Hi I'd like to share a few thoughts about a large (120,000 litre) rain harvesting project we are working on at out home.
We have the potential for storing up to 120,000 litres. The nice garden we've created turns out to be a very costly thing to irrigate through the year. Also with global warming etc etc it does seem to be a very logical thing to do in order to save resources on site and minimise use of town water.
It is also better for the plants.
The basics are an A frame roof structure with six 100 mm downpipes. Our plans are for either several reservoirs of totalling about 2,000 litres capacity placed within the basement area or a much larger single preformed tank sitting round the back of the house.
We are very fortunate in that we are able to tap into main (dedicated) drains from the top 3 and maybe 4 downpipes and then use downpipe attachments to get the water from the lower 2 or maybe 3.
The potential is enormous, the outlay minimal and the overall effect has to be beneficial.
However we have several question marks.
The door to the basement is less than 80cms wide so we'll have to hack into the walls to get the reservoirs, probably 3 or 4, into there. we have found some fancy ones made in several parts which clamp together with seals but even they would be hard to get into the space.
So we go for the single large one placed either above or partially sunken round the back of the house. Maybe a preformed tank or possibly use a cheaper septic tank.
As we live on a hill with the garden at the bottom it would seem to be ideal for using the water by gravity only. Maybe we may set up a smaller store with a pump feed from the main store at a future date so we can water the garden area higher up around the house.
Does anyone have any experience of such projects? Love to hear from all.
One specific question is has anyone ever used a preformed septic tank for such (water storage) use? Are they strong enough?
Lou
We have the potential for storing up to 120,000 litres. The nice garden we've created turns out to be a very costly thing to irrigate through the year. Also with global warming etc etc it does seem to be a very logical thing to do in order to save resources on site and minimise use of town water.
It is also better for the plants.
The basics are an A frame roof structure with six 100 mm downpipes. Our plans are for either several reservoirs of totalling about 2,000 litres capacity placed within the basement area or a much larger single preformed tank sitting round the back of the house.
We are very fortunate in that we are able to tap into main (dedicated) drains from the top 3 and maybe 4 downpipes and then use downpipe attachments to get the water from the lower 2 or maybe 3.
The potential is enormous, the outlay minimal and the overall effect has to be beneficial.
However we have several question marks.
The door to the basement is less than 80cms wide so we'll have to hack into the walls to get the reservoirs, probably 3 or 4, into there. we have found some fancy ones made in several parts which clamp together with seals but even they would be hard to get into the space.
So we go for the single large one placed either above or partially sunken round the back of the house. Maybe a preformed tank or possibly use a cheaper septic tank.
As we live on a hill with the garden at the bottom it would seem to be ideal for using the water by gravity only. Maybe we may set up a smaller store with a pump feed from the main store at a future date so we can water the garden area higher up around the house.
Does anyone have any experience of such projects? Love to hear from all.
One specific question is has anyone ever used a preformed septic tank for such (water storage) use? Are they strong enough?
Lou