Water Butts….waste of money?

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:

david29dpo

when we restored our house, i put a large tank in the Attic, this is fed via a ball-!!!! from a big water-tank in the garden.this tank has a cheap pump with a flow switch which turns on itself when there is water in the tank. when the tank in the Attic is full, i have a little switch on the ball-!!!! that turns the power off to the pump. the tank in the Attic feds the toilets, washing machine, dishwasher and the outside tap. my metered water bill is peanuts!

ssherlock

david29dpo wrote:

when we restored our house, i put a large tank in the Attic, this is fed via a ball-!!!! from a big water-tank in the garden.this tank has a cheap pump with a flow switch which turns on itself when there is water in the tank. when the tank in the Attic is full, i have a little switch on the ball-!!!! that turns the power off to the pump. the tank in the Attic feds the toilets, washing machine, dishwasher and the outside tap. my metered water bill is peanuts!

That sounds great. Can you give details of cost and amount of work involved?

david29dpo

tank in attic, secondhand, £20. tank in garden hard work with a spade! and liner the same as used for ponds £30. pump £40 from screw-fix. 50 feet of hose,£10. ballcock £10. wire £10. switch,£2.50. work was a doddle, place tank in attic but make sure well supported-!! fit ballcock and hose. run hose to tank in garden and connect to pump. break in to negative wire and run to ballcock in attic. fit switch to tank. i have a little bit of metal taped to the arm of the ballcock that hits the switch just before it fully closes. simple!!! do you thick i should patent it?

Weymouth_Man

david29dpo wrote:

when we restored our house, i put a large tank in the Attic, this is fed via a ball-!!!! from a big water-tank in the garden.this tank has a cheap pump with a flow switch which turns on itself when there is water in the tank. when the tank in the Attic is full, i have a little switch on the ball-!!!! that turns the power off to the pump. the tank in the Attic feds the toilets, washing machine, dishwasher and the outside tap. my metered water bill is peanuts!

Great idea, But did you not have to do a fair amount of repiping ?

I have a water softener fitted, so all water incoming is then soft including outside tap & toilet etc

david29dpo

yes,sorry forgot that! 100 foot of copper pipe, easy in a new build, not so easy after! but still worth it.

in_my_wellies

Great ideas on here. My youngest son is at this very moment rying to get OH to start digging.

My father's house was built in 1883 and has a huge tank above the old scullery/washroom. Via a little door of the landing, it is fed from the roof gutters. When full the excess flows into the down pipe. So simple and completely free. He uses it for the washing machine too.

It's high enough up to fill all toilets and when he moved in there was one of those old fashioned brass showers over the origonal bath. The water was heated with a little oil burner so not as bad as it sounds. How he regrets fitting a brand new 1060's bathroom!

gromituk

Weymouth_Man wrote:

I have a water softener fitted, so all water incoming is then soft including outside tap & toilet etc

It's of some use for the toilet (stops the bowl getting scaled up) but it shouldn't be on the outside tap - that's just wasting water and salt. I presume you have a drinking water tap before the softener, too!

oops_a_daisy

why does it cost so much to get a water butt compared to getting a composter ??? I have ordered a composter for £6.00 but the water butt workes out at nearly £35, athough does include the extras. Just wondered.

http://www.trycomposting.peppercart.net/nwl/index2.htm

gromituk

Probably because there's a high demand so they can charge what they like.

Don't buy from there - look on the net/eBay for loads of alternatives.