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Rainwater harvesting-well worth it

Incheck

Well-known member
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1,739
Location
Cardiff
This mornings rain brought us 420L off one downpipe alone. Both of our 210L water Butts were full [emoji106]. I have just cleaned the barrels out recently, the tds level is at 4ppm which i’m more than happy with. Anything to reduce our resin usage helps right now especially considering the levels at the outside tap have jumped from 30-70 up to 130-150. If you find some unwanted water butts then i advise other people who are D.I. Only to give it a try. The water butts can be dear to buy but once you have them it’s a win/win on future resin costs. Through the rainy months i will be using harvested water for as long as it lasts, in order to save resin for the dry months. Luckily our harvesters were unused by a neighbor so it’s worth scouting around. Have a good weekend all, & enjoy the football!

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Yeh we've just had bucketfulls after nothing for months. I'd like to get into rainwater collecting. I wonder, whats the method for putting it from the rainwater butt into the di? does it have to be pumped into the di? too much pressure I reckon, just dont know the best way. Yes will certainly enjoy the footy, specially if my acca comes in or west ham beat liverpool.

 
Yeh we've just had bucketfulls after nothing for months. I'd like to get into rainwater collecting. I wonder, whats the method for putting it from the rainwater butt into the di? does it have to be pumped into the di? too much pressure I reckon, just dont know the best way. Yes will certainly enjoy the footy, specially if my acca comes in or west ham beat liverpool.
You can use a pump to pump it from the water butts to the vessels, either a hozelock pump or a sump pump will do. You can use it as it is though, anything below a 10 on TDS you’re pretty safe really i’ve always changed the D.I. Vessel/vessels once we hit double figures (10) and never had any issues. You’re just wasting resin and money otherwise in my opinion


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Can't remember who it was, but one lad on here used to get a pair of tights, cut the leg off, put a large handful of resin in, then cable tied it over the end of his downpipe so the rain water went through it then into the butt. 

 
ingenious idea. some rains cleaner than others.  I reckon over west of uk is cleaner if its just come off the atlantic, it gets more impurities from pollution etc by the time it crosses over the cities and gets to the east. Over here by the suffolk coast it tested at 9. Mind you, that wasnt off a dirty roof. last year I tested some fresh snow which was 2, I think it had come from sweden or somewhere east, and then another time the fresh snow was a filthy 15 or so. Lot of variation.

 
Long term to help the environment it would be great if we all could:

•rain harvest 

•And somehow easily reuse waste water from R.o. I know some do but would be great if we all could or they invent a affordable ro machine with a large tank or something that reuses the waste water. 

Some parts of the country already had hose pipe bans but surely a lot of the country must of got very close as well. Our climate is changing so much, we don’t want hose pipe bans every year. Rain harvesting is a great idea but obviously only when it rains..

 
Yeh we've just had bucketfulls after nothing for months. I'd like to get into rainwater collecting. I wonder, whats the method for putting it from the rainwater butt into the di? does it have to be pumped into the di? too much pressure I reckon, just dont know the best way. Yes will certainly enjoy the footy, specially if my acca comes in or west ham beat liverpool.
I use a Hozelock Water Butt pump! It's a real beast. I can fill up a 25 litre barrel in about 3-4 minutes with it going through the DI system.

 
A friend whom has studied this topic in depth advised me that you can harvest 88'000 litres per annum from a typical three bedroom semi detached house. 

This would produce around one third of our annual usage.  

I have started to acquire the required items to build a system and hope to do so before the end of Autumn. Reducing our usage on the supply by one third is not only good for the long term effects of the wallet but also a decent contribution towards ones social responsibilities.   

 
I collect in the first 1000l ibc  with rain , then pump it thru the DI and in to the second one . If theres no rain i just use the RO and switch the hose from the rainwater tank and use the RO thru the DI , then always a collect tank and a "clean" tank . 

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I just checked my rainwater TDS and it was 001. I thought rainwater was far higher going by the state of my windows each month. Where does all the dirt come from if its not from the rainwater? Anyway, Rainwater harvesting up here ticks all the boxes and may end up digging up the front garden to install large tanks. I heard people were doing it down south with the introduction of water meters.

 
I just checked my rainwater TDS and it was 001. I thought rainwater was far higher going by the state of my windows each month. Where does all the dirt come from if its not from the rainwater? Anyway, Rainwater harvesting up here ticks all the boxes and may end up digging up the front garden to install large tanks. I heard people were doing it down south with the introduction of water meters.
The dirt comes off the wind in a fine layer, when it rains it disturbs it and drags it down, making it visible

I just checked my rainwater TDS and it was 001. I thought rainwater was far higher going by the state of my windows each month. Where does all the dirt come from if its not from the rainwater? Anyway, Rainwater harvesting up here ticks all the boxes and may end up digging up the front garden to install large tanks. I heard people were doing it down south with the introduction of water meters.
The dirt comes off the wind in a fine layer, when it rains it disturbs it and drags it down, making it visible

 
Main roads are always worse especially if the traffic sits. I believe the black soot is pollution from vehicle exhausts. Just think of what we are breathing in
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I have a 2 days on a very busy road, no front gardens door straight onto pavement. Has to be done fortnightly, otherwise you can't see out the windows it's so bad

 
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