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Rainwater harvesting... di polishing

Wainwrightr

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Was wondering if anyone has any pictures of a set up where you harvest rainwater and pump it thru a di? I was thinking of installing the DI in my pick up but was unsure if that would affect the pressure I'd have to turn the pump up to? Any help much appreciated.

 
Works best with water butt for rain water and an IBC to store the pure in, simple to set up with a couple float valves so it's all automatic (barring the frosting period, unless you can store your water butt inside as well as the IBC).

200l Water butt with any automatic water pump in it -> DI to -> tank

To make it so the water butt pump will not over flow the IBC stick a float switch in the IBC connected to a relay that powers the water butt pump when the IBC isn't full.

With that your water filtration will sort itself out without any input from you (again, except during frosting periods) and the pressure into the DI won't hold so much importance with it being free to constantly trickle through.

That said, you'll need to be able to revert to tap water during dry periods so keep that in mind in regards to if you'll need an RO to filter your tap water (Dual DI works up to ~100ppm if I recall) and it would be prudent to install pre-filters before the DI where rainwater is concerned if there's no RO.

I have the above system running myself with an RO (Waste from RO with rain water can be run back into the water butt as long as you drain the water butt every now and again when the PPM rises) and it's surprising how much water you'll collect.

Any more questions, ask away.

 
Thanks for that. I have a tap fed ro and di system at the moment but just looking at ways I can reduce my water bill. Freezing not such an issue as it's in the garage. I currently have 2 water butts joined together and need to get an ibc. I have 2 pond pumps would they do the job?

 
Thanks for that. I have a tap fed ro and di system at the moment but just looking at ways I can reduce my water bill. Freezing not such an issue as it's in the garage. I currently have 2 water butts joined together and need to get an ibc. I have 2 pond pumps would they do the job?
Pond pumps - Perhaps if they have a float valve themselves if you want to automate it, if you want to manually operate it as long as water flows out the other end of the filters it's then just a matter of how long it takes which if you're doing it manually could be a fair consideration. That said, small pond pumps will probably take a long time and a water butt pump with a float valve will automatically shut off when the water butt hits 10-20% capacity (advantage, see below) along side being quicker.

As far as your system goes, you'll be doing it manually from the sounds of it so I would let your two water butts fill up, connect your pump to your normal system and run the waste of the RO (make sure it has pre-filters) back into the water butts until about 20% of your starting water remains/the PPM of the input water reaches 75-100pm (which will contain most the dirt of the starting water) then waste that water down the drain before starting again.

I also forgot to mention that if you go the automatic route you'll need ideally a pumped RO which self flushes (http://www.vyair.com/scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=129), though it may not be the end of the world without this.

 

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