Heating harvested rain water

[dyson123]

Hi folks, thinking of fixing up a rain water harvesting system when we do our extension. 
It would come off the gutters through a filter and into a tank buried in the ground.

Sounds fine to me until it gets to winter time and I start heating the van tank with an immersion. 
 

Would heating the water be a potential breeding ground for nasties or would I need to kill off anything by heating to a certain temperature?
 
 Sounds like it could be opening a can of worms so to speak! 

Don’t fancy sucking the air out off a pipe with my mouth when I’ve got a bad airlock either ??

 

[ched999uk]

If you are in Scotland then you don't have a water meter do you? Sounds like building under ground tanks and then stopping it freezing would be more expensive that a ro di setup?

There is a minimum temp for the 'nasties' to develop I think. Have a bit of a search.

 

[spruce]

Virtually every year someone raises the topic of Legionnaires' disease @dyson123.

Don't get me wrong, it's a very serious disease which is taken very seriously, but it's not a common disease. Personally, I haven't heard one report from a window cleaner being affected by it in the 17 years I have been wfp on either of the main forums.

That doesn't mean we need to be complacent.

https://www.hse.gov.uk/healthservices/legionella.htm

We heat with a diesel heater during colder weather. Our water temperature is a little over 50 degrees at the heater's outlet; obviously cooler at the brush head.

One of the conditions for its growth is hot water systems. Wet air conditioning plants are another example. Stagnant water is a cause and a breading ground for legionella. Is the water in a working wfp van going to be stagnant? The last outbreak I heard about was a couple of years ago and was traced to the air conditioning servicing a high rise building. Stagnant water was reported as the cause of the outbreak, as the building wasn't in use over the holidays and the air conditioning switched off. If memory serves me, it was a suspected origin of the outbreak, but it wasn't 100% proved it was the source.

Our water in our tank is between 7 and 12 degrees C atm. The tank in the van was virtually empty over last weekend with the water temperature dropping to 4 degrees C. We don't usually switch on the heater in summer. Water temps in the tank in summer are around 20 degrees maximum. We find our hoses are very manageable with water at that temperature. TBH, I wouldn't heat water with an immersion heater above that unless I could heat it above 50 degrees. That's a lot of electricity to spend heating the water to that temperature. 

If you are heating water to above 20 degrees but below 50 degrees C, then you need to ensure the water is well cycled, and you could bleach your tank periodically to kill off any 'nasties.'

 

[spruce]

I forgot to add @dyson123. We stayed in a cottage near Fort William a few years ago now. The water came from a stream flowing off the nearby hills. That water was filtered through a UV water filter before it reached the cottage. We were there for a week. We drank the water and none of us, 6 adults and our baby grandson, had any side effects.

 

[scottish cleaning service]

I forgot to add @dyson123. We stayed in a cottage near Fort William a few years ago now. The water came from a stream flowing off the nearby hills. That water was filtered through a UV water filter before it reached the cottage. We were there for a week. We drank the water and none of us, 6 adults and our baby grandson, had any side effects.

Aye, we call it "the elixir of life" and makes good whisky. ?

 

[dyson123]

Virtually every year someone raises the topic of Legionnaires' disease @dyson123.

Don't get me wrong, it's a very serious disease which is taken very seriously, but it's not a common disease. Personally, I haven't heard one report from a window cleaner being affected by it in the 17 years I have been wfp on either of the main forums.

That doesn't mean we need to be complacent.

https://www.hse.gov.uk/healthservices/legionella.htm

We heat with a diesel heater during colder weather. Our water temperature is a little over 50 degrees at the heater's outlet; obviously cooler at the brush head.

One of the conditions for its growth is hot water systems. Wet air conditioning plants are another example. Stagnant water is a cause and a breading ground for legionella. Is the water in a working wfp van going to be stagnant? The last outbreak I heard about was a couple of years ago and was traced to the air conditioning servicing a high rise building. Stagnant water was reported as the cause of the outbreak, as the building wasn't in use over the holidays and the air conditioning switched off. If memory serves me, it was a suspected origin of the outbreak, but it wasn't 100% proved it was the source.

Our water in our tank is between 7 and 12 degrees C atm. The tank in the van was virtually empty over last weekend with the water temperature dropping to 4 degrees C. We don't usually switch on the heater in summer. Water temps in the tank in summer are around 20 degrees maximum. We find our hoses are very manageable with water at that temperature. TBH, I wouldn't heat water with an immersion heater above that unless I could heat it above 50 degrees. That's a lot of electricity to spend heating the water to that temperature. 

If you are heating water to above 20 degrees but below 50 degrees C, then you need to ensure the water is well cycled, and you could bleach your tank periodically to kill off any 'nasties.'

Thanks for getting back to me. I’m heating the water to over 50 degrees in the colder months but not at all in the summer months. Yes it is an additional cost but it pays for itself by allowing me to work a little longer on the colder days. 
 

Financially and business wise I see heating the water as a good thing, eco friendly definitely not.

 

[dyson123]

I forgot to add @dyson123. We stayed in a cottage near Fort William a few years ago now. The water came from a stream flowing off the nearby hills. That water was filtered through a UV water filter before it reached the cottage. We were there for a week. We drank the water and none of us, 6 adults and our baby grandson, had any side effects.

Nice, as long as it looked and tasted good then I’d be fine with it. 
 

Friends of ours have a private water supply, a spring I believe. Apparently when it rains the tap water goes all brown ?

 

[spruce]

Nice, as long as it looked and tasted good then I’d be fine with it. 
 

Friends of ours have a private water supply, a spring I believe. Apparently when it rains the tap water goes all brown ?

Each case has to be looked at on its own merit.

Our garage roof is felt and painted silver. With the roof and gutters clean of dirt and debris, the collected rain water is 4ppm when I checked it once.

However, the same rain water coming off the weathered concrete roof tiles of the house was around 25ppm from memory.

I could wash windows with 4ppm but not 25ppm. The problem you will encounter is dirt and grit draining off the roof and accumulating in the underground tank. That will need to be filtered out and depending on the tds, put through a resin wash.

The Australians have a variety of rainwater collecting solutions. Whether any are of any use here is questionable as our water for window cleaning needs to be pristine. There was a windie in Holland (I think?) who set up several IBC tanks to collect and process water. I can't remember his name. I haven't seen him on here for a long time now, so maybe a search for rain water harvesting might bring his posts up.

The other issue is the amount of rain we get. While it always seems wet on the North East coast, there isn't enough rain falling to keep me in my water requirements, especially if we have a dry summer when I need water the most.

I personally wouldn't waste your energy. I would r/o my water for window cleaning - even better if you aren't on a water meter.