew

kittie wrote: »

while on the subject of butt water. Mine is sparkly clear

I hope no Americans are reading this;)

Ken68

Thanks Kittie...not dear either.

http://www.harrodhorticultural.com/HarrodSite/pages/product/product.asp?prod=GWT-037&ctgry=Pond%20Care&cookie%5Ftest=1

have used charcoal in a bag.
Just received a reply from Beko saying that to use rainwater in a washing machine it needs 1 bar pressure which I think means a header tank high up. Thought to pour rainwater thru the detergent drawer, which might work on the first wash. Not a lot on the net about this.

energysavingexp

Ken68 wrote: »

Thanks Kittie...not dear either.

http://www.harrodhorticultural.com/HarrodSite/pages/product/product.asp?prod=GWT-037&ctgry=Pond%20Care&cookie%5Ftest=1

have used charcoal in a bag.
Just received a reply from Beko saying that to use rainwater in a washing machine it needs 1 bar pressure which I think means a header tank high up. Thought to pour rainwater thru the detergent drawer, which might work on the first wash. Not a lot on the net about this.

just use a small pump very easy to install.

Mankysteve

Cardew wrote: »

Is it not permissable on an Internet forum to give an opinion on the merits/demerits of any proposed action?

Why not take this further and not use flushing toilets at all - use a bucket and deposit the contents on the garden. That way you won't have sewerage works having to process your waste.

It seems any proposal that is 'Green' must be beyond criticism or comment - now how many of you recycle your toenail clippings;)

This is a reasonable criticism.

Viper_7 wrote: »

I admire what you are trying to do, but to me it also seems a little too over the top.
I would have a house rule so to speak that downstairs is only used for "number 1's" and then set the cistern regulator so that it only fills to the absolute minimum to achieve a satisfactory flush. Or fit a dual flush system. End being only the minimal amount of water is used.

You use much more water for bathing/showers than flushing the loo. sure it's still saving on power/chemicals required to treat the water, but it's soooooooo tiny in the grand scheme of things... but sure these tiny things do add up.

I'm all for new builds having solar panels/ heat pumps / grey water systems etc as standard. Government should make this mandatory the costs will soon come down due to the mass production and will be more efficient than retro fitted units.

This is the response of someone who reads the daily mail too much.

wallbash wrote: »

My first thought, 'get a life'

If you want to live in a third rate country move, you can take this MSE too far.

veryintrigued

Thanks for all the useful replies - really appreciated.

Which leads me onto "wallbash".....I wonder if you'd use language like "get a life" to someone's face? Money saving actions like this allowed me to pay off my "third world" 3 bed detached mortgage by the age of 35.

Once again thanks to all the constructive posts (beit positive or negative).