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Ok so as theres no doubt a water shortage coming up im looking at water storage. Now i can get a water butt and plug this into the drain pipe but that is only going to be useful for watering the plants (which i dont do anyway) but i would like something to wash the chairs / bike car fill a paddling pool for the child (or me) etc.
Now Ive had a look at this and can see there are filters galore and quite elaborate systems but what i dont get is how the water is kept clean and safe. Surely you'll get flies or other stuff making its way from the roof to the water? Has anyone on here got experience of them?
Ours was sealed (well tight fighting lid), diverter on downpipe which fed into the water butt, you need to clean the diverter every so often - ours has a mesh filter but if too many leaves and moss came down it would jack up (so make sure diverter easy to take out of down pipe so you can poke a screwdriver etc through it it). I guess you could add an extra inline filter between the diverter and butt on the connecting pipe.
If you get one where the tap is quite high from the bottom (I added a 6inch up pipe with a mesh filter), as I suspect no matter what you do the bottom of the water butt will get sediment in it, but I guess you could do an annual jetwash etc to clean it out.
This collects our shower water (60l) a day.
I water everything we don't eat with it and 5 years later all is blooming.
Obviously doesn't help your needs!
You would be fine washing a bike/car/ something down with water butt water, so long as you are just pouring it or using a sponge from a bucket. Legionella is an increased risk once over 20 deg C so running it through a jet wash or anything that made an aerosol would be a bad idea.
We filled our kids pool up a few weeks a go and it'll stay up until end of summer. Small pump/filter and the right chemicals keeps it sweet for months. Just like keeping a hot tub going.
Its got a cover, but it still gets topped up with a bit of rain every now and then as the cover has a few small drain holes in it.
Can you not just use normal butt water for bike/car cleaning? A lot of pressure washers will feed from a butt. Chairs I find better with a cloth.
Paddling pool I get wanting clean water. For that we use the tap. Unsurprisingly the time the paddling pool is used coincides with the time the butts are low. Once the pool is finished with water gets used to water the garden and the extra transferred to the butts.
Those points made I'd love a proper grey water system for toilets, garden and washing cars etc. The cost looks crazy when I've investigated before.
Always wash the bike with mine.
Get a worx hydroshot and you get the hose attachment, full up a watering can from the butt and wash the car/bike etc.
Washing the car with rainwater means you don't get water spots if it dries too...
good information so far, thanks
I like the idea of the bath water instead of rainwater as thats got to be better i would have thought? lot less debris to filter out? or will it kill everything as itll have soap in it
Can you not just use normal butt water for bike/car cleaning?
Butt water ..... 🙈
Legionella is an increased risk once over 20 deg C so running it through a jet wash or anything that made an aerosol would be a bad idea.
Because of legionella it is advised you only use water butts for watering cans and gardens - hosepipes and lots of splashing should be avoided. They should also be in shade, either on north side or inside a shed or similar.
Apparently 90%+ of water butts have legionella and 5% have leptospirosis.
This morning I have written guidance for schools on the matter.
This collects our shower water
do you have to be careful with soap etc or is it all so dilute by the time it hits the plants that its a non-issue?
5lab, the soap is safe for human eyes so filtered through soil for plants has had no detrimental affect on them at all.
As an aside it takes 10l of water for our shower to get up to temperature.
I put the kids baths water on the garden, no issues with soap.
The easiest, low cost way to handle grey water is use it ASAP on the garden. Don’t store it as bacteria / soap scum will become an issue. I aim to use it in 24-48 hrs. When I’m not watering the garden (not summer basically) I divert the bath water back to the drain.
I purchased an 1000x litre IBCs (Intermediate Bulk Containers) in black for storing water, the dark colour reduces funky bacterial growth
As mentioned above, summer studies show alarming levels of Legionella in domestic settings where you would not routinely test for legionella (unlike in workplaces)
“Public Health England carried out some research in 2018 and found that using water butt water in a 'watering can will mitigate Legionella risk”
General advice is not to splash water molecules more than necessary to reduce the risk of inhalation. Think watering can more than sprinklers.
As one of the main drivers is to wash the cars im thinking it wont be suitable then 🙁