Browse Forums General Discussion Re: Rainwater harvesting tank overflow 2Oct 10, 2021 8:55 pm 3in1 Supadiverta. Rainwater Harvesting Best Practice using syphonic drainage. Cleaner Neater Smarter Cheaper Supa Gutter Pumper. A low cost syphonic eaves gutter overflow solution. Re: Rainwater harvesting tank overflow 4Oct 14, 2021 6:49 pm 3in1 Supadiverta. Rainwater Harvesting Best Practice using syphonic drainage. Cleaner Neater Smarter Cheaper Supa Gutter Pumper. A low cost syphonic eaves gutter overflow solution. Re: Rainwater harvesting tank overflow 6Oct 14, 2021 8:29 pm 3in1 Supadiverta. Rainwater Harvesting Best Practice using syphonic drainage. Cleaner Neater Smarter Cheaper Supa Gutter Pumper. A low cost syphonic eaves gutter overflow solution. Re: Rainwater harvesting tank overflow 7Oct 15, 2021 3:50 pm From what I can see both tanks only have outlets which are about 30cm from the base of the tank. Is this different to a low drain valve? Currently both tanks are set up pretty much just for garden watering purposes. Which seems a bit overkill considering the size of the tanks. There is a pump connected to the upper tank which pumps water to 2 taps in the back yard and sprinklers on the roof. There is a pump connected to the lower tank which pumps water to 2 taps in the front of the property, and can also pump water back up to the upper tank by turning a valve in the line. Haven't really thought about the swales idea, but given the capacity of the tanks I have been wondering about using them to supply water to the toilet and possibly the washing machine. Haven't really investigated what is involved in making the conversion though.... Thanks again for your input so far. Re: Rainwater harvesting tank overflow 8Oct 20, 2021 11:52 am smiatke From what I can see both tanks only have outlets which are about 30cm from the base of the tank. Is this different to a low drain valve? A dedicated drain valve (that most homeowners have their pump connected to!) is at the very bottom of the tank. 300mm is a good height to have an outlet valve if the water is also for potable use. Water tanks traditionally have water diverted to a large meshed inlet at the top of the tank and draw water from a valve at the bottom of the tank, the opposite to best practice!!! DIVERTED TO TOP INLET Water falling from a height can cause sediment resuspension. The top inlet is frequently located overhead of the tank's outlet that the pump draws water from. Not good! Charged systems ramain full of water to the vertical riser's level at the top elbow's invert. Charged systems operate with the same head regardless of how much water is in the tank. WATER DRAWN FROM A LOW DRAIN VALVE Water settles in stratified layers and the worst quality low oxygen water is the higher density higher acidic water that naturally settles at the bottom of the tank. This lower layer is referred to as the anaerobic zone. smiatke Currently both tanks are set up pretty much just for garden watering purposes. Which seems a bit overkill considering the size of the tanks. Agree. Bang for bucks means having year round use. smiatke .....given the capacity of the tanks I have been wondering about using them to supply water to the toilet and possibly the washing machine. Haven't really investigated what is involved in making the conversion though.... In the "old" days, it made sense to divert to a toilet to reduce the household use of mains water because back then, cisterns were usually 12/13 litre single flush units. These days, the dual flush smaller capacity cisterns have reduced water use by about 65%. Compounding this is the cost of plumbing to a toilet which most plumbers will tell you requires an automatic mains water switching device and fitting a check valve to the house mains water plumbing. Unless your council is one of the ones who have overruled the plumbing standards (mostly after listening to advice from vested interests or the unknowing) and stipulated that only an automatic mains water switching device can be used, you are allowed to fit a much cheaper and bullet proof manual mains water switching system. The cheapest and best (IMO) manual mains water switching system is one where you fit a second cistern valve snd plumb a PEX pipe from the pump directly to the second valve. This will also give you two isolation valves on the wall...these are your manual change over devices. One on...one off. The air gap at the top of both valves also prevents cross contamination of the mains water. This method saves more than $1,000 when compared to fitting an automatic mains water switching device and plumbing into the house mains water line. The best cistern valve to use is the Fluidmaster 400UK063. This valve is very compact and well designed as the float travels up and down the shaft. It costs about $20 in the big green shed. The coup de grace is the availability of two optional lower pressure seals with the (red) 242LP071 very low pressure gravity feed seal allowing the cistern to refill with a claimed 1 metre head positive to the seal. This is the manufacturer's claim but I have found that 750mm head is still enough to close the seal when the cistern is full. I turn my pump off for about 7-8 months of the year but it is still best to use it every week or two. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ The best year round high utilisation use of harvested rainwater is to supply the HWS. A floating intake filter draws the best quality water in the tank from 200 to 300mm below the water surface and if you also run it through a 10 micron cartridge filter, you will have good quality water supplied to the HWS that also sterilises. I am prototyping a floating intake filter right now and it will be superior to all others on the market as it will have the (intended) choice of either 200 or 400 micron filtration plus a couple of other tricks AND a lower price but it won't be available for several months at this stage. The Homeone thread linked below shows how a Homeone member designed his floating intake filter at low cost. viewtopic.php?f=35&t=97686 Supplying good quality rainwater to the laundry is also good utilisation if you wash with cold water. Rather than plumb to a mains water pipe, it is usually easy enough to drill through the wall and plumb a marked rainwater tap on the other side. I won't be available to post again on the forum until late Saturday at the earliest. I hope that this post has been of some help. 3in1 Supadiverta. Rainwater Harvesting Best Practice using syphonic drainage. Cleaner Neater Smarter Cheaper Supa Gutter Pumper. A low cost syphonic eaves gutter overflow solution. There is a whole lot more to know than just the answers you seek but they are a good start. Overflow outlets have a mosquito proof mesh. These… 3 8426 18 90494 DIY, Home Maintenance & Repair But if it is a ground level open pit, then it is not a charged system. No surprises there. The pipes have obviously been altered and there would be a reason for this.… 3 31282 |