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I cannot believe i haven't been collecting rain water

heyoh

Active member
Messages
242
I just checked the tds of rain that was flowing down the drain and it's: .23 !!!

I've been thinking of collecting it, but I kind of stalled at what kind of rain diverter to buy. Today I figured I can just disconnect one elbow on the downpipe, so now it's flowing into the water butt. I'm still waiting to see how much I can collect on a rainy day like this, but even if it's only 300 litres, that means money as I've got 330ppm coming from the tap, and I'm on water meter.

Oh yeah, and I haven't even cleared the gutters out...

 
Yeah that's a no brainer for you.

If I had the space I'd have a pump + battery box push it through a DI from the water butt into an IBC then a submersible pump put it into the van.

 
I have a DI bottle in the van for polishing as I work. I was thinking to fit a sediment filter after the submersible pump though, is that a good/bad idea? Just because bugs and debris etc. might get in the water.

Thanks for that smurf, thing is I only rent the place so I wouldn't want to cut the downpipe, also that would be a little bit pricey for me.

 
No probs bud but you will need too cut the pipe anyway to fit a chepo diverter which after fitting most of the water will still go down the drain anyway so are darn useless in my book.

 
Well what I did was just disconnect an elbow halfway the downpipe and it's just at the perfect height, I see what you mean, I would need some kind of a strainer for leaves etc. I will figure out something for that.

Basically I can put the pipe back together as it was in a minute, so thats good, just in case my landlord asks.

I can't tell how happy I am with this now. No more sitting at home in rainy weather and thinking this weather is useless! Unless it's one of those on and off days

 
So are you running the downpipe straight into a water butt or ibc without the need to add a chepo diverter?

 
The rainwater that comes off our main roof is around 30ppm, but if I clean out the garage roof gutter the rainwater is between 3 and 4 as the flat roof is painted.

However, during the summer drought of a few years ago collecting rainwater would have been a waste of time as there wasn't any rain. Hence the reason for investing in the 4040.

For us rainwater harvesting would have created a new set of problems. We process water through the 4040 and then through the di to polish it off before it goes into our IBC tank for storage at 0 ppm. It is then pumped into the vans as required. We don't have di vessels on the vans. So we would have to find another way of filtering and polishing off the rainwater before we stored it. It would mean that we would have to have a seperate storage process which I don't have room for.

The Australians have rain water collecting down to an art. I saw a divertor that allowed the first run off the roof to go straight down the drain as it would be full of dust. After a while the divertor kicks in and the remaining cleaner water is captured in tanks.

Youtube is full of rain water harvesting ideas.

 
So are you running the downpipe straight into a water butt or ibc without the need to add a chepo diverter?
Yes, I just put the water but really close to the wall like this:

I

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(Sorry for the low photo quality /emoticons/biggrin.png)

Yes this means that also dirt goes in the butt at the moment, so I need to figure out how to attach a filter (might just squeeze a sponge in there:))

 
The rainwater that comes off our main roof is around 30ppm, but if I clean out the garage roof gutter the rainwater is between 3 and 4 as the flat roof is painted.
For us rainwater harvesting would have created a new set of problems...
If you don't have much space, or you couldn't place the butt close enough to your IBC it would be a pain to move the sub pump everytime, also you'd need a DI bottle for this, since you have pure in your IBC

 
Btw I just transferred my first 200L of rain water into my ibc yaay!/emoticons/biggrin.png It's actually quicker and lower ppm than what my ro does!

 
I use 1000ltr ibc tanks to collect rainwater from a rainwater hub and yes I've found can be much quicker to produce pure harvested rainwater than using an ro but will use more resin to polish off to 000ppm. Regarding mixing the two I also have a seperate static ro/di 1000 ltr ibc setup so don't need to use the same holding tanks.

 
Forgot to mention I only pump 000pm pure into my van tank be it ro/di or purifed rainwater so I don't need to use a di in the van.

 
I just checked the tds of rain that was flowing down the drain and it's: .23 !!!I've been thinking of collecting it, but I kind of stalled at what kind of rain diverter to buy. Today I figured I can just disconnect one elbow on the downpipe, so now it's flowing into the water butt. I'm still waiting to see how much I can collect on a rainy day like this, but even if it's only 300 litres, that means money as I've got 330ppm coming from the tap, and I'm on water meter.

Oh yeah, and I haven't even cleared the gutters out...
is your water bills high mate

 
I use 1000ltr ibc tanks to collect rainwater from a rainwater hub and yes I've found can be much quicker to produce pure harvested rainwater than using an ro but will use more resin to polish off to 000ppm. Regarding mixing the two I also have a seperate static ro/di 1000 ltr ibc setup so don't need to use the same holding tanks.
smurf how high do you let your TDS reading go before changing your resin

 
is your water bills high mate
Yes Duncs, the most I had to pay was 450 for 6 months. They charge:

~£1/1000L - water

~£0.7/1000L - sewerage

~£30/6 month - standing charge

Now I use about 1500L/week, with my merlin's rubbish production rate (1:5 I hope) for 26 weeks (6 months) that is:

9000L/week * 26= 234.000L = £234

+ sewerage: £163

+s.charge: £30

-------------------

£427

That's in theory, the real figure will come in the post sometime next week...

 
Thanks for posting that info @heyoh ...Lets us know what the bill is /emoticons/wink.png

I'm glad & lucky I'm not on a water meter.

 
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