Is it worth using rain water to fill your toilet cistern?

[steve64]

Is it worth using rain water to fill your toilet cistern? My water butt (wicks special) holds 35 gallons. The toilet uses 1 gallon per flush.
I also have a wooden water butt which holds 330 gallons (copied muddypause idea)
I could top up the small water butt from the larger one with a pond pump.
What do you think?
Steve.

[Martin]

sounds like you've learnt how to beat the cistern!

[wulf]

It depends how much surplus water you collect. Certainly during the summer, my net movement of water is outward (grey water reuse) because I don't capture enough rainfall (although I haven't got such large outside storage capacity and only one of my two water butts is connected up to directly collect rain water).

Wulf

[steve64]

I have max 2300 to 2500 sq feet of roof space to collect water from.
Neighbours house, extension 1000sq feet of out buildings, and room to put a extra
5 cubic meter water butt in to keep as a water bank, for flushing the toilets.
Is it enough storage?

Would it be worth getting a water meter, and saving money as well as water?

Thanks Steve.

[wulf]

It sounds like you've probably got a lot of water to hand. Assuming you have stored water even during the driest spells, the engineering problem would be automatically refilling the cistern after a flush - that's probably not insurmountable, although there may be regulations about whether you're actually allowed to do that.

If the stored water sometimes runs out, the engineering will be even more complex - how do you fill the cistern from the mains when stored water isn't available? I think the plumbing would be pretty complex!

Wulf

[red]

Would it be worth getting a water meter, and saving money as well as water?

Thanks Steve.

I would certainly look into getting a water meter - for a start its real incentive to not use lots! but in my area at least they do a scheme where you can go on a meter and if your bills work out higher then on rates - they will take it out again - a try and see scheme - so you dont lose. I definitely plan to get a water meter if we ever get our new house. - dont pay for water here - we are on a well, and yes, actually flush our toilets with spring water.....

Red

[Wombat]

You could keep a bucket in the shower and then used the water gathered to flush the toilet manually - pour it in! Then use the rainwater for stuff you need fresh water for.

Nev

[steve64]

To convert the water supply back to mains takes 20 seconds turn two valves, when the butt fills up turn them back. I all ready have an unused pond pump to top up the water butt from a water bank.

My water company charges are based on 230 cubic meters of water per year.

How big would a water bank (tank) need to be to give me a buffer for the dry spells?
With the pond, wooden water butt & butts I have 9 cubic meters.
My house has:
4 people
30 foot lawn
Shower
20 feet by 20feet veg patch
Roof area = aprox 2500 sq feet

[steve64]

Had an honest meeting with a chap form the water company yesterday.
He recommended that I didn’t have a water meter, because the way my
Rateable value on my property was set in 1990 I defiantly would not save any money
And probably pay a lot more!!!!
So I’m not going to get a water meter, the extra money the company gets will go to the director’s bonus. He suggested if I want to save as much water as possible buy a water meter and fit it your self to keep an eye on your water usage!
He liked the idea of filling the toilet cistern up with rain water, and the large water butt (muddypause idea) with 330 gallons in it.

If I got a meter the sanding charge would be: £26.40 Water meter
£47.49 Thames for swage
£00.88 cubic meter for water
£00.48 per cubic meter swage

£1.40 per cubic meter in total
Just 1 cubic meter will cost me £ 75.29

Anyway I’ve just fitted my own water meter with a 16.6 cubic meter reading, so I will
See how much I will use. Do any of you have a water meter on a 4 bed house, like to know how much you use?

My water rates are £235 per year

Thanks Steve.

[Shirley]

Where do you get a water meter from? We are on a private water supply and it's shared with two other properties (both of which belong to the same people - one is their residence and the other a holiday cottage so not always occupied) - the water comes from a well and is pumped up to the houses... at the moment WE are paying for the electricity that runs the pump AND the frostwatch heater that is next to the pump (to stop it freezing up in the winter)

We need to find a way to calculate the amount of electricity each property is using... and I guess a water meter might help (or 3) - obviously the cost of the heater we would have to share between us... again.. not sure how we would work that out as it would depend on when it clicked on and off...

[steve64]

I bought it from a koi shop 4 years ago. £30.00 Manor koi on Pound lane Essex.
I think all koi – aquatics shops sell them or will get you one.
If you cant find one Google it?

[Shirley]

cheers steve

Will have a look!

[Muddypause]

Time for some quick calculations:

You would be better off with a water meter if your annual consumption was less than (235-26.4-47.49)/1.4 = 115 cubic meters. This is 25,300 gallons. 486 gallons a week. Almost 70 gallons (316 litres)a day.

According to this site, average consumption per person is 150 litres per day. This would suggest that one or two people in the same household would be better off with a meter, but three or more would be worse off. However, if you are collecting large amounts of rainwater, you may be using significantly less than that average. Don't forget, that if you use less water from the mains, you also save on the assumed cost of disposing of it, even if you were to use it to water the garden with.

[Cheezy]

Had an honest meeting with a chap form the water company yesterday.
He recommended that I didn’t have a water meter, because the way my
Rateable value on my property was set in 1990 I defiantly would not save any money
And probably pay a lot more!!!!
So I’m not going to get a water meter, the extra money the company gets will go to the director’s bonus. He suggested if I want to save as much water as possible buy a water meter and fit it your self to keep an eye on your water usage!
He liked the idea of filling the toilet cistern up with rain water, and the large water butt (muddypause idea) with 330 gallons in it.

If I got a meter the sanding charge would be: £26.40 Water meter
£47.49 Thames for swage
£00.88 cubic meter for water
£00.48 per cubic meter swage

£1.40 per cubic meter in total
Just 1 cubic meter will cost me £ 75.29

Anyway I’ve just fitted my own water meter with a 16.6 cubic meter reading, so I will
See how much I will use. Do any of you have a water meter on a 4 bed house, like to know how much you use?

My water rates are £235 per year

Thanks Steve.

We've just had one fitted (end of May) just when we had the least amout of water for the garden. I can collect about 500L water, and I ran out over the hot period. We have a combi boiler, which you have to run the hot tap for a while before you get the water. Since we started on the metre we started collecting this completly wasted grade 1 water and putting it on plants. It shows what switching to a metre does to your mind set I'd recommend it. We still had to use water from the hose ( no ban here due to us having Europes biggest dam connected to our taps!)

Finacially the rule of thumb is if you have more bedrooms than people living in them then you should think about it, due to the rates evaluation.

We don't have a dishwasher, we only take showers, and we have more beds than people. So we switched. We were direct debiting about £30 per month. We've just had a reading and we're now on £13/ month!!!

Our water people said that we could switch, they then do a quarter reading to see what you've used, and you have the chance to switch back. Obviously we'll be staying on the metre.

The standing charge and sewerage is the biggest part of the bill. Your actual water cost bugger all!.

However I am now determined to save even more water. All our toilets have water saver's, and I'll be adding capacity to my rainwater collection (although at the moment we have too much of the bloody stuff!).
I am thinking of divering some of our grey water out into the garden, but apparently we're thinking of moving within the next year so I may shelve this one for the new house!.

Edit:
Fitting of our metre was free. Northumbria water actually came up trumps for once!.

[steve64]

I agree Stew
I had the water meter already; it cost £12.00 to fit so can check my water usage and work out my savings if any?

If I save water the environment will be better off! It won’t matter what I pay to the water company so long as the environment benefits and I don’t pay more to the director’s bonus.

Steve
Romford Essex