rainwater collection for garden irrigation

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Hi all,

I'm looking to harvest rainwater with a view to only using it for garden irrigation. An underground tank would seem best (I have a JCB due on site in a few weeks so the excavation and connections would not be a problem). The tanks I've looked at seem to cost > £1500 for around 5000 litres storage; however, septic tanks can be had for quite a lot less (~£800) for the same amount of storage, and a submersible pump is not exactly expensive.

Am I missing something here, or is it simply a case of septic tanks being produced by more companies so more competition on price? The only potential issue I can think of is that a septic tank would normally be fairly full (so the load of the surrounding soil/concrete may be countered by the internal load). Am I likely to get problems if I use a septic tank and it's near empty through the summer months?

Thanks for any help!

Duncan
 
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Hunt around for an IBC, 1000 litres and will be much much cheaper than £1500! Even if you buy 5.

Search on here or Google/eBay for IBC
 
Thanks for the info - I've looked at IBC's (and they are cheap on eBay!)but don't believe they can be located underground and I haven't got anywhere above ground that I'd be happy for them to go!

The suggested link seems promising with one person saying they've used a septic tank for rainwater harvesting. Does anyone else have any experiences/suggestions to add with regard to this approach?
 
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won't it cost more in electric to run the pump that the actual water you will be saving?
 
won't it cost more in electric to run the pump that the actual water you will be saving?

Apparently it costs about 7p to pump 1500 litres up to the attic, but 1500 litres costs rather more than that from most water companies (depends on area though). (Just quoting from the link I supplied).

The most interesting thing to see was that 50m2 roof feeding 200-300L tank feeding toilet and washing machine catches about 50% of the annual rainfall in this country. If you use this for watering the garden in the summer, you're out of luck, however by using it for toilet flushing, you're continually emptying the thing, therefore the low capacity is not such a big deal.

To run such a system could be regarded as sociably irresponsible, since you're increasing the differential in demand on the water company between summer and winter months. You are making maximum use of *their* storage facilities just when it costs them the most, and giving them less revenue in the process. It works up until the point they start to alter the water charges throughout the year, but they may never do that for fear of side-effects like hoarding just before a change.
 
To run such a system could be regarded as sociably irresponsible, since you're increasing the differential in demand on the water company between summer and winter months. You are making maximum use of *their* storage facilities just when it costs them the most, and giving them less revenue in the process.

My heart bleeds for the water companies and their shareholders :rolleyes:
 

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