Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: michael papworth on August 05, 2009, 03:10:44 pm
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Harvesting rainwater
I've set up a diverter on the downspout from my (felted) garage roof. It's collected a fair bit of rainwater recently!!!
I used the first few lots of water to simply clean out the two 210 litre water butts. This involved partly filling the butts and giving them a good wiping with a towel inside and out to get rid of every last trace of grime and algae. I'm very confident that they are as clean as they could be.
The rainwater is directed into one of the butts and then overflows through a pipe into the other. The idea is to drain off water from the second one only and use the first one just as a settling tank.
So far I've used the water "raw." That is, I've not run it through a DI unit.
I've filled five 25 litre containers and used the water to wash my own windows several times now. The results are superb! It's just as good as RO water. It's a new house (to me) and the brand new windows were filthy. They came up absolutely spotless. I'm delighted with the result.
Now here's the thing!
The rainwater has a slight green tinge to it. Yet it works just as well as the perfectly clear RO water.
Has anyone got experience or any ideas on the subject?
P.S. I don't know the tds reading yet as my meter got broken in the move.
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Hi wally
rain water harvesting is not uncommon though you should
run it through a di unit, tds reading RAW should be about 5ppm
Dave
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the green tinge is likely algae.
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I might look at this free water
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im toooooo busy cleaning windows to p*ss about with rain.......... whats wrong with a tap
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Yes, have a look at it.
I was gobsmacked that my windows have come up so clean and dried perfectly even though the tds can be nowhere near 000 and the green tinge - probably (as CCM suggested) algae from the felt roof.
A diverter costs less than a tenner from any DIY store. You have to cut the downspout, though.
For a modest user like me, I will be able to run most of my business using rainwater. If I harvested from my house roof and invested in a couple of IBCs for storage I could probably run my entire business on it.
im toooooo busy cleaning windows to p*ss about with rain.......... whats wrong with a tap
There's nothing wrong with a tap. There's nothing wrong with looking at alternatives either.
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use these butts to store the water ;D ;D
http://www.waterbutts.com/Butt/index.html
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Gordon Brown wont like this,
He will be taxing the rain soon.
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no offense but how long will all this faffing take in order to save like 20p on water?
If you faff for 15 minutes extra a day doing it, thats over an hour a week. Most window cleaners can earn at very least £30 an hour, so unless its saving you more than £30 per week (which I would highly doubt) its a waste of precious time.
Its not a bad idea, but is not economically worthwhile IMO.
One thing tho, if theres a drought order you'll be laughing
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Hiyya drwindows. I can see your point, but in my opinion, it's not faffing about. I'm doing something that I enjoy doing (messing about making stuff and looking for ways of improving it) and I see it as being environmentally sound.
It's a learning experience, and I just LOVE learning new stuff.
The economic savings aren't great, but are significant. For someone starting out in a small way, they would save the entire cost of an RO unit. I certainly wish I'd known about this before I started. I would have gone down this route straight away and invested more heavily in storage - say three 1000 litre IBCs.
So far, I've only cleaned my own windows with the raw rainwater, so I don't know how it will perform on other people's windows. I'm going to experiment tomorrow on friends and neighbours' windows and see what the results are. If they are good, there are no ongoing costs! If they aren't good enough, I may have to run the water through a DI unit which will result in small costs. (as the tds is pretty low.)
One thing I will certainly need is more storage to allow for rain-free weeks. I guess that if I have about 10 days supply, I should be OK. I can always use my RO unit if I do run out.
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to all the people who have said
" i cannot see the point " i can be out earning in the few mins it takes to do this and that "
have you thought you are benefiting the environment, afterall using rainwater is alot greener than using water thats been treated at the treatment plant and then treated again with a RO
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have a look at my rainwater system on matts site
also on the academy site
will be happy to answer any questions
mike
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this really drives home the point that theres no problem with cleaning in the rain. But try telling that to a custy!!
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Address of 'Matts site'?
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Address of 'Matts site'?
matts site
try typing into google
diy water fed pole forum 8)
ciu wont let me put the link up :'(
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or e.mail
diywfplink@yahoo.co.uk