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#1
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Following on from greywater...
What about rainwater tanks in urban areas? What's involved with fitting a
small tank to the house? Are there companies who do this? i.e. not just deliver a tank to your door. Who here has one? Do you use it a lot? Liz |
#2
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Following on from greywater...
"Staycalm" wrote in message
What about rainwater tanks in urban areas? What's involved with fitting a small tank to the house? Depending on where you gutters are directing the flow from the roof and where you plan to put the tank, you may need to have the gutters redirected. By that I mean that if the downflow pipe is currently at the front of the hosue nearest the road and the rain from the roof goes inot hte down pipe and into the storm water drains, but the only place you have for a tank is at the back of the house then you may need to have a drainpipe installed at the back of the house and the gutters lowered to reverse the water flow to the back of the house rather than to the front. Are there companies who do this? i.e. not just deliver a tank to your door. Yes. Look in the Yellow pages. Who here has one? Do you use it a lot? I do but I live in the country and it is my only source of water for the house. I use dam and bore water for the garden. Unless you can get one that holds a fair bit of water or live in an area with high rainfall, it may not be financially worthwhile but your own particular circumstances and location will be deciding factors. Bigger is better if it's going to be any use at all. Sprinklers use a lot of water if you use them. |
#3
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Following on from greywater...
g'day liz,
once the tank is delivered and sited where you want it and the company delivering it has installed the flow valve where you want it then there after it is easier than cooking a cake to run the roof water into it, like has been said there might be some consideration of where downpipes are but most gable typ home have at least 4 , but running downpipe shouldn't be too big a concern. then of course the overflow pipe from the tank need to be connected back the the storm water system usually where you cut into that system to install the tank. fitting a pump and a tap is just as DIY as the above, just need a power point near by. at present if you are going to get a company to install it for you (not sure where you are?) there ae some rip off deals going around esecially up here. and another if you realy want to get more water efficient and get value for money from your tank then consider how much water you want to provide and then calculate how often it would ahve to rain to keep that tank at a level that will provide for your needs. also ring around the rural tank makers they often can do a beter deal than the local guy who seems to run on he's got a monopoly principal. generally i recomment 14,500 litre (3,200 imp/gal) tans as the minimum for most households. someone with a reasonable amount of garden could use 700 to 1000 litres of water a week or fortnight depending on how often the need to water is. currently in our home we are going through app' 25 litres of water a week about 6 litres of that for the kettle and the rest for drinking. we have just had delivered a 24,500 litre (5,400 imp.gal) tanks delivered which i am in the process of running 2 downpipes to and then i'll fit the pump and tap, no hurry there can't use any of the water until it rains enough to put enough in there. but we reckon for drinking and cooking and water the plants when necessary (we use all our grey water on our gardens ie.,. dishwashing, shower/bath, laundry & collected wee water, have done for over a decade with nil ill effects on gardens plants or us, then we think we have a fair bit of common sense and only apply it around the root zones of the plants, w share our excess with friends and rellies no ones been sick or dead yet even use some of it raw in salads), and hopefull get enough to sue in teh laundry and to keep the pool topped up, going to use those plastic 44 gallon drums under uncontrlloed downpies sow e can ahve that water there to use as needed for the above. our loose plans are to buy another tank maybe the 14,500 litre one nxt time so we can be self relient and not ahve to drink that sewer water they intend pumping into our fresh wate system. On Sat, 2 Sep 2006 21:37:32 +1000, "Staycalm" wrote: snipped With peace and brightest of blessings, len -- "Be Content With What You Have And May You Find Serenity and Tranquillity In A World That You May Not Understand." http://www.gardenlen.com |
#4
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Following on from greywater...
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). |
#5
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Following on from greywater...
"Staycalm" wrote in message u... What about rainwater tanks in urban areas? What's involved with fitting a small tank to the house? Are there companies who do this? i.e. not just deliver a tank to your door. Who here has one? Do you use it a lot? Liz This may be quite simple but not necessarily. Often there are several downpipes from the guttering to drains, the guttering will be sloped so that the water falls to these at different points about the house. It will be easy enough to put a tank under one of these instead of the drain but then you waste the water going down the others. Re-running the guttering so that all or most run to the same point could be expensive. David |
#6
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Following on from greywater...
