Water Conservation

[JonB]

Our rain water butt is empty again.
My wife is now using washing up water to water the tubs.
Has anyone seen a plastic valve (CHEAP) that would fit in place of the 40mm push fit that comes out of the wall to divert from drain to a bucket.
She reckons she uses just short of 3 buckets a day, which can be reused.
Any thoughts on this greatly appreciated.

JonB

 

[fitz1]

cut a tee in line and put a piece of 40mm in facing upright. then due to it being pushfit you can twist the tee around so that the pipe off the mid section goes into a bucket. ounce filled twist tee section back up.

 

[Beans-on-Toast]

No matter how hard I try Fitz I cannot imagine what you are trying to explain

 

[Softus]

No matter how hard I try Fitz I cannot imagine what you are trying to explain

I'll translate...

cut a tee in line

Insert a new 40mm tee, e.g. a McAlpine Multifit V1M.

...and put a piece of 40mm in facing upright.

Turn the branch of the tee facing up, and insert enough 40mm pipe to reach at least to the height of the water butt.

...then due to it being pushfit you can twist the tee around so that the pipe off the mid section goes into a bucket.

When you want to use the water, turn the tee so that the upwards pointing length of pipe is instead pointing sideways, into a bucket.

...ounce filled twist tee section back up.

I'll leave this as an exercise for the student...

 

[JonB]

Thanks for that Fitz I will experiment.

JonB

 

[mark.carline]

You need to be careful when storing Greywater for use in the Garden, see this:

http://www.communitywatergrants.gov.au/publications/greywater.html

 

[Beans-on-Toast]

Softus

Once again you have taken it upon yourself to portray the act of the clown.

I'm afraid I never understand the logic behind any bodge job, including one in the garden where fittings are continually twisted and an unsightly open ended pipe is left stuck in the air whilst not in use.......!

C R A P answer lads, think again........

 

[Softus]

Softus

Once again you have taken it upon yourself to portray the act of the clown.

Alas, you are alone in holding that view. Have another go why don't you? But while you're trying to drum up your next misguided insult, let me entertain you:

C R A P answer lads, think again........

You've misspelt "fitz". It's "fitz", not "lads".

Great signature BTW - well done.

 

[Beans-on-Toast]

mark.carline very good link, Thank You.

 

[mark.carline]

Why are you bothering conserving water ?

Thames Valley are waisting 900,000,000 litres of water a day due to leaks and then people like you are then impacted by a hosepipe ban.

I know its the right thing to do and some people get a kick out of being an eco warrier and being very self rightious about how much water they dont use.

But please - Why should consumers bear the brunt of water companies not fixing their leeks (and help them make loads of profit and not reduce prices for consumers).

 

[Softus]

Why are you bothering conserving water ?

It being illegal to waste it seems like a good reason.

Thames Valley are waisting 900,000,000 litres of water a day due to leaks and then people like you are then impacted by a hosepipe ban.

Correct, but we're trying not to be impacted - that's the point.

I know its the right thing to do

In which case it seems odd that you're questioning the doing of that right thing.

But please - Why should consumers bear the brunt of water companies not fixing their leeks (and help them make loads of profit and not reduce prices for consumers).

Well, the consumers collectively voted in Margaret Thatcher in 1979, 1983 and 1987, and the consumers collectively persist with a capitalist ethos, whereby everyone is trying to make a fast buck out of everyone else, so who else but the consumers are to blame for the profiteering antics of the private companies that used to be inefficiently run public companies?

 

[toasty]

Hi,

I posted this before, seems like it might be relevant here.


Giving the garden a good watering was taking 400-500 litres of water per night at a cost of nearly a pound a go. This was pretty expensive last summer.

I've bought 3 large (200 litre) water butts, a large submersible pump and some hoses and with a bit of rerouting of our waste water piping I'm collecting nearly that amount of water a day from showers and baths and although I still have one water butt to install the system is in and working a treat!!

The pump states it can shift 130 litres a minute, and whilst this is clearly reduced down 15 metres of 15mm hose, there is still enough flow to run two hoses (sairee/emily and I can water the garden together now) at a similar rate that I used to get from the outside tap.

Really pleased with the system, total cost about £100 I'd say - the pump even has a float switch, so switches off when the butts are empty.

See attached pictures below:

This shows the submersible pump and my two-way adaptor that I made from a hoselock 3way splitter and some epoxy.
[url]http://s81.photobucket.com/albums/j205/toastyboy1976/?action=view&current=DSCN0976.jpg [/url]

Two of the three water butts at the side of the house, the large white pipe carries both bath, shower, basin and all rain water from the roof.
http://s81.photobucket.com/albums/j205/toastyboy1976/?action=view&current=DSCN0974.jpg

The pump in place in one of the butts, you can see the float switch
http://s81.photobucket.com/albums/j205/toastyboy1976/?action=view&current=DSCN0980.jpg

The two hoses, I bought a 30m hoselock professional hose (really good hose actually) and cut it in half giving two 15m hoses
http://s81.photobucket.com/albums/j205/toastyboy1976/?action=view&current=DSCN0977.jpg

This shows the 15mm copper links between the bottom of the tanks, this keeps the levels in them all the same.
http://s81.photobucket.com/albums/j205/toastyboy1976/?action=view&current=DSCN0978.jpg

Another one of the adaptor
http://s81.photobucket.com/albums/j205/toastyboy1976/?action=view&current=DSCN0979.jpg

All in all a sucessful project, needs a bit of finishing off, I'm fitting an outside socket, cut the lids to shape, fit the final water butt in place, but it's working really well, I gave the grass the full 400 litres yesterday and it's looking really green and lush, and best of all it didn't cost be a penny - well aside from the 100 or so quid, but I love gadgets.

Here's the pump http://www.tooled-up.com/Product.as...-Lift-And-130l-M-Max-Flow-+-Float-Switch-240v

Hope it is of some help.
-Dan

 

[mark.carline]

........to blame for the profiteering antics of the private companies that used to be inefficiently run public companies?

that are now inefficiently run *private* companies?

 

[Softus]

help them make loads of profit and not reduce prices for consumers

........to blame for the profiteering antics of the private companies that used to be inefficiently run public companies?

that are now inefficiently run *private* companies?

Unless you're a shareholder it's no longer any of your business (or mine) how efficient they are in being profitable.

 

[Softus]

accidentally duplicated post - deleted