Rainwater tank costs?

aaurora · Jun 13, 2007 11:00 am

mattwalker

How much will $1800 affect you?

Personally I would leave it alone and if anything goes wrong it is all covered!!

Thats me thought.......lazy :lol:

Thats my thought exactly, it worked out to be only a grand or two dearer, and for someone else to take care of it and to be responsible for it all, I would much rather that.

I know you see advertising everywhere for tanks that are $1000 but thats not your only cost :roll:

It's not a cheap thing to do, although it makes it seem that way.

I've got enough to worry about, I will let them do it :lol:

ahuang · Jun 13, 2007 11:07 am

lrhodes1

Could someone tell me, does the pump require an external power point near the tap? I'll have to include that on my electrical plan.

Yes, you do need an external power point for the pump.

I just updated my blog with some photos of the motor, filter and water tank my builder will install. Have a look at my blog.

Cheers
Allan
http://building-our-first-house.blogspot.com/

ahuang · Jun 13, 2007 11:11 am

aaurora

mattwalker

How much will $1800 affect you?

Personally I would leave it alone and if anything goes wrong it is all covered!!

Thats me thought.......lazy :lol:

Thats my thought exactly, it worked out to be only a grand or two dearer, and for someone else to take care of it and to be responsible for it all, I would much rather that.

I know you see advertising everywhere for tanks that are $1000 but thats not your only cost :roll:

It's not a cheap thing to do, although it makes it seem that way.

I've got enough to worry about, I will let them do it :lol:

Spliting the water tank from the house construction might save us some money. But we are also worrying that, say the plumbing part is done by the builder and the tank is done by other contractor. First of all, we can't do the water tank work until handover, which means no water for toilet and laundry?! Secondly, if something goes wrong, each of them will be pointing fingers and say it's not their fault....

Cheers
Allan
http://building-our-first-house.blogspot.com/

stonecutter1309 · Jun 13, 2007 11:14 am

Our water tank won't be plumbed into the toilets or washing machine (because we have recycled water). Tank will purely be for low pressure irrigation of raised veggie beds.

A 4000L tank is currently included in the price - plumbed into toilets etc - so perhaps they'll allow us to swap to a slimline one we can hide down the side of the house.

rldragon2003 · Sep 17, 2007 1:11 pm

lrhodes1

Wow, $4500 is a lot less than $8000!!

I will give BlueScope water a call and see if they can help me out too.

I've contacted some tank supplier/installers and they don't seem to want to be involved in connecting to toilets/washing machines.

.

I have just checked the BlueScope web site, They do provide the full installation, include connect to toilets and Laundry.

http://www.bluescopewater.com.au/index. ... 50AD4A5987

ricci · Sep 17, 2007 1:26 pm

We are getting Bluescope 5000lt Slimline installed on concrete slab with connection to laundry, garden taps, toilets etc. with all the features for $6600. This is through our builder.

Adrian B · Sep 17, 2007 1:27 pm

Thats not a bad price for a Bluescope tank and installation.

pasey25 · Sep 17, 2007 4:12 pm

my builder tells me that I cannot have the water tank connecting to the toilets and outside taps at the same time and satisfy regulations.

This surprised me. I'm building in VIC. Can anyone confrim or refute this?

ahuang · Sep 17, 2007 4:16 pm

Don't know about the toilet+outside tap at the same time thing you mentioned.

I was told by our builder if there's more than 1 outside taps, only 1 will be connected to water tank. Reason is, in case you lost electricity and there's fire somewhere, your pump won't be able to pump water from the tank. Then you can still use the remaining one to put out the fire...

rldragon2003 · Sep 17, 2007 4:47 pm

if there is a power failure and the pump do no work, does the toilet wok?

ahuang · Sep 17, 2007 4:49 pm

Not sure if this is 100% correct, I think there will be some water left in the toilet, but after you flushed it, it won't be able to refill from the water tank....

Yak_Chat · Sep 17, 2007 8:10 pm

RLdragon2003 wrote

Quote:

If there is a power failure and the pump do no work, does the toilet work?

Yes and no

Depends on these factors - in the case of a power failure - you will be able to flush the toilet once - (Assuming the toilet cistern was full when the power went off)
Then the pump without power to it - will generally deliver about 1 or 2 cups of water - if that - and then the pressure is out of the lines and unless your tanks water level is above the toilet inlet height (water runs downhill and will equalise itself) - and their is enough gravity pressure - then the toilet will slowly refill via this method - but it takes along time.

re a toilet and outside tap attached to the tank - hmm not sure how that would count - if the house was on fire - the power would go off - hence the tanks pressure would not be there anyway! Might be another reason or if could be a load of old cobblers

Steve

oznow · Oct 27, 2007 9:53 am

One builder quote this "rain water tank - 4000 slimline colourbond watertank connected to toilets and laundry - first flush - rain bank switch and all connections included"

Will this solve the "water failure" problem? Or we just connect to one toilet, so when the failure occur, another toilet still can be used.

ALSO which one is better, poly tank or colourbond tank?

Yak_Chat · Oct 27, 2007 10:07 am

If the Builder is using the Davey rainbank - as per the link below - then it will switch over to mains when there is a power failure.

http://www.davey.com.au/rainbank

Without this sort of device - you'd have to do it manually - because water does not like running up hills on it's own

As for Poly versus colourbond - I'd go poly - because I've had steel tanks - admitily galvanised tanks - and not colourbond - but they all rusted eventually.
Steve

First_Timer_Ray · Oct 27, 2007 10:36 am

rldragon2003

if there is a power failure and the pump do no work, does the toilet wok?

You would hope the toilet would work! What if it doesn't rain and there's no water in the tank? No flush for you!
Ours in the current place uses the tank if there's water in it, otherwise it uses mains water. We've never had to switch or turn anything - it does it automatically. My guess would be that it would use mains first, but if there is pressure in the tank then it swaps to tank water.
You can tell if it's using the tank water when you flush as you can hear the pump as the cistern refills.

Ray.

oznow · Oct 27, 2007 7:14 pm

Thanks! I will double check again with the builder.

aaurora · Oct 27, 2007 9:09 pm

We have the exact same one with our tank, the pump only works when there is enough water in the tank for starters. It knows what level it can use to flush. I assume that if there is no power, it would act like there is not enough water in the tank and take it from the mains. It's a great system and this means that we can water the garden using the tank water!!