Water storage in cold weather

[Davy G]

Cheers @Davy G and @Scots lad.

My first job after my apprenticeship was site electrician but I never sat the regs.  So I know how it's supposed to be done and could do  most of the work but for connections and cert I would get a qualified sparky.

I'm trying to decide on location. We live on a corner so could get electricity to garage at rear then I would need to get water and a drain there as well. Alternatively I can park at side of house next to tap and drain so just need power to process.

Welcome Ched, I'd say convenience of access for filling the van long term would be my deciding factor. If the garage is on your property getting a water and electricity supply should probably not be too difficult. Neither should the waste water drain. I'd guess you probably have drainage for gutter downpipes you can feed a pipe into. You could build a shed around an Ibc and processing equipment, if you wanted to and if you have the room.

 

[Davy G]

Are you looking to filter via a van mount or filter and store in garage then pump into tank? It is far quicker and more economical to do it outside of the van

Separate and independent of the van would be my choice as a single vehicle operator.

Reasons : easier, roomier access for monitoring, storage and maintenance of equipment, less van payload weight sacrificed and less space taken up in the van, plus better chance of having a reserve supply in storage. If you were processing overnight in the van and had a problem, you could find you had no water in the morning for the day's work. With an Ibc, I fill up after work and process through the evening. That way I always have at least a day or two's supply in reserve.

 

[ched999uk]

Cheers everyone.

I was intending to process in van but you make very good points. 

We have a fair bit of space but garage has no gutters and no drainage, that's another issue!!!

I could build a 'shed' to process the water. Actually thinking about it that might be best plan as I could site it close to house between 2 parking spots. So where every I park I can fill up. I was intending to do that on a small scale into a 240lts wheelie bin to start up from car till I prove it's worth while getting a van. 

Also that is close to garden tap, can get electrics to it fairly easy, plus drain isn't far away. there is a manhole there that I could tap into, have to check legalities on that one.

Thanks very much for the advice.

 

[Part Timer]

Separate and independent of the van would be my choice as a single vehicle operator.

Reasons : easier, roomier access for monitoring, storage and maintenance of equipment, less van payload weight sacrificed and less space taken up in the van, plus better chance of having a reserve supply in storage.

Van filtration has it's place and is very helpful for me on my travels, but with the roll out of Spotless Water it is getting less so. In my current work, in the Cambridge area, I have access to taps on various sites so I can fill up on site whilst working. I am led to believe on my new contract, subject to confirmation, I won't have access to any taps so access to filtered water, Spotless, is very important.

 

[scottish cleaning service]

Van filtration has it's place and is very helpful for me on my travels, but with the roll out of Spotless Water it is getting less so. In my current work, in the Cambridge area, I have access to taps on various sites so I can fill up on site whilst working. I am led to believe on my new contract, subject to confirmation, I won't have access to any taps so access to filtered water, Spotless, is very important.

I read somewhere Cambridge was flooded?

 

[Pjj]

Van filtration has it's place and is very helpful for me on my travels, but with the roll out of Spotless Water it is getting less so. In my current work, in the Cambridge area, I have access to taps on various sites so I can fill up on site whilst working. I am led to believe on my new contract, subject to confirmation, I won't have access to any taps so access to filtered water, Spotless, is very important.

We have filtration in all the vans so we can be self sufficient when working away from home , I have never seen a spotless station ???? In the areas we work in they might well be there just not seen them ??? We have it written into the contracts that we can use there water supply all the jobs we do have several outside taps Evan if the TDS is 375-450 ?????, I wouldn’t want to be reliant on travelling 300 miles to work to find it shut or what ever , we drive up with 200 ltr on board and plug into there water on arrival and fill whilst we work , we travel home with an empty tank or maybe a couple of hundred ltr , this works well for the way we work .

 

[Davy G]

Cheers everyone.

I was intending to process in van but you make very good points. 

We have a fair bit of space but garage has no gutters and no drainage, that's another issue!!!

I could build a 'shed' to process the water. Actually thinking about it that might be best plan as I could site it close to house between 2 parking spots. So where every I park I can fill up. I was intending to do that on a small scale into a 240lts wheelie bin to start up from car till I prove it's worth while getting a van. 

Also that is close to garden tap, can get electrics to it fairly easy, plus drain isn't far away. there is a manhole there that I could tap into, have to check legalities on that one.

Thanks very much for the advice.

Before checking about legalities I'd be very cautious. Sometimes stealth is better than potentially opening a can of worms that could turn out problematic.

You're obviously serious about setting up for eventually having a van. With that in mind, if it were me I'd plan around a base and a 1000 litre IBC sited in a convenient position from the start, for long term business. I have no regrets about doing exactly that.

 

[Part Timer]

We have filtration in all the vans so we can be self sufficient when working away from home , I have never seen a spotless station ???? In the areas we work in they might well be there just not seen them ??? We have it written into the contracts that we can use there water supply all the jobs we do have several outside taps Evan if the TDS is 375-450 ?????, I wouldn’t want to be reliant on travelling 300 miles to work to find it shut or what ever , we drive up with 200 ltr on board and plug into there water on arrival and fill whilst we work , we travel home with an empty tank or maybe a couple of hundred ltr , this works well for the way we work .

