[Lee Burbidge]

Mmmm. My neighbor is collecting rain water for her garden. She put a break in her down pipe from the guttering and ran a little pipe into a large container probably no more than 200L.
It did get filled very quickly, however, in all the recent down pour it was proper overflowing. The connector pipe kept coming away and I would connect it for her ( good neighbor and all that)
I tested it yesterday, it was 0004!! Coming out of a dirty guttering!
I wonder if it is possible to calculate annual rain fall ( approx) and have a tank big enough to keep a 'reservoir' . Good for resi work I guess. Even if you run out you can claim to be part Green.Some one is experimenting with this as we speak and I am looking forward to hearing how it pans out and works for him.

[Londoner]

Its been talked about often but the average window cleaner needs 250-400 litres a day. Thats every day.

[Ian101]

I remember reading somewhere (not on here) that the average house roof in the UK puts thousand and thousands of litres a year .... in excess of 100,000 litres into the sewerage system

[Ian101]

http://info.cat.org.uk/questions/water-and-sewage/how-much-rain-water-could-i-collect

therea a formulae for you to calculate 

[Ian101]

and heres your UK average rainfall figures 

http://www.lowimpact.org/factsheet_rainwater_harvesting.htm

[Ian101]

just worked mine out from the 2 tables in second link ..... summit like 90 cubic metres or 90,000 litres in our langauge .... with a low tds and a big tank and a low pressure pump im swapping over to just DI ... need to go and dig a big hole for tank 

[EandM]

I've picked up around 2,000 litres in the last week with the heavy rainfall - 400 of those litres in one night. Average tds is 25 and is being harvested from the garage roof. Only mod was to join the gutters together so feed is from both sides. We've looked at digging a hole in the field, sinking a large underground tank and diverting the all the gutters into it. I think the problem is going to be physical tank size and cost. You need something like 500 gallons or 20 ibc's and that is going to get expensive.

[Ian101]

I've picked up around 2,000 litres in the last week with the heavy rainfall - 400 of those litres in one night. Average tds is 25 and is being harvested from the garage roof. Only mod was to join the gutters together so feed is from both sides. We've looked at digging a hole in the field, sinking a large underground tank and diverting the all the gutters into it. I think the problem is going to be physical tank size and cost. You need something like 500 gallons or 20 ibc's and that is going to get expensive.

how do you get rainwater from storage thru DI vessel ... guess via some type of pump ?

[carl stanton]

you can buy these old bulk juice containers, called roto's i think, about 1500 lts, large black round containers, i would say around 165 a piece, i did wonder if you could put them in the ground and deck over them if space is tight

even if you only have one container surely it will take the edge off

cheaper than an official tank for the purpose

[Lee Burbidge]

Some great ideas on here. Great job on rain fall etc links Ian, very usfull.

I thought to change over to this you might want to collect as much water as poss to get you started. You can always flip to the water mains if your struggling but at least its Green most of the time

[Steve Sed]

Here you go:

http://www.raintec.co.uk/

[Roy Cauldery]

Here you go:

http://www.raintec.co.uk/

Great link-its a do-able project for home but therein lies the problem for smaller firms like myself.I always wonder at what stage are the neighbours going to complain about vehicles coming to my home and filling up.If you go to commercial premises then you have to get onside with your landlord
Would really like to hear from someone who has gone down this route as I think this is going to be the future for all wfp operators(you would surely get a great response from customers by extolling your 'green'credentials) plus in the longer term it must have massive cost savings(resin etc-rainwater already low tds)
We already have solar panels at home ,which means that any 'leccy' used during the day is free-its just the scaling up to a bigger operation that I would like to know more about

Roy

[Ian101]

I've got a spare IBC doing nowt at moment so gonna get a feed from downspout, another DI vessel but not sure what type of pump to push it from IBC to DI vessel ... Any thoughts anyone ??

[EandM]

I've picked up around 2,000 litres in the last week with the heavy rainfall - 400 of those litres in one night. Average tds is 25 and is being harvested from the garage roof. Only mod was to join the gutters together so feed is from both sides. We've looked at digging a hole in the field, sinking a large underground tank and diverting the all the gutters into it. I think the problem is going to be physical tank size and cost. You need something like 500 gallons or 20 ibc's and that is going to get expensive.

how do you get rainwater from storage thru DI vessel ... guess via some type of pump ?

I have 3 IBC's linked together and connected to the gutters. Hozelock connectors on each tank connect to a di unit then gravity feed the water into my truck tank. I live on a hill - wouldn't work well on the flat!
Working on feeding them into a larger tank with a 2 inch outlet to the truck - so fill the larger tank with di water and then decant into truck. Sorry for the waffle explanation - hard day today.

[colin purewater]

Ian could you not just transfer straight from your ibc
To your van mount and polish it on the way out?

If so there is one of them transfer pumps left in
The lidl by me, fill you tank in minutes. And they
have a hose attachment with a filter on for emptying
Ponds etc and also a  large sediment filter to go with it
All for £66.

I think that would work sound! Any one see a flaw in my idea?

[Window Washers]

you would need to ask your local water board as your not just allowed to store their water (although I can't see how what drops from the sky is thers but thats how it is so i'm told.

i could see my wifes face lol "love I am having a tank installed under ground in the back garden" "ok" she says "hold on, how big is the tank?" me you will not see it as will be underground, I think about 250,000l tank would just scrape me by for a year