[Closed] Anyone retrofitted rainwater harvesting to their house?

What's the name of the programme?

Are you on a water meter?

I built a big shed (massive shed with lights and heating that I lived in for four years) in my folks garden. Ran the downpipe into a water butt, which had an overflow into another water butt... There were five butts in total. Ran a house from a couple of butts into flower beds. Saved mum from using the hose and saved dad from carrying watering cans.

Called 'Brave Blue World' on Netflix. Was really good.
Yes are on a water meter. 3 of us with 2 bathrooms and due to the 5 year old the washing machine goes on more than I like

I have water butts on my garden shed and summer house, but must admit my guttering work is shonky. I currently have 350litres in the butts. Living in the North East I could probably fill a swimming pool

My Dad is on a meter and rather than the £45pm I pay he's on around £16pm.

Wouldn't really be using it for the garden as we have a water butt (will be a second one soon) and we barely used the hose all summer.
def tempted as it would reduce our clean water usage. Not thinking of going the full works and fitting water filters and purifiers to make it drinkable

Just fitted 1000l unit to a school to flush 10 toilets! Had to also fit a bypass loop with solenoid valve for after playtime when tank had emptied or it hadn't rained. Nice idea but some sort of financial gain to fit one at the school. I wouldn't want to rely on one apart from garden

When we had a digger in doing the landscaping I bought a 3000 litre tank and buried it in the back garden. The whole of the back of the house and the garage act as the collection for the tank.
I have a single stand pipe with a double take off manifold so I can run two hoses simultaneously.
It sounds a lot 3000 litres but the long dry summers we have now mean it is not enough to keep everything watered.
https://www.drainagesuperstore.co.uk/product/rainwater-harvesting-tank-low-profile-3000l-graf-platin-garden-comfort.html
If I was doing a new build I would definitely include a grey water recirc system and rainwater harvesting. You need to factor in the trenching and pipe laying to pick up the collection points plus a power supply for the pump. I put a double weatherproof socket outlet in so I have convenient power in the garden and a pump supply. It isn't cheap but it is worth it given the price of water.
We had torrential rain day and I know the tank is full so the overflow will be running. Tomorrow I will put the sprinkler on in a dry area and part empty the tank because Friday will fill it again.

It's rarely cost effective. Even CAT say that. Fine for watering the garden but if you want more than that it's a lot more effort. I'd say you'd be much better off finding ways to reduce your usage.

We've got a semi off grid place and it's a faff for a pretty poor system. The water goes so fast even with light use. Will be going onto mains water at some point.

Yep.

Bathroom is downstairs, effectively a lean-to to the main house.

Gutter at the top, feed off that into a small header tank above the toilet, with an overflow into the waste water drain. This is linked to a much bigger tank in the loft above the shower (complicated by the weird wall/ceiling layouts, can't get the feed to the big tank, won't fit where the small tank is) Big tank has a ball-cock and mains feed to keep it at a minumum level if it doesn't rain. This refills the cistern when i flush the toilet.
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Seems a waste to flush with drinking water so I use rain water.
I have the advantage of gravity to help keep my tank filled, gutter level one floor above the tank which is above the toilet, nice and simple.
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In Scotland so no effect whatsoever on water bills. Cost was some pipes, two tanks and another ballcock, well under £100

Your money would be better spent on water efficient taps etc. Think about what you are using water for.

Rainwater harvesting is fine for a water butt, but why are you watering your garden? just use drought resistant plants.

As for grey water, high risk of cross connection later.

Looked at these things for years but unless part of an original build are expensive, need maintaining, always need mains water backup, don't stop profligate use which is the problem

I looked into it when renovating our last house. When I looked at the numbers I was amazed how cheap water actually is. it made no financial sense so didn't bother. Which I suppose is the problem with most renewables.

Rainwater harvesting is fine for a water butt, but why are you watering your garden? just use drought resistant plants.

Drought resistant tomato's?

Agree with the comment above about water efficient taps. I added a flow reducer to the shower head and turned down the flow on all of the hot and cold taps and our water bill came down around 40%. Reducing the flow on the hot taps also saved on gas as we were heating less water.

We have low flow shower heads but will look at the taps.
watering the garden is for fruit and veg and is in the majority from the water butt (will be entirely next year). We restrict water use as much as we can but I think I am turning more eco conscious as time goes on so thanks for the responses.
I did wonder on the cost effectiveness maybe if we build a new house in the future.

