Staycalm wrote:
What about rainwater tanks in urban areas?

The problem is usually where you can fit it.
There are sone nice slim tanks that solve a lot of space problems.
The rest of the problem is plastic lego (getting it into the tank and
surplus way)

What's involved with fitting a small tank to the house?

1)you buy a tank that you can fit a tap to
2) you divert the rainwater intothe tank (remove old downpipe, construct
diversion from plastic bits to put water into tank)
3) you arrange for disposal of excess rainwater (put overflow beside old
down pipe and cut into it)
4) you connect the hose and water the garden. easy.
5) you want a tap inside (mosty done by plumbers for their skill)
6)If you want to connect to toilet, then water board (sydney) says a
plumber must do it. you will also need to consider auto top up (float
valve) in this case.

Are there companies who do this? i.e. not just
deliver a tank to your door.

Probably. I would be surprised if there isn't.


Who here has one? Do you use it a lot?

Rainwater tanks, colourbond, two
Yes, top on on water feature, which is currently an expensive bird bath
atm (pump broke) and for watering the garden when we want to.

Because we live in an urban area with high air pollution, we don't treat
it as specially pure for cooking, etc. It is easier to just fit a dual
water filter on the mains for "clean" water.

Nor have we connected it to the toilet for flushing the as that requires
a plumber (to do it legally and "pollution" of rain water with flouride
seems silly to me (you need a top up value to keep a minimum head).

Nor, can I see the point of paying hundreds of dollars for a pump and
ongoing cost of electricity to pump rainwater into my toilet cistern
(other method).