Wouldn’t mind if we got cheaper non surge rates tbh. Looking at my garden or allotment and hosepipe bans I was thinking what if I was to store up water in an IBC tank before a drought.
So far I haven’t really done anything to reduce water usage, it just doesn’t seem worth the cost. Underground rainwater tank, even if I dig the hole for it myself, would require filling and emptying 1000s of times to pay for its self compared to just using a hose pipe. Or if there is a pipe ban, filling a wheelbarrow a few times.
Garden came with water butts so I do use those. But looking at how little they hold for their price I can’t see how it is worth it. Even the large ones hold less than £1 worth of water. Plus a house uses as that much water each day normally anyway?
Grey water collection could be interesting. I have loads of grey water waste during drought that could potentially be useful. Can that safely be dumped straight onto the garden though? Most things I find suggest not to, shame as it would be fairly easy. Even just plonk a gutter under the pipe exist points from the house and direct it to the garden.
We got our water butts free on local Facebook groups or marketplace. You’re right though, they don’t store a lot. Our outside tap is somehow unmetered so i mostly use that anyway. The water butts ran out weeks ago. No hosepipe bans here (north west).
Yeah there are no hose pipe bans where I live too, although I am somewhat aware of trying not to use it excessively too.
My garden the grass can die and will come back when it rains so that gets nothing normally. In plant beds its all drought tolerant stuff like rosemary, its doing OK though I am giving them a little water once or twice a month.
Saving the water butts for plant pots and newly planted cuttings. For that they seem to be lasting OK. We are expecting rain this week at least. I suspect things like rosemary would have grown a lot more if I watered them more, but they will survive just fine without too.
Grey water collecting feels like a more sensible option to look into. Most households use over 100L of water a day, only the toilet being water you don’t want to reuse could give you a small water butt per day in water. If I do I hope it can be a DIY project.
Can that safely be dumped straight onto the garden though?
As long as you’re not using antibacterial agents, bleach or things with parabens and phosphate you’ll mostly be fine.
Its pretty minor to switch to “biodegradable” soaps if you don’t use them already and then you can just dump your bathwater straight onto the garden no problem.
Looked at a few sites talking about using bathwater on the garden and as long as you’re watering the roots and not edible leaves directly it’s perfectly fine. You also want to use the water immediately rather than storing it.
Ahh right, that makes sense. For my garden it would be bay, sage and rosemary.
Immediate use could actually be achieved by piping it straight to the grass next to the garden beds and let the roots get it through the soil. Probably through a filter somewhere along the line.
Look into micron filters or even submicron hollowtube filters. They’re washable and reusable, they filter out most suspended solids, some heavy metals, and even pathogens (most bacteria and parasites, even some viruses).
I don’t think they’d make grey water potable necessarily, but if you’re worried about bathwater contaminating your garden then combining these with switching to biodegradable soaps and solvents is probably enough.
Adding a charcoal filter stage might bind some stuff that the hollowtube misses. You can even run it through a UV chamber if you want another line of defense, but that’s a bit slower and might be redundant, especially if you’re just watering your garden.
There are also ceramic filters out there that are supposed to remove pretty much anything the hollowtube filters would miss, but they’re more expensive and the parts aren’t quite as reusable. Supposed to make pretty much anything potable though.
I’d have to do more research about dissolved particles, but I think some of the filters mentioned can catch some of it. Otherwise it would require distillation or reverse osmosis, both of which are slower and require more expensive equipment. Building a solar still is an option but it’s the slowest one.
I also looked at this recently as I thought that soap would be harmful to plants and/or microbes and the Royal Horticultural Society has done some investigation of their own into the use of greywater, and their advice is “plants can be watered with shower, bath, kitchen and washing machine water (from rinse cycles)”, finding that “soil and potting composts are effective at filtering out” the soap/detergent.
I’m just echoing @Denjin@feddit.uk with the RHS link, and I didn’t read the articles he linked but it wouldn’t surprise me if the RHS guidance is the source of those.
I wonder if I would need a pump or could connect a tube directly to the bathroom tap/shower outlet at the side of my house. It is only elevated slightly above the ground, it looks like the path is flat but there could be a slight gradient either way that I am unaware of. Kitchen outlet for the washing machine and kitchen sink is a bit higher. But I think the bathroom water is a cleaner source.
Either way its something to look into trying. Pipe probably doesn’t cost much to experiment with and can be removed when not needed. Worst thing that would happen is the shower fills up and you notice that pretty quickly, then just take it off.
pumps are cheap enough but they probably increase the chance of blockage due to hair and so on. if you could get it using just gravity it would prob be better from a minimum maintenance viewpoint.
Yeah gravity would be less maintenance, just a tube at that point.
You can get pumps designed to go under the shower by the look of it but then you need to power it. Otherwise DIY options, might be some battery powered pumps that could work. Thought sump pumps perhaps but apparently those are rated for many many thousands of litres an hour. Maybe if I can find something smaller than that…
First linked site recommends a filter to grab hair and any solid bits of dirt or soap etc. I plan on adding an irrigation system for the future in my garden (mostly fruiting plants in the summer and brassicas over winter) that would be fed first from bath water, then water butts, then tap depending on what’s available.
Given how likely it seems that we’ll see significant shortages of water within the next few years, rainwater storage seems like a decent idea to me, £3000 for 5000 litres doesn’t make sense in pure financial terms but if it means that or not having any water at all, it seems like a pretty small price to pay.
Shortages to the point of restrictions though surely, rather than having no water left at all. Where I live hasn’t even had hosepipe bans yet, and we are getting a new reservoir soon.
If I was planning for no water at all I would look at getting a hand pumped RO filter for filtering sea water. I could distill it but that takes far more energy. Have wondered about the RO filter anyway for cooking by the beach but there are usually public taps close enough. Would allow going to more remote parts of the beach though.
We’ve had one of the top 10 wettest winters on record and reservoirs in my region are down to about 50%, and there’s no new reservoir construction or expansion even in the planning phase.
I don’t think it’s a huge leap to think about the possibility of reservoirs running dry if we have a couple more dry summers and follow that with even an average winter supplies could be dangerously low.
Suppose it also depends on how much water do you want if it was to run out. If you can afford it then continue as normal with a few £1000 spent on a tank could be OK.
Worst case is enough to drink and wash your hands, and pretty sure they would be distributing water you can collect if it was to get that low.
Wouldn’t mind if we got cheaper non surge rates tbh. Looking at my garden or allotment and hosepipe bans I was thinking what if I was to store up water in an IBC tank before a drought.
So far I haven’t really done anything to reduce water usage, it just doesn’t seem worth the cost. Underground rainwater tank, even if I dig the hole for it myself, would require filling and emptying 1000s of times to pay for its self compared to just using a hose pipe. Or if there is a pipe ban, filling a wheelbarrow a few times.
Garden came with water butts so I do use those. But looking at how little they hold for their price I can’t see how it is worth it. Even the large ones hold less than £1 worth of water. Plus a house uses as that much water each day normally anyway?
Grey water collection could be interesting. I have loads of grey water waste during drought that could potentially be useful. Can that safely be dumped straight onto the garden though? Most things I find suggest not to, shame as it would be fairly easy. Even just plonk a gutter under the pipe exist points from the house and direct it to the garden.
We got our water butts free on local Facebook groups or marketplace. You’re right though, they don’t store a lot. Our outside tap is somehow unmetered so i mostly use that anyway. The water butts ran out weeks ago. No hosepipe bans here (north west).
Yeah there are no hose pipe bans where I live too, although I am somewhat aware of trying not to use it excessively too.
My garden the grass can die and will come back when it rains so that gets nothing normally. In plant beds its all drought tolerant stuff like rosemary, its doing OK though I am giving them a little water once or twice a month.
Saving the water butts for plant pots and newly planted cuttings. For that they seem to be lasting OK. We are expecting rain this week at least. I suspect things like rosemary would have grown a lot more if I watered them more, but they will survive just fine without too.
Grey water collecting feels like a more sensible option to look into. Most households use over 100L of water a day, only the toilet being water you don’t want to reuse could give you a small water butt per day in water. If I do I hope it can be a DIY project.
As long as you’re not using antibacterial agents, bleach or things with parabens and phosphate you’ll mostly be fine.
Its pretty minor to switch to “biodegradable” soaps if you don’t use them already and then you can just dump your bathwater straight onto the garden no problem.
