Water Butts….waste of money?

radio10

gromituk wrote:

small pump which would run for long periods. Trying to locate such a thing, which would have to have a head of about 6m, has not been easy.

would a garden pond pump achieve this?

gromituk

Not really - they tend to consume too much power and not have enough head, unfortunately. They're also mains operated, so you'd have to convert your solar panel output, which would add extra complication and power loss.

lowsonig

Could you capillery action to pump up the water?
2T cos θ

---

= h
pgr

h = elevation of the liquid [m]
T = surface tension [Nm-1]
θ = angle of contact of the liquid with the capillary tube [radians]
ρ = density of the liquid [kgm-3]
g= standard acceleration due to gravity [ms-2]
r = radius of capillary tube [m]

Just do some more research!!

gromituk

Not unless you use something at the top to squeeze out the water. Otherwise, you'd have a nice perpetual motion machine!

lowsonig

gromituk wrote:

Not unless you use something at the top to squeeze out the water. Otherwise, you'd have a nice perpetual motion machine!

Could you use your low power pump for that? I.e. design the system to be largely capillary and have a low power pump at the top "assisting"

You could develop the flushing action to be the "squeeze" at the top! You remember those old hand pumps that used to be over the kitchen sink. The cistern contains the "pump" with a pipe sunk to the water butt collecting. When you've been, couple of pumps (no pun intended) and flushes your bits and bobs away.

Insulated and covered water butt on garage roof (mounted on side of house \ convenient location) fed from house guttering (& bath waste?) - downstairs toilet fed from bottom of butt. Similar setup to the old high up cisterns! As long as the bottom of the butt is higher than the feed for the cistern it's a winner. Loads of terrace houses with downstairs bathrooms could use this.
Additional basic filtering system (another vessel full of pea gravel) could then be used for (assuming water pressure adaquate) cold water supply where water doesn't need to be drunk (washing machine).

You are looking at capital investment with a long term before you start saving money. Like all moves away from mains services it's a long term investment.

I've either got too much time on my hands or too much caffine in me veins! Maybe both.

Rockee

About a year ago there was an article in the newspapers about a man who had developed a system of collecting his water from the washing machine through a filter into 2 water butts which he then used to water the garden etc.. It said he was going to market this but haven't heard of anything about since. I presume it similar to other posts but in reverse.

gromituk

Many years ago I read about someone who had made a complete grey water filtration system in his garden. Oh good, it's still on line here!

jonnyw_2

We use rain water to flush our toilets, as well as wash the car and water the garden - I think we are in front financially.

The water is collected in an old oil tank. 2500 litre capacity. Then the clever bit. We have a water pump inside the house on mains electricity supply. It pumps from the water pump to the toilet and an outside trap . It has a pressure guage on it - when the toilet is flushed or the tap turned on the water pressure in the pipe drops and the pump turns on. It turns off when the pressure gets up again. A full tank of water lasts about two weeks in summer. about four weeks in winter.

Theres a special valve that kicks in the mains water supply if the tank is dry - but its never happened yet.

We reckon it saves us £2.50 a week. We are on a meter so save both ways -sewage and fresh water charge both at about £1 a cubic meter. It cost us £450 to fit it. Mostly do it yourself with our friendly plumber checking it and making the final connection. Thats a 25% return.

Its been in 5 years now, and the saving/return gets better every year as water/sewage charges go up. I think they will keep going up in price so the future return will be even better. We think it supplies about half our water. We go to the toilet a lot here - wife plus two daughters seem to go a lot.

When we get a water bill I run the outside tap and go round the house flushing toilets which makes me feel better.

I am reinvesting the savings in solar panels so am on the look out for info about this.

I have a down on utility companies!!!!!

gromituk

That's very interesting. I presume that the pump has a pressure vessel so that it does not run continuously while the cistern is filling. Is the oil tank steel, and, if so, how have you protected its interior from rust? Have you got any filters?

Xbigman

Update.
I previously posted that I was using recycled water to flush the toilet manually (by tipping a bucket in). I read my water meter today and I used 1.5 units instead of my average 2.55.

I have a small bowl in the sink upstairs, recovering all water used washing hands etc. I use a large plastic tub lid (from B&Q) in the shower to recover a lot of shower water. I use a bowl to do the washing up (which uses less water that way too) and recover that. On my days off (when I'm not using my employers toilet) I use water from my water butt for the extra few flushes.

Originally I did this for a month to see what I could save (£22 a year) but now I'm in the habit I plan to carry on.

Tips.
Don't let dirty water stand, it starts to smell by the second day. Tip dirty water direct down the toilet, pouring towards the front to get the swirl. Clean water should be tipped into the cistern (use an isolator valve turned so the supply is a trickle to give you time to tip the water in).
Lastly, I'm a single man and doing this by hand won't work if you have a family.
Regards


X

PS. Don't tell anyone where you work, they will think you are mad :doh: