Browse Forums Eco Living 1 Aug 19, 2009 12:27 pm I am thinking of buying a rainwater tank for the side of the house, and have it plumbed in so it goes to the toilets and the washing machine. How much work would be required to plumb, to take the water from the tank to the toilets and Laundry? We have a double storey house with 3 bathrooms upstairs, and 2 downstairs, although the laundrey will be located pretty much right next to where I would put the tank. Point Cook, Victoria - Being hounded by the fascists!! Re: Rainwater tanks for laundry etc 2Aug 19, 2009 1:35 pm Depends on how big a tank you want. Plumbed to laundry and toliet, for a 3000lt slimline you should be looking at a little over $4k. It can be cheaper to get a 5000lt round tank if you've got the room. ~W~ Building our forever home - Lilium Estate Clyde - Land due May 2019 Built our first home - Pakenham - 2011 Re: Rainwater tanks for laundry etc 3Aug 19, 2009 2:06 pm $4k - bejesus, I'd have to flush my toilet a lot to get payback on that!! Is the plumbing hard, or is it a case of shoving some pipes onto existing pipes? Will the tank company recomend a plumber or even do it themselves Point Cook, Victoria - Being hounded by the fascists!! Re: Rainwater tanks for laundry etc 4Aug 19, 2009 2:23 pm You probably would save more water by running a grey water diverter onto the garden. Water for a big lawn is similar to having another person in the household. Re: Rainwater tanks for laundry etc 5Aug 19, 2009 2:31 pm I am planning on having a garden mostly devoid of living things, mainly becuase my gardening skills tend to kill all livings things, so I'm cutting out the middle man! So with that in mind I wont be doing much garden watering Was thinking of using some of the rain water to top up my spa pool also (plus a few drops of chemicals). Might just use it for the laudry, as the piping would only need to be for a few meters, besides with a wife and 2 kids our washer never seems to be off anyway. Point Cook, Victoria - Being hounded by the fascists!! Re: Rainwater tanks for laundry etc 6Aug 19, 2009 2:31 pm I work for a company that does them in Metro melb, and that 4k includes the installation and plumbing work, pump, tank, and all the bits and bobs etc. PM me if you want some more info ~W~ Building our forever home - Lilium Estate Clyde - Land due May 2019 Built our first home - Pakenham - 2011 Re: Rainwater tanks for laundry etc 7Dec 02, 2009 10:09 pm Hi Personally i think it is a bit of a waste to just use it for your laundry. it would be more cost effective to run rainwater through the entire house. This way your tank would become empty more often, capture more water and reduce your mains water bill. It would actually be cheaper to connect to your existing plumbing than rather trying to run a seperate pipe from your tank to your laundry Regards Shane Re: Rainwater tanks for laundry etc 8Dec 02, 2009 10:34 pm Bear in mind that there are currently some rebates on offer for fitting rainwater tanks and plumbing them in to your toilets and laundry. I didnt take notice of where you are located before i started writing this reply however there is an electronic sign on a main road near where i live that says 5000 litre water tank and pump supplied and fitted and installed starting from $299. I gave them a ring and basically you pay 2299 up front and once installed you get a rebate back and your ouy of pocket expense is only 299, that was for a basic round 5000 litre tank and pump installed at a single story house connected to your toilet and shower, Do some research and see what rebates you are entitled too Regards, Darren. Re: Rainwater tanks for laundry etc 10Dec 03, 2009 9:21 am I'm not sure you'll find any plumbed tank installation to be 'cost effective' with water at it current rate. The benifits are that you can water the garden, wash the car and 'do you bit'. Re: Rainwater tanks for laundry etc 11Dec 11, 2009 11:41 am I did this 6 months ago with a 10,000L tank. If you can, go for at least a 5,000L tank. You can get 2 rebates (state - VIC and federal) of $1000 and $500 respectively if it's plumbed to toilet and laundry. I'm still waiting on one rebate 3 months later,... they are very very slow processing the federal rebate Here's the links. Federal ($500) http://www.environment.gov.au/water/pro ... index.html Victorian ($1000 for 5,000L and above) http://www.ourwater.vic.gov.au/saving/h ... s#products I've got a Rainbank 2 system, with a submersible pump. It's quiet and we don't really notice it. I did most of the work and had a plumber do the final connection and test it. Depending on how many downpipes you will source water from, it can be quite a bit of effort with leaf-beaters and first flush devices. Think about this stuff first as it improves the water quality. Work out where the best place for your tank will be (with regard to downpipes) - usually better on the blind side of the house, with good garden access. Get a submersible pump if you can - they are heaps quieter. Normally you will run 25mm metric poly pipe to the water switch, then soft-drawn copper to your toilet/laundry (just gets spliced into the existing plumbing). The water switch also needs a regular mains-water input to use as a backup water source. We have a weatherboard on stumps so it wasn't hard to plumb-in but if you've got a slab it could be quite expensive. Multi-storey can be worse. Also consider an external power point - luckily we had one nearby but this is another call-out job Points 1. sbudge/Shane - you're right it'd be more straight forward to plumb into your entire house but ...you may not want to run your whole house on rainwater tanks. I thought about this, but you'd at least want a 3/4/5 stage filter on this to ensure water quality, and this involves an ongoing cost and maintenance. You'd still need mains water as a backup in case of power failure otherwise no power = no water We may do this at a later stage, so I ran 32mm poly pipe for better flow. Poly fittings can cost a bit if you need a few. 2. A water switch and pump watermark approved (needed for the rebates) are about $700 - $1000. 3. Definitely put a gravity-fed tap on your tank, good for filling buckets and watering nearby garden beds. 4. I got a tankmasta tank which I think are awesome - they have side inlets/outlets and also don't require a concrete/sand base. Just a flat surface! http://www.tankmasta.com.au/ Breakdown of my costs 10,000L tank = $1600. Rainbank 2 = $900 downpiping = $200 metric poly + fittings = $200 poly filter = $50 plumber = $250 = $3200 Total cost after rebates = $1700. Our main goal was to do our bit for the environment and ensure we have our own water to do whatever we want with it. At the moment you're not saving much off your water bill, but water will go up in price, you just watch! Bang-for-buck you're better getting a solar hot water system. Cheers. That was always going to be a challenge and a test of patience. Full marks to your mate. Did you discuss the wet area near the trampoline? 16 17320 18 90417 |