I had always heard you shouldn’t eat stuff watered with grey water
Looked at a few sites talking about using bathwater on the garden and as long as you’re watering the roots and not edible leaves directly it’s perfectly fine. You also want to use the water immediately rather than storing it.
https://gardeningbeyond.com/can-i-water-my-garden-with-bath-water/
https://gardenadvice.co.uk/gardening-tips/bath-water-for-watering-my-garden-plants-and-vegetables/
Ahh right, that makes sense. For my garden it would be bay, sage and rosemary.
Immediate use could actually be achieved by piping it straight to the grass next to the garden beds and let the roots get it through the soil. Probably through a filter somewhere along the line.
Look into micron filters or even submicron hollowtube filters. They’re washable and reusable, they filter out most suspended solids, some heavy metals, and even pathogens (most bacteria and parasites, even some viruses).
I don’t think they’d make grey water potable necessarily, but if you’re worried about bathwater contaminating your garden then combining these with switching to biodegradable soaps and solvents is probably enough.
Adding a charcoal filter stage might bind some stuff that the hollowtube misses. You can even run it through a UV chamber if you want another line of defense, but that’s a bit slower and might be redundant, especially if you’re just watering your garden.
There are also ceramic filters out there that are supposed to remove pretty much anything the hollowtube filters would miss, but they’re more expensive and the parts aren’t quite as reusable. Supposed to make pretty much anything potable though.
I’d have to do more research about dissolved particles, but I think some of the filters mentioned can catch some of it. Otherwise it would require distillation or reverse osmosis, both of which are slower and require more expensive equipment. Building a solar still is an option but it’s the slowest one.
I also looked at this recently as I thought that soap would be harmful to plants and/or microbes and the Royal Horticultural Society has done some investigation of their own into the use of greywater, and their advice is “plants can be watered with shower, bath, kitchen and washing machine water (from rinse cycles)”, finding that “soil and potting composts are effective at filtering out” the soap/detergent.
I’m just echoing @Denjin@feddit.uk with the RHS link, and I didn’t read the articles he linked but it wouldn’t surprise me if the RHS guidance is the source of those.
I wonder if I would need a pump or could connect a tube directly to the bathroom tap/shower outlet at the side of my house. It is only elevated slightly above the ground, it looks like the path is flat but there could be a slight gradient either way that I am unaware of. Kitchen outlet for the washing machine and kitchen sink is a bit higher. But I think the bathroom water is a cleaner source.
Either way its something to look into trying. Pipe probably doesn’t cost much to experiment with and can be removed when not needed. Worst thing that would happen is the shower fills up and you notice that pretty quickly, then just take it off.
pumps are cheap enough but they probably increase the chance of blockage due to hair and so on. if you could get it using just gravity it would prob be better from a minimum maintenance viewpoint.
Yeah gravity would be less maintenance, just a tube at that point.
You can get pumps designed to go under the shower by the look of it but then you need to power it. Otherwise DIY options, might be some battery powered pumps that could work. Thought sump pumps perhaps but apparently those are rated for many many thousands of litres an hour. Maybe if I can find something smaller than that…
First linked site recommends a filter to grab hair and any solid bits of dirt or soap etc. I plan on adding an irrigation system for the future in my garden (mostly fruiting plants in the summer and brassicas over winter) that would be fed first from bath water, then water butts, then tap depending on what’s available.
Given how likely it seems that we’ll see significant shortages of water within the next few years, rainwater storage seems like a decent idea to me, £3000 for 5000 litres doesn’t make sense in pure financial terms but if it means that or not having any water at all, it seems like a pretty small price to pay.
deleted by creator
Shortages to the point of restrictions though surely, rather than having no water left at all. Where I live hasn’t even had hosepipe bans yet, and we are getting a new reservoir soon.
If I was planning for no water at all I would look at getting a hand pumped RO filter for filtering sea water. I could distill it but that takes far more energy. Have wondered about the RO filter anyway for cooking by the beach but there are usually public taps close enough. Would allow going to more remote parts of the beach though.
We’ve had one of the top 10 wettest winters on record and reservoirs in my region are down to about 50%, and there’s no new reservoir construction or expansion even in the planning phase.
I don’t think it’s a huge leap to think about the possibility of reservoirs running dry if we have a couple more dry summers and follow that with even an average winter supplies could be dangerously low.
Suppose it also depends on how much water do you want if it was to run out. If you can afford it then continue as normal with a few £1000 spent on a tank could be OK.
Worst case is enough to drink and wash your hands, and pretty sure they would be distributing water you can collect if it was to get that low.