Any simplified rainwater designs for loo's nowadays?

[Stinsy]

Out of interest, how much does it cost in England for say 1 cubic mtr of domestic water to home? I'd do it for the green aspect but for sure if it was costing me.

If your lucky like us it costs zero upto 20 m3 per day.

And me, 20,000 litres per day is the Environment Agency limit before you need to pay for a licence.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/check-if-yo ... ract-water

I have saved 452,562 litres in around 10 years for flushing loos and garden irrigation, I reckon I just about break even on it financially.

Sorry if you’ve detailed it before, but I don’t remember seeing how this system works. I’d be very interested to understand the system, I guess there are pumps/tanks/expansion vessels/etc. how is it plumbed into the house? I believe there are some complex regulations for grey-water…

[Moxi]

https://www.who.int/teams/environment-c ... nd-storage

An excellent source of information for all things rain water and drinking water related and especially emergency drinking water.

Moxi

[nowty]

Sorry if you’ve detailed it before, but I don’t remember seeing how this system works. I’d be very interested to understand the system, I guess there are pumps/tanks/expansion vessels/etc. how is it plumbed into the house? I believe there are some complex regulations for grey-water…

I've been meaning to rewrite the water harvesting side of things including how its plumbed in to the house, I will try and get round to it soon.

[resybaby]

My fortay rainwater harvesting, inspected these most days as water companies very interested in the contamination point of view (RWH pumps can often over power mains pressures and pump RW back into distribution grid if pressure drops due to say a local burst or fire. Needless to say the revenue point of view too!

RWH systems are allowed, but there MUST ALWAYS be a category5 airbreak between the two systems - in essence to stop RWH contaminating the DW supply. So a break tank is required to create such an airgap, forming a AA, AB, AD airgap at least. A WC fill valve (type AUK1j is not sufficent for this as it is only cat 3 for back pressure and there is industry concerns that most of the telescopically adjustable ones now on the market (which are 99% of them) dont even comply with cat3 either, due to seepage at the telsxopic joint.

Switching between the same WC fill valve obviously means that when RW has been used then the pipe (and indeed cistern) when switched ober to DW that any bacterial issues are transferred (they will exist in the fill valve/cistern and dont magically disappear).

Having two separate WC fill valves, one for RWH and one for DW) also doesnt get around the issue, as they are contained within a single vessel (cistern) without a cat5 airgap i.e. just an internal overflow or 19mm warning pipe. Neither is a cat 5 airgap. And of course the seepage berween the two WC fill valves present telescopic joints gives rise to bacterial transfer.


Quite complicated to get the head around sometimes, but in essence there must be a gap of air, not just the gap at the WC fill valve.

Rex

[resybaby]

To be clear, the source of water pumped around your house for toilet usage matters too.

You can use whatever you want, RWH, spring, river, canal, borehole, bowsered etc etc water, and they are all classed as Category 5 sources under the Water Regulations - so all need a Cat5 airgap. Anything outside of the Water companies responsability is classed as contaminated, primarily, because it is either untested or irregularly tested or not tested to the same parameters.

If you dont have mains water at your property (no connection at all), e.g. fully borehole supplied house only, The Water Regulations DO NOT apply, however responsability for monitoring such a supply falls soley to the local authority EHO's.
If you have ANY water company derived water on site, even if supplimented by a borehole etc, then the Water Regulations apply to the whole of BOTH installations, but legal enforecment of the regs is shared by water company and LA EHO's.

Also, like DNO approval for more than 3.68kw of generator. You have to make a PRIOR APPLICATION for consent to your local water company, who will 100% inspect what you install. All RWH pipework and outlets to be labelled with coloured banding to BS1710, or adequately with other means of permament labels.

Rex