Rain, oh my gosh, blessed rain!

[Oldgreybeard]

I have a couple of old black plastic dustbins, left over from before we had wheelie bins. They hold about 80 litres each and as long as the lid is kept on the water stays very clear and fresh for years. I only found this out as I had filled one (back when we were building the house and didn't yet have running water) and then it got forgotten about and left around the back for about 4 years. When I lifted the lid the water was absolutely clear, no sign of anything growing in it. I think the secret is keeping light out and preventing things like mosquitoes from laying eggs in it.

I've no doubt that a black tank that has a good lid would keep water fresh for a long time if needed. Whether grey water from a washing machine would stay reasonably OK I don't know, but my guess is that anything in it would settle out and without light the water would probably stay OK. We have a sewage treatment plant, that just blows air through the tank to treat it and that's amazingly good at cleaning up the waste. What gets pumped out of the clarifying chamber in it looks as clear as the water in the stream it flows into. Even the fairly strict lady from the Environment Agency praised the quality of the effluent when she sampled it for lab testing. She mentioned that their lab thought the effluent was actually safe to drink (not that I think we would, shades of Bear Grylls . . .).

[Bugtownboy]

That’s pretty much my thought, OGB. Collect washer effluent, if needed, store in a completely opaque, lidded ‘reservoir’ in a cool(er) position.

The fact we’d probably only be storing for a week at most, I can’t see any real issue.

I’m also considering diverting shower and sink effluent from the main bathroom (would be bath too, but we probably only use the bath 4-6 times a year) into a reservoir/butt.

This would be mixed with rainwater to dilute any detergent/phosphate.

Whatever we do retrospectively without major investment is probably going to be a bit of a bodge, but it all helps to reduce water use.

Just seems wrong using the quality of our tap water to water the veg/plants.

[Stig]

Just seems wrong using the quality of our tap water to water the veg/plants.

I've been keeping a bucket in the bath/shower to run the tap into until it the hot water comes through, even with a fairly short pipe run (tank is only just across the hall) that's 1/3 bucket each time. That's been keeping a couple of my wilting shrubs alive the last couple of weeks.

[AE-NMidlands]

3mm last night, very welcome but not a lot really. Still collecting clean grey water. ([Hand] Dishwashing rinsing and veg washing generates quite a few buckets a day.) I wouldn't use what comes out of the washing machine unless I had the access - and time - to intercept it on the rinse phase only.
A

[Oldgreybeard]

Not much more here, total over the past 24 hours was about 8mm. Better than nothing, but we're still way behind the normal rainfall for the year to date.

[billi]

Am installing a PV powered Hot water heatpump shower in my house with no hot water yet (has woodburning bath oven and electric undersink heaters) so will install 2 showers , one in the garden and just water the garden

I suppose its all up to the washing "materials" that we use or not need to use , how we can use Grey water too , for my situation all goes into a septic tank that eats electricity and about 280 Euro service charge and tests per year and paperwork .

I dreamt last night about reactivating that 100 year old toilet in my house and just get rid of the flushed one

[Oldgreybeard]

Am installing a PV powered Hot water heatpump shower in my house with no hot water yet (has woodburning bath oven and electric undersink heaters) so will install 2 showers , one in the garden and just water the garden

I suppose its all up to the washing "materials" that we use or not need to use , how we can use Grey water too , for my situation all goes into a septic tank that eats electricity and about 280 Euro service charge and tests per year and paperwork .

I dreamt last night about reactivating that 100 year old toilet in my house and just get rid of the flushed one

I don't know if your laws allow it or not, but I didn't like paying around £250 a year for a "service" on our sewage treatment plant, especially when the "service" involved little more than visually checking things and making sure the air pump diaphragms were still OK, perhaps replacing them every two or three years if needed. I asked our local Environment Agency lady what was needed to become qualified to do the annual service. She said there were no qualifications and anyone could do it, there just needed to be records of the servicing so they knew it had been done.

I contacted the company I bought the treatment plant from and they emailed me the service schedule and check list, and they also supplied a few sets of spares for the air pump, for a lot less than the cost of a service. I now service ours each July and fill in the service record, putting a new sticky label on the lid of the thing showing the date of the last service. So far I've saved well over £1000 by this DIY approach, all for about an hour's work at most each year.

[billi]

exactly , the "inspectors" have a job ..... of that septic tank beside the running costs .....

Sad enough that happened to many households in Ireland , to have inspectors coming to fore househoulds to get sewage treatment plant and rib out the old septic tank ............ instead of educating people to use the right( or left ) sound materials to play a fair play with nature

[AE-NMidlands]

2 mm yesterday, only 3 the night before... and a forecast for a full day of rain on Sunday (50% chance all day) including heavy rain some of the time has now evaporated to 20% chance on Saturday night only.
The grey water has saved lots of things, but the runner beans have given up - we didn't prioritise them for help!
A

[Moxi]

We had another steady day of drizzle so the ground is well wetted and the runner beans are doing well as are the peas the courgettes and other veg on the flip side we had yet another 3.x kWh day from the panels so pulling from the grid :s - swings and roundabouts lol

Today we are supposed to have bright sky's but the air is definitely changing and is much cooler and the morning dew is back, we are even starting to collect blackberries for desserts.

Moxi