Introduction
The great thing about working to optimize the way you use and collect water for your home, is that you get to feel as though you are doing something practical to improve the environment without making sacrifices, but actually benefiting your household.
Background
Initially I was interested in building DIY solar hot water panels. I found a community group who had a jig made up for pressing the grooves into the copper sheet to locate where the copper tubes are to be soldered. They also had a jig for positioning the ” holes in the 1″ header and footer pipes. This was a great start, and then I silver soldered the risers into the 1″ pipes, and soft-soldered the risers onto the sheets. After painting the copper sheet and pipes with black-board paint, I built a box with timber sides and a plywood back, with fibre-glass insulation, and assembled it with a glass sheet over the top, sealed with silicone.
I bought a second-hand water tank, and mounted them all on a frame screwed through the metal roof, into the timber roof frame. The panels are still going strong 30 years later.
Success in Home Water Conservation
The three main things you need to know in order to successfully develop your home water program are: how much water of what quality you need; how to harvest and store rain water; and how to safely re-use waste water.
A acre block with a big ornamental garden of deciduous trees and shrubs in a temperate climate requires about 2,000 litres per week in the summer. You can calculate the water demand for a tree using the British Standard BS5837 1991, which gives a formula including the tree type and canopy diameter, the local evaporation rate. The watering frequency depends on the soil type and how much soil is available to each tree. Typically, a small tree takes 20 litres of water a day. Vegetables’ water demand depends very much on the variety and the weather. Partial shading is recommended for some varieties in the heat of summer.
A acre block with a big ornamental garden of deciduous trees and shrubs in a temperate climate requires about 2,000 litres per week in the summer. You can calculate the water demand for a tree using the British Standard BS5837 1991, which gives a formula including the tree type and canopy diameter, the local evaporation rate. The watering frequency depends on the soil type and how much soil is available to each tree. Typically, a small tree takes 20 litres of water a day. Vegetables’ water demand depends very much on the variety and the weather. Partial shading is recommended for some varieties in the heat of summer.
Grey water systems are reasonably cheap, off the shelf, and government rebates help off-set the cost. However, to qualify, you need a plumber to install it, and that takes up a lot of the rebate. An economical DIY system, which I have found to work very well, consists of a 200 litre plastic barrel ($30.00) with a pump incorporating a float switch. You cut a hole in the top and lower in the pump. Locate the barrel under your discharge pipe from the laundry and bathroom (not the toilet). As a filter, you double up a pair of panty-hose to give a two-layer filter, and put it over the end of the pipe, taping it in place. Every few months, replace it. The pump is connected to 20mm black poly pipe for distribution to the garden. A secondary filter – a commercial one- is needed if you use dripper hose. Don’t buy the recycled rubber hose, it goes brittle after a few years, and leaks and breaks. For recycled water, use the purple one, as its holes are bigger, and less likely to clog. Every now and then, open the end of the dripper hose, and flush it out.
Rainwater is easy to collect in plastic tanks, which are cheap and easy to handle and install, but take up space. Underground tanks are the opposite.
Getting Started
You can calculate the likely rain available using information from your local Meteorological Bureau. They will give you average rainfall each month. For example, in a location like Melbourne, it rains about 600mm each year, with rain pretty much uniform through the year. If your roof area is 200 square metres, and you want to catch it all, and assuming you want to store enough to water your garden for about a month, the tank volume needs to be about 1,000 x 200 x 0.6 / 12 = 10,000 litres. This gives you 10,000 / 30 = 333 litres per day. If you add this to your grey-water, originating from mains water supply, this gives you about 500 litres available for the garden. However, it is less if you use the tank water in the laundry.
Becoming Proficient
It may take a while to get all the skills you need, and this is where the net can be useful. There are lots of government authority sites with heaps of information, as well as dedicated societies with lots of technical articles. Just have a go, and get started. The skills will build up as you go.
How Much Experience Is Needed?
You can do most of this sort of work without any experience, except for the electrics, that must be left to a qualified electrician, and any plumbing to do with sewage. Of course, working at heights, doing connections to gutters for example requires good safety practices.
Examples
With my grey-water system, I have a thriving orchard of about 14 trees, providing organic fruit over the summer and autumn. The underground water tank, just coming on line, collected 7,000 litres over one weekend of rain, from a roof area of 200 sq m.
The Best-Kept Secret About Home Water
By zoning your plants in the garden-planning phase, you can optimize your water use, by having the frequent- drinkers all grouped on the same pipe, and the bigger trees on a separate pipe. (I think you should also go for the biggest tank you can afford).
Common Problems
Regulations require that your grey-water doesn’t seep onto the public nature-strip or roadway, or onto your neighbour’s property.
Evaporation is a huge waste of water in the garden. A thick layer of mushroom compost and pea-straw is best in the vegetable patch and orchard (because this will break down fast to provide nutrients for the plants), and wood-chips are best for ornamentals.
Frank is a civil engineer practicing in the fields of geotechnical and structural engineering. He is a keen organic gardener, and has projects going to re-establish local-provenance flora and trees in local parks.
Evaporation is a huge waste of water in the garden. A thick layer of mushroom compost and pea-straw is best in the vegetable patch and orchard (because this will break down fast to provide nutrients for the plants), and wood-chips are best for ornamentals.
Evaporation is a huge waste of water in the garden. A thick layer of mushroom compost and pea-straw is best in the vegetable patch and orchard (because this will break down fast to provide nutrients for the plants), and wood-chips are best for ornamentals.
Blocked gutters are a problem, and regular maintenance is needed. Leaf-guard over the gutters is great, but quite expensive. In-line leaf-diverters are a good option. But they also need regular clean-outs.
Tank systems need mosquito-proof inlets and outlets.
If you are going to drink rainwater, your roof can’t be zinc-alume, as the aluminium is not good for you. You have to be aware of animal and bird droppings, as well as pollution fallout. A first-flush diverter will help a bit here.
A Great Investment
While it may take a bit of planning, money and work to get your system up and running, once it’s done, there is just a bit of regular maintenance, and you have a wonderful feeling of accomplishment, that you are doing your bit, and getting substantial benefits as well.
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