What's the point if there is no financial pay off? Why are people watering their gardens in the UK? I've never watered my garden apart from when new plants have been planted to give them a good start and nothing in my garden has died...far from it I get sick and tired of having to hack stuff back and mow the lawn so often filling up my brown bin with a week to go before collection. Things seem to happily survive the occasional drought we have from time to time in the UK. And to my limited gardening and plant species knowledge nothing I have in my garden are specific drought resistant plants...not sure what they are, but they look like pretty typical plants and bushes that you see in most gardens up and down the country. Can understand it if you have an allotment or grow veggies or something.

Maybe the best thing to do with captured rain water is to just direct it into the drains and sewers as normal so it finds its way back into the water system and water treatment plants or back into resevoires, rivers and streams?

I can see some benefit in recovering rain water for your household grey water - so flushing toilets as it seems bonkers to flush toilets with drinking water, but you're going to collect way more than you need most of the time and still need the infrastructure in your home to draw water from the mains during times of low rainfall and drought.

Directing rain water into foul sewers is a bad idea - there's far more rain water than foul water produced by a house, it increases the likelihood of the sewage system being overwhelmed and discharging into rivers.

If you're going to use rainwater to flush toilets, you need a holding tank that overflows to the normal soakaway. It'll still make it to the water table eventually.

We wondered about this a few years ago. I looked into one of those toilets that has a sink built into the top and a few other things (grey water harvesting etc).

In the end we just try to flush the toilet less 'if its yellow, let it mellow... etc'. Another option is just save grey water in a bucket (from a bath or shower) and use that to flush the loo. We also got a water meter, this cut our bill by nearly 2/3rds.

I also managed to get a water saving pack from our water company - Yorkshire water kit. The shower timer is very handy.

We also use water butts to water the fruit & veg and for bike & car washing.

Drought resistant tomato’s?

Grow something more appropriate to your climate

My take - when I bothered to investigate.

Toilets, dual flush syphon, total cost, a new flush unit thingy - if the existing one doesn't do it. Adjust the fill valve to fill the cistern less so the full flush is smaller - total cost, zero.

All the taps, they're normally (now) connected via a flex pipe with a valve. Turn the valve down, cost zero. If no valve, total cost is a new flex pipe. We had to do this anyway to prevent offspring from hosing down the entire bathroom every time they washed their hands.

Garden, some water butts, total cost need not be much.

Anything else, grey water, rainwater harvesting, anything involving the word "retrofit" - don't bother, too expensive, no payback, needs plumbing, major headaches.

Why are people watering their gardens in the UK?

Because next door allowed a full sized willow tree to develop fairly close to the house and the lawn dies under it unless watered during summer, for example, I'm sure there are other examples.

Much better options than grey water harvesting as have been outlined above. The only 2 places I know that have done it, (a school and private house) have had a nightmare of failed pumps and filters and have reverted to mains only. If you want to save water then buy less stuff made from cotton like denim jeans. The amount of water they use in production in crazy.

We started on a poly tunnel and then expanded to animal sheds and then one section of house as refurbished. Plan to do rest of house with rainwater but not grey water. We are not on mains supply and did it to take pressure off communal loch in summer.

Some tips from my own experiences doing it on the cheap:

- black ibc tanks are a cheap storage solution for water. Cost £25 second hand from our local animal feed supplier and have valves etc built in. Just make sure previous contents are harmless.
- 3 stage rain water filtering with gravel, particle filter then UV seems to work well
- grey water filtering is a lot harder and pretty grim, we tried with just a washing machine and as already mentioned means you end up pretty much doubling your plumbing and filtering.

Toilets, dual flush syphon, total cost, a new flush unit thingy – if the existing one doesn’t do it. Adjust the fill valve to fill the cistern less so the full flush is smaller – total cost, zero

doesn't work (yes it's been researched), you end up flushing twice, the bowl needs to be designed with low flow in mind etc. Toilet flushing is a minor use when compared to other ways water is wasted in the household if a standard siphon is used. The modern dual flush flapper toilet designs are the work of satan and should be banned as they leak into the bowl which means they don't get fixed.

All the taps, they’re normally (now) connected via a flex pipe with a valve. Turn the valve down, cost zero. If no valve, total cost is a new flex pipe. We had to do this anyway to prevent offspring from hosing down the entire bathroom every time they washed their hands.

you can buy flow restrictors that do the job properly, your water company may give them away

You could fit a small pressure reducing valve, the reduced pressure means less flow therefore less consumption

3 stage rain water filtering with gravel, particle filter then UV seems to work well

I don't think rainwater is as clean as you think it is especially after it has been on your roof