Using rainwater to flush toilets.

cazrobinson

collecting and storing bath water is not a great idea. bacteria builds up quickly in plain water, in warm water with human cells, oils and soap it will multiply scarily quickly. if your storing it, the waste water inside, make sure that children can't fall in and it doesn't smell (bleach tablets is a good option).

i think that "if it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown flush it down" is a better solution. we don't flush at night (5 of us in the house), mainly to stop waking the baby, but it does keep flushes down to a minimum.

i've thought about going on a meter, but as there is five of us (one is in washable nappies) and lots of washing, i don't think we can afford it.

oh, i have thought about waste water from the bath which can be diverted and used straight to water plants outside. which eliminates the need to store the waste water.

sorry for the rambling!
caz

pjb007

This like may help:
http://www.cat.org.uk/information/catinfo.tmpl?subdir=search&command=search&db=../information/catinfo.db&eqSKUdatarq=20020925160005&start=1

Solomon_Broad

Depending on how technically minded you are, you could just set a tank up in the loft, and divert water from the downpipe into it. Then, set a pipe up to feed your cistern.

How big the tank would need to be to hold enough water etc, depends on how many times a day you flush the toilet, how big the flush amount is, and how much rainfall you get every year.

The benefit to getting it straight from the roof is you wouldn't need to pump it uphill from ground level.

Perhaps something like a waterbutt diverter, joined into the downpipe, right under the eaves to fill the tank up. That way, you wouldn't get the tank overflowing.

gromituk

The main problem with this is that not many people have gutters above loft level. Great if you do, but in most cases, gutters are at loft floor level, so a diverter from a drainpipe will not work.

I have a plan to pump water from my reservoir (for my pond; filled from all the gutters) into a cistern in the loft from where it is fed to the toilet cisterns. Requires a lot of failsafe mechanisms to make it unlikely the pump won't cut out and you'll get a flood! Requires quite a lot of work to install...

An advantage of using rain water to flush toilets in hard water areas is that you avoid limescale build-up.

Solomon_Broad

gromituk wrote:

The main problem with this is that not many people have gutters above loft level.

Good point. I never thought of that. Mind you, it should still be fairly easy, if not aesthetically pleasing, to create some kind of setup for the downstairs toilet. Perhaps a tank in a cupboard, with a pipe through the floor into the downstairs toilet. Still a lot of variables, though. Be pretty awkward unless you had space in the room directly above the toilet.