"gardenlen" wrote in message ... g'day liz, once the tank is delivered and sited where you want it and the company delivering it has installed the flow valve where you want it then there after it is easier than cooking a cake to run the roof water into it, like has been said there might be some consideration of where downpipes are but most gable typ home have at least 4 , but running downpipe shouldn't be too big a concern. then of course the overflow pipe from the tank need to be connected back the the storm water system usually where you cut into that system to install the tank. fitting a pump and a tap is just as DIY as the above, just need a power point near by. at present if you are going to get a company to install it for you (not sure where you are?) there ae some rip off deals going around esecially up here. and another if you realy want to get more water efficient and get value for money from your tank then consider how much water you want to provide and then calculate how often it would ahve to rain to keep that tank at a level that will provide for your needs. also ring around the rural tank makers they often can do a beter deal than the local guy who seems to run on he's got a monopoly principal. generally i recomment 14,500 litre (3,200 imp/gal) tans as the minimum for most households. someone with a reasonable amount of garden could use 700 to 1000 litres of water a week or fortnight depending on how often the need to water is. currently in our home we are going through app' 25 litres of water a week about 6 litres of that for the kettle and the rest for drinking. we have just had delivered a 24,500 litre (5,400 imp.gal) tanks delivered which i am in the process of running 2 downpipes to and then i'll fit the pump and tap, no hurry there can't use any of the water until it rains enough to put enough in there. but we reckon for drinking and cooking and water the plants when necessary (we use all our grey water on our gardens ie.,. dishwashing, shower/bath, laundry & collected wee water, have done for over a decade with nil ill effects on gardens plants or us, then we think we have a fair bit of common sense and only apply it around the root zones of the plants, w share our excess with friends and rellies no ones been sick or dead yet even use some of it raw in salads), and hopefull get enough to sue in teh laundry and to keep the pool topped up, going to use those plastic 44 gallon drums under uncontrlloed downpies sow e can ahve that water there to use as needed for the above. our loose plans are to buy another tank maybe the 14,500 litre one nxt time so we can be self relient and not ahve to drink that sewer water they intend pumping into our fresh wate system. sewer water is lovely stuff Len, lovely stuff. The drinking water we get here in Hamilton has been through several towns and a few factories, and seriously, tastes ok. Best thing is that after leaving hamilton and passing through a couple more towns the recycled water ends up in Auckland. The ultimate revenge. rob |
#7
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Following on from greywater...
"Staycalm" writes:
What about rainwater tanks in urban areas? What's involved with fitting a small tank to the house? Are there companies who do this? i.e. not just deliver a tank to your door. Who here has one? Do you use it a lot? Why not employ your favourite plumber? It would probably be cheaper. Or get your plumber to arrange everything from buying to installing the tank. A rural friend ordered a tank from the manufacturer (Bushman, I think). When it was delivered I helped the driver roll it in from the street and tip it onto a base of packed sand I had prepared for the tank. The truck driver quickly installed a bit of threaded pipe for the outlet where we wanted it and then he drilled out a hole where we wanted the top overflow. That's where his responsibility ended, the rest would be up to the new owner's plumber. There are so many shapes and sizes in poly tanks that I wouldn't feel comfortable in leaving the choice up to someone else. I like to go over a handful of brochures and make phonecalls to the manufacturer to make sure I'm involved in the process. As well as the standard round shapes you can get poly tanks that have a square cross-section and sit snugly alongside a wall of your house, and others are like big flexible bags that lie on the ground underneath your house. If you plan to sit the tank directly on the ground and use a pressure pump the manufacturer will have a brochure telling you how to prepare the area. That is going to be a lot cheaper than getting a tank-stand built--but if money is no object there's always the benefit of being able to construct a room or shed under a substantial tank stand (provided your house is set high so runoff can flow into the elevated tank). -- John Savage (my news address is not valid for email) |
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