Rain water collection

[billi]

I payed 600 $ for my Ultrafiltation membrane filter in since two years  replacement cartridge  is 200 euro    can work for 5 years and more  needs no electricity just pressure , i wouldnot trust a UV light only , but have to admit we use the water for all but donot drink it  ( even it was tested to be in the drinking water  EU Norm )   water comes from a pond

Billi

[Paulh_Boats]

Paul H,my system appears to be clean enough for using in the washing machine,havent tried it for that yet but one thing I would check out is the level of dissolved solids,that may or may not be agressive,you may get problems with the heater element on high levels

Thanks for the info. We would only use it for the cold fill, the hot fill is solar heated and cold rinsing uses about 8 m3 out of a total of 65 m3 per year (estimated). The rest is loo flushing, showers, dishwasher and cooking... clearly loo flushing with rainwater will give us the biggest, easiest benefit.

-Paul

[sunshinekid]

Not wishing to hijack this thread, but I've been thinkin about getting my rainwater system going which has been a stalled project.

According to the water board, around 30% of water consumption goes down the loo and we pay around 90p per cubic meter for supply.  They assume (unless you prove otherwise) that you put back into the system around 90% of what you consume.  Waste disposal is around £1.60 pcm.

I've got a 1000L IBC tank full of rainwater and it's unfiltered, apart from the coarse leaf filter in the drainpipe collector.  It's been standing for a few months so I'm a bit worried about the quality of the water.  

I wonder if someone could help me with some questions?

1) Should I let the old water run away or can I sterilise it in the tank and use it?
2) Can anyone suggest where I could buy a filter from to install between the drainpipe and tank?
3) I was going to install the loo feed pipework down the outside wall as this would be very easy, but am worried this will freeze in the winter - can I put in antifreeze or shoud I run these pipes indoors?

Sorry if the questions are stupid :-)

Cheers

Steve

[petertc]

I use my system for the toilets and also the washing machine i just have a particle filter on it.
The thing with UV is it kills the bug as they pass by the light, but is further down the system there is are some bacteria hiding these the re contaminate the water.
When i was working on private water supplies ( boreholes wells etc ) the UV unit was fitted then the whole system was chlorinated to kill any bacteria living in the system, after flushing the chlorine out using the water after it has passed through the UV unit the system was then suitable for use.
You would normally filter the water before it passed through the UV unit.

You would be surprised how many place still do not have mains running water.
There is a area around Salisbury that has no mains water all of the factories, garages hotels golf courses have there own borehole/s.
Most have 2 boreholes so if one pump stops working you then have the second in reserve.

When we did systems the best way of doing a system was to have a bore hole pump feeding into a reservoir/tank, this would be large enough for 2-3 day or more of storage. from there the systems either gravitated to feed the system or booster pumps we used to pressurise the system ( problem if there is a power cut).

I have been out of that area of things for about 9 years now but a ball park figure for a bore hole complete with bore hole pump. ( bore hole lined if required with proper liners no agricultural drainage pipe that we have seen ) the ball pack figure was minimum  10k

[petertc]

Steve,

Filters on the inlet to the tank are a good idea I'm still trying to find a good one ! I have one on order that i am going to try will keep you posted as to progress.

I also have a filter on the outlet of the pump as i run a 12volt DC pressurised system.

External pipe work.

I tried to get mine under the ground and into the house but getting through the foundations was a real XXXX so in the end i went through the wall.
I then fitted armaflex lagging around the pipe, then wrapper some reflective sliver insulation around that.
then i boxed the whole lot in to stop it getting wet.
It has not frozen this winter ( but we are in town and the pipes are sheltered) We live in Wincanton Somerset.
I do have a small header tank fitted with ball valve that can be connected into the pump system from a washing machine tap, that way there should be no possible way of cross contamination of the mains water supply if i went down this route during a severe frost.

[Eleanor]

NI, think I can probably rustle up your pictures, strictly landscapes of course!  Will have a look tomorrow  . Glad to hear the Rain-U-Like is behaving as you expected. I always felt that it was a good idea for "freshening up" the stored water. Obviously not a good idea to drink it though  .

Paul, the beauty of the Rain-U-Like is that it's based on a proprietary pond system with filter, UV and aeration which you can get in your local garden centre for £60 or so (not including pump). I would personally feel happier that the stored water is moved about rather than allowed to stagnate for a long period. This doesn't mean I'm right though! I suppose you could add hypochlorite but that doesn't really seem to be in the spirit of the adventure.

We're effectively drinking chlorinated rainwater from a loch. I've heard the stories of what it does to hot water cylinders and immersion heaters  . I may be prepared to risk rainwater straight from the sky to wash my clothes ... and the girl in the Timotei advert has such nice hair 

[sunshinekid]

Hi Peterc

Thanks for your reply.  I've moved my thread to here so I don't nick this one!

http://www.navitron.org.uk/forum/index.php/topic,6332.0.html

Cheers

Steve

[Iain]

Hi
I have been using rainwater for nearly 3 years now with no problems. Used for the washing machine and toilets. Mine is gravity from a header tank. The header tank is fed from storage tanks. I used to chlorinate all the water but I now use an ozone machine on the header tank. Runs for 15 mins every 2 hours. Been excellent. The only other thing I have found is there are always particles in the water from the collection filters. To help overcome this I feed the rain water into one tank and then cascade over to the next tank. This allows most of the particles to collect in the first tank and the others are nearly clear. I use a particulate filter just prior to the house. The first tank has just been cleaned out (after 2 years) but the others were OK.
Might be useful on a new system to fill one tank and overflow to the others as it will reduce cleaning
Posted my system earlier last year
http://www.navitron.org.uk/forum/index.php/topic,2960.0.html
I use about 4.5 cubes from the mains and 2 cubes from my tanks each month (2 adults in the house)
Cheers Iain