Rain Tank to fill toilets

[xcesiv]

Just been thinking of all the ways we can make our house a bit more environmentally friendly and 1 thing that i was contemplating was the possibility of using the water tank to fill the toilets when flushed.

My PPOR has a dead side where we have about a 2.5 meter area. This has been used mainly for storage and where i plan to put water tanks. On this side of the house is also all the plumbing for the bathrooms and toilets.

I was wondering how hard would it be to have a tank installed that is used to fill the toilets instead of using mains water.

Has anyone done this before
if so, how hard was it to do and rough costs

Thanks

Warren

 

[Corey Batt]

My PPOR has this. As a part of council regulations, all new houses must be fitted with such a system, else where possible have a grey water tap. I'm not sure how much it cost as it was factored into the build.

It essentially uses the rain water unless it hits a low point in the tank wherein it switches to mains till the tank refills again.

 

[weg]

My PPOR has this. As a part of council regulations, all new houses must be fitted with such a system, else where possible have a grey water tap. I'm not sure how much it cost as it was factored into the build.

It essentially uses the rain water unless it hits a low point in the tank wherein it switches to mains till the tank refills again.

Not sure where your place is but most councils insist on 1000L tanks.

What I can't get my head around is that during a drought period that tank would remain empty and you'd be using mains .

During wet periods like now where water is plentiful, you'd be saving water.

1000L is so little, the saving to the homeowner would be minimal (check SA Water calculator).

I had to put one in as well, but would never consider putting one in out of choice.

 

[Corey Batt]

1000L tanks here too. I also doubt the tank will remain empty when you do the maths.

The toilet for my PPOR is 3.5/4L flush, so assuming full flushes at 4L gives you 250 flushes per full tank. Even in the November to Feburary dry months Adelaide averages 5-7 rainy days, peaking at 25 days mid winter. With a full tank I should think a 1000L system should not empty unless you honestly flush the toilet 10 or so times a day (Which maybe for larger families, but two people hardly not!). In the case of larger families I should think a larger tank would be sufficient.

My parents had a house a couple years ago which had no connection to the mains, this was during the major drought periods up north. We still managed to not empty those tanks.

 

[weg]

You'd definately get the water in 'normal' summers but droughts like we've just experienced?

We're a family of 4 and flush well over 10 times a day - at least 5 times from MN to 8am.

On the savings side I was really blown away by what water was used after playing with the SA Water calculator.

The biggest waste is from non water friendly shower heads. In our home, the water use from this was more more than double the entire water use of everything else combined .

We've now switched to the highest rating shower head and cut down our water consumption dramatically.

 

[xcesiv]

I already have a large tank installed so i can top up my pool, spa and clean my cars without hassles. Its always pretty full and i top up the pool and spa reguraly

We have a massive roof, around 60-70% of our block is covered by a roof that is catching into our tank. so catching rainwater a plenty.

You mentioned you wouldnt install this kinda system in your place unless made to. Is this because of the lack of savings in water, or just too much hassle.

Would this kinda system be hard to setup.

I was also thinking of running a pressured line to the front yard so it acts like a normal tap, so i can water my gardens and wash my cars if needed.

I can fit another tank if needed as i have plenty of dead space to hide one.

You mentioned it was part of the setup of your new house.

 

[weg]

My biggest motivator to installing large tank/s would be based on cost savings.

So far for a family of 4 our water excess (not inc. standard water charges) comes to between $30 and $35 per Q. We have a large garden and spa.

Don't get me wrong we do watch our water and have changed our practices for the good of the state, but...

Savings per 1000L is I think around $1 - correct me if I'm wrong.

My brother a builder/developer got quoted 7K to put in 3000L tanks in each of a couple of places in one of Adelaide's council areas.

They required a tank above and another underground as well as connecting. He did these himself in the end and had a plumber do the connecting.

It just annoys me that incompetent governments don't really make much of an effort in this regard, ie not forcing water companies to repair leaks that waste huge amounts of water, not making industry as a whole, that use far more water than us change practices.

Yet they make us pay to reduce water use, then up the price of water.

 

[nww]

Yes in the process of this now.
Only really doing it because we are able to obtain $1500 worth of rebates.
Toilet and washing machine.
Look into installing a large pressure tank to the pump so you save
on electricity.
Have also installed a top up tank device instead of a mains backup pump
as these pumps are very expensive and usually only come with 12 months
warranty.
Cheaper to put on a top up tank system and separate pump ,so if the pump fails
just by another cheaper one.

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/TANK-TOP-UP-...pt=AU_Gardening_Equipment&hash=item53e4c22c19

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/NEW-100-LITR...48?pt=AU_Home_Tools_Pumps&hash=item45f89da540

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140451019204&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

 

[Graingrower]

My biggest motivator to installing large tank/s would be based on cost savings.

I agree. Our house is only 12 squares and we live in a 600mm rainfall area. 12 squares = 108 m2 x 600mm = 64,800 L = 64.8 KL @ 1.67 (Gippsland water is a ripoff, to pay for recycling factory to recycle APM waste) = $108 / annum. I've lived in houses that rely on town water and $100 is chicken feed compared to the cost of water tanks, pipes, pmps, etc. Even if our house was twice as big the cost savings would not pay the interest on the storage required to capture all the rain that falls on the house. If you have 1000 m2 of shed roof, different story.

What the town planners should be doing is using the money that people would be spending on tanks to build a dam at the low end of town and capture all the stormwater that runs off the rooves and streets. This water could then be used to water town parks or even be pumped via a separate line to everyones gardens. Might not be feasible everywhere, but definitely better than the 'feel good' tanks.

The oldies tell me that years ago councils made evryone remove their old galvanised water tanks to stop mozzies breeding.

 

[weg]

Ok, have the correct pricings for SA.

Old annual threshold, $0.97/kL to 120kL

New quarterly threshold (91days) from July 1st 2010, $0.97/kL to 30kL.

It's gone up significantly, however my last 2 Q water bills were $32 and $34.

 

[RumpledElf]

We pay about $60-100 each time a water bill comes in, but most of that is the supply charge. We don't watch our usage at all.

We're getting a fairly large tank with our new house, so $3000ish for the tank (I think its a 22,000L one, can't find my brochures), plus $500ish for a pump, gawd knows what for that thing that switches to mains, and the cost of the plumber. I don't think you get a rebate on a new house, but I've bought heaps of tanks and never got a rebate yet so I'm used to it.

Our house is set up just to run the toilet off that tank but we'll probably run the cold into the kitchen off it at some point too, for drinking water, unless it turns out to get full of leaves or something.

 

[xcesiv]

Is there any form of Rebate in Melbourne for installing tanks and or tanks for the toilet, sink ideas.

Just a thought.

 

[Change of Plan]

Hi Warren,
We got two slimline tanks (2000L and 2300L) installed September last year and haven't used mains for toilets/washing machine since, so this amount was plenty for a family of four. It wasn't hard to get it installed by a plumber, though it did make it easier that we replaced the guttering at the same time. Difficult to give you the cost as the plumber didn't give a breakdown. One thing, I would recommend that the tank be put on a concrete slab, as we had problems with subsiding.

Cheers

 

[xcesiv]

Subsiding would be an annoying thing.

The place already has a tank and i beleive it has a slab under it. Ill find out if i dont if subsidance is ever an issue.

Sounds like a good thing. I dont need the guttering replaced as most of the roof already catchs the rain for the tank already.

I might call a few plumbers to give me a quote to do it.

I do like the idea of it and should save some coin.