We are looking at open residential sites so it's not feasible to have open taps. We also have many days away and start with a full tank and come home with an empty one as possible. You wouldn't see a Spotless site unless you went looking for one as they tend to be tucked away on Industrial sites. 

We intend to start every day with a full tank and fill on our way to the next site. There is only one site that we might need more than a tank full so even if the nearest Spotless is out of commission we will have time to go to the next one.

We have been working in the Cambridge area for over 6 years and have managed to filter as we go, unfortunately this new contract, for a new PM Company, we can't.

I'm not going to turn down a very well priced £50k+ a year contract because I can't use a tap on their site.

 

[Part Timer]

I read somewhere Cambridge was flooded?

It's fairly.flat and has a lot of waterways around it and the river Cam running through the middle of it.

It's usually one of the driest areas in the UK so  it must have had an awful lot of rain.

 

[AW Services]

Cheers @Davy G and @Scots lad.

My first job after my apprenticeship was site electrician but I never sat the regs.  So I know how it's supposed to be done and could do  most of the work but for connections and cert I would get a qualified sparky.

I'm trying to decide on location. We live on a corner so could get electricity to garage at rear then I would need to get water and a drain there as well. Alternatively I can park at side of house next to tap and drain so just need power to process.

They move the goalposts every year. 19th Edition is pathetic with all the changes and installation methods.

 

[ched999uk]

Before checking about legalities I'd be very cautious. Sometimes stealth is better than potentially opening a can of worms that could turn out problematic.

You're obviously serious about setting up for eventually having a van. With that in mind, if it were me I'd plan around a base and a 1000 litre IBC sited in a convenient position from the start, for long term business. I have no regrets about doing exactly that.

I have been planning since early Feb 2020 but Covid put pay to me starting up. I have been shielding since Feb as partner is very vulnerable and not worth the risk. I am hoping to actually start in March 2021!! Boy does that sound a long way off.... I have virtually everything to start, just practicing on own house very frequently ?

Stealth is probably a good idea, water companies have strange ideas. Had a big argument with them about 20 years ago when splitting a property and they wanted me to pay a connection charge when there was zero change, not a single change to any sewers! 

Actually thinking about it I could just add 2 x 150gpd membranes and a bigger booster pump to my test 150gpd and it can stay in situ in bathroom cupboard (bungalow so ground floor same corner as tank would go). That would give me more than enough for a start.

Cheers

 

[Davy G]

I have been planning since early Feb 2020 but Covid put pay to me starting up. I have been shielding since Feb as partner is very vulnerable and not worth the risk. I am hoping to actually start in March 2021!! Boy does that sound a long way off.... I have virtually everything to start, just practicing on own house very frequently ?

Stealth is probably a good idea, water companies have strange ideas. Had a big argument with them about 20 years ago when splitting a property and they wanted me to pay a connection charge when there was zero change, not a single change to any sewers! 

Actually thinking about it I could just add 2 x 150gpd membranes and a bigger booster pump to my test 150gpd and it can stay in situ in bathroom cupboard (bungalow so ground floor same corner as tank would go). That would give me more than enough for a start.

Cheers

I would look to getting all the processing outside of the house though, especially if it's got boosted pressure. I've had filter casings, seals and John Guest pipes fail in the past in the shed. The amount of water that can be sprayed around is phenomenonal. Doesn't bear thinking about if it had been in the house, and I doubt the insurance company would have paid up. I hadn't seen the equipment for several hours. It could have been leaking for as long.

 

[Iron Giant]

Cheers everyone.

I was intending to process in van but you make very good points. 

We have a fair bit of space but garage has no gutters and no drainage, that's another issue!!!

I could build a 'shed' to process the water. Actually thinking about it that might be best plan as I could site it close to house between 2 parking spots. So where every I park I can fill up. I was intending to do that on a small scale into a 240lts wheelie bin to start up from car till I prove it's worth while getting a van. 

Also that is close to garden tap, can get electrics to it fairly easy, plus drain isn't far away. there is a manhole there that I could tap into, have to check legalities on that one.

Thanks very much for the advice.

Sounds a bit like mine,

But right now I can't do it much as waiting for cavity wall tie replacement work to be done which isn't starting till 11th January 

I am going to have to run garden hose from under the kitchen window at the front of the house across the driveway and the path which goes down the side of house and through some timber at the front of the garage next to the door and similar with the electric, I am going to have to buy some floor cable protectors to avoid a trip hazard 

Then water and electricity into the garage although no drain and there is a shed on top of the manhole ? I wanted my storage tank at the front of the garage so I was using a short run of hose to the R/O but that ain't going to happen I'll have to drill through the wall at the back of the garage and set up a channel so the waste water runs onto the garden, 

Scratching my head whether to just go DI only for a few months until we get some jobs done around the house and get a better set up which will be more ideal and future proofed, but DI only will cost about £70 a month to run ?