Had you thought about initially mounting the tank on a brick platform, so the tank bottom was raised to nearer cistern top level. I appreciate that this tank would then be too high for the roof height in this instance. Collecting rainwater reduces load on the combined sewerage systems and reduces spillages into the environment. We'll done.
I had originally thought about having wall mounted tanks high up on the wall, but soon realised the capacity just wouldn't be there and it would sit empty for long periods of time. As you mention, if the tank was any higher it would foul the cladding and possibly look bad (or worse than it is for those thank aren't to keen on it haha). Thank you for your kind comments. I enjoy doing my part for the environment especially if I think it may help the bottom line of running the house, and even if it doesn't its a relatively cheap hobby/experiment and allows us to be somewhat self sufficient. I hadn't actually thought about how it might be reducing the amount of rainwater being carried off, and therefore reducing spillages of which affects us quite a lot living so close to the coast!
Nice video. Enjoyed your separate economic analysis too 👍 Am I correct to imagine the level at the very top of the tank is slightly below the bottom of the tee pipe which leads to the mains drain (i.e. that the tank can never be 100% full) ? and that you done this to maximise the stored volume to that level in the tank and also store that little bit extra in the fully filled (just off horizontal) tee pipe to the tank and the small volume of water in the vertical pipe between the tee to the tank and tee to the mains?
You’ve got it spot on 👍 To avoid the waterbutt from overflowing the rainwater needs to be able to drain down the main drain before the waterbutt is completely filled. It was a task conveying this to the guys that installed it for me as part of the toilet renovation but it all worked out in the end. The small inclined pipe does also fill with water and I need to be mindful of when I clean the J spout/bend as I don’t want to do it after the waterbutt has been completely filled - I should be doing it regularly anyway, but preferably before rain is due. The waterbutt only drains down to about half way via gravity alone but I’ve been powering a small 12v pump in dry days to drain the bottom half which has been going pretty well!
If you check out this video I provide a link to it in Amazon and the keywords I search for it in the description - I’ll have a look to see where I actually bought it from for you Rainwater Toilet Installation: A Sustainable Solution for Eco-Friendly Plumbing th-cam.com/video/-9g2QYC3ogI/w-d-xo.html And yes I did find a pump that’s working great, however, I haven’t set up a dedicated power supply to it yet so I run an extension lead on dry days at the moment!
It will depend on your cistern. I will upload a video eventually but we had a porcelain cistern that had an overflow I felt we could use to plumb in the rainwater feed and overflow into the toilet. If you have a plastic cistern like we now have, you could have an additional inlet added by someone competent - just be sure its at the correct height for the flow rate!
We have a Type AB Air Gap. An employee from Portsmouth Water came out and inspected the height of the water level after a normal flush with just mains, and then held the valve down to see what the critical water level would be. The integral overflow that discharges excess water into the cistern does a really good job of keeping the water level down meaning the height of the inlet was sufficient to not allow any risk of backflow. Also, the rain water is gravity fed at a max of 0.1 bar so the additional water coming in was seen to be negligible. If I were to pressurise the system I'd have them come out and check again to be safe. As it happens, since the test the mains supply to the toilet has been restricted to make more use of the rainwater, which decreases the likelihood of the cistern filling up to a level that would submerge the wholesome water inlet. I hope that helps.
Had you thought about initially mounting the tank on a brick platform, so the tank bottom was raised to nearer cistern top level.
I appreciate that this tank would then be too high for the roof height in this instance.
Collecting rainwater reduces load on the combined sewerage systems and reduces spillages into the environment. We'll done.
I had originally thought about having wall mounted tanks high up on the wall, but soon realised the capacity just wouldn't be there and it would sit empty for long periods of time. As you mention, if the tank was any higher it would foul the cladding and possibly look bad (or worse than it is for those thank aren't to keen on it haha).
Thank you for your kind comments. I enjoy doing my part for the environment especially if I think it may help the bottom line of running the house, and even if it doesn't its a relatively cheap hobby/experiment and allows us to be somewhat self sufficient. I hadn't actually thought about how it might be reducing the amount of rainwater being carried off, and therefore reducing spillages of which affects us quite a lot living so close to the coast!
Nice video. Enjoyed your separate economic analysis too 👍
Am I correct to imagine the level at the very top of the tank is slightly below the bottom of the tee pipe which leads to the mains drain (i.e. that the tank can never be 100% full) ?
and
that you done this to maximise the stored volume to that level in the tank and also store that little bit extra in the fully filled (just off horizontal) tee pipe to the tank and the small volume of water in the vertical pipe between the tee to the tank and tee to the mains?
You’ve got it spot on 👍
To avoid the waterbutt from overflowing the rainwater needs to be able to drain down the main drain before the waterbutt is completely filled. It was a task conveying this to the guys that installed it for me as part of the toilet renovation but it all worked out in the end.
The small inclined pipe does also fill with water and I need to be mindful of when I clean the J spout/bend as I don’t want to do it after the waterbutt has been completely filled - I should be doing it regularly anyway, but preferably before rain is due.
The waterbutt only drains down to about half way via gravity alone but I’ve been powering a small 12v pump in dry days to drain the bottom half which has been going pretty well!
Hello,
Where did you buy this tank from ? Did you manage to find a solar pump in the end?
Cheers
If you check out this video I provide a link to it in Amazon and the keywords I search for it in the description - I’ll have a look to see where I actually bought it from for you
Rainwater Toilet Installation: A Sustainable Solution for Eco-Friendly Plumbing
th-cam.com/video/-9g2QYC3ogI/w-d-xo.html
And yes I did find a pump that’s working great, however, I haven’t set up a dedicated power supply to it yet so I run an extension lead on dry days at the moment!
Hi, awesome! I'd love to learn how to attach the piping to an existing toilet that's partly built into a wall already.
It will depend on your cistern. I will upload a video eventually but we had a porcelain cistern that had an overflow I felt we could use to plumb in the rainwater feed and overflow into the toilet. If you have a plastic cistern like we now have, you could have an additional inlet added by someone competent - just be sure its at the correct height for the flow rate!
To use that extra water, Could you put the tank on a stand to raise it about the cistern hight?
The stand would need to hold 650kg, and not have the waterbutt look like an eyesore :D
How do you prevent contamination of the mains supply by the rainwater.?
We have a Type AB Air Gap. An employee from Portsmouth Water came out and inspected the height of the water level after a normal flush with just mains, and then held the valve down to see what the critical water level would be. The integral overflow that discharges excess water into the cistern does a really good job of keeping the water level down meaning the height of the inlet was sufficient to not allow any risk of backflow.
Also, the rain water is gravity fed at a max of 0.1 bar so the additional water coming in was seen to be negligible. If I were to pressurise the system I'd have them come out and check again to be safe. As it happens, since the test the mains supply to the toilet has been restricted to make more use of the rainwater, which decreases the likelihood of the cistern filling up to a level that would submerge the wholesome water inlet.
I hope that helps.
Thank you for the info. Much appreciated.@@GreenWhereItSuits
I don’t know if it helps or not but I have a new video up where you can see the internals of the cistern. If you need other angles let me know 👍
Where did you buy this tank ?
I believe I bought this from freeflush.co.uk