collecting grey water from first floor bathroom

[Maurice W]

Chums

The downpipe from our bathroom is ideally placed for us to pop in something to catch the water en route to the drains, for recycling in the garden.

But with four in the house, there's a lot of bathwater each day, so catching and storing it all is not an option (ie excacvating the garden for a really big water store is not an option), so I'm guessing I'd want something that would either

a - automatatically route grey water into water container when container iisn't full, otherwise route down drains

b - manual option for me to divert water into water container

Any pointers?

M

[Dave Fawthrop]

|!Chums |! |!The downpipe from our bathroom is ideally placed for us to pop in |!something to catch the water en route to the drains, for recycling in |!the garden. |! |!But with four in the house, there's a lot of bathwater each day, so |!catching and storing it all is not an option (ie excacvating the |!garden for a really big water store is not an option), so I'm guessing |!I'd want something that would either |! |!a - automatatically route grey water into water container when |!container iisn't full, otherwise route down drains |! |!b - manual option for me to divert water into water container |! |!Any pointers?

Beware grey water is *grey* and bungs up everything and gets smelly. Done it in a drought several years ago. Used 1 1/4 ins waste pipe run as near horizontal with 1/4 ins holes in the top every 12 ins. If the pipe is not horizontal the water mostly runs to the lowest point and forms a puddle there.

[Lurch]

On Sat, 12 May 2007 14:01:45 +0100, Maurice W mused:

Container filled from existing down pipe(s) from grey water sources. Fit overflow fro container of ample capacity to empty quicker than it fills routed to the existing grey water drain.

Simple, common sense is required for DIY really.

[Dave Liquorice]

Easy enough to do, water butt or container pipe waste into container. Arrange overflow from container to go down the drain. Be aware that the overflow needs to be able to cope with the flow in from a 1 1/2" bath waste a bit of 20mm normal overflow pipe and fittings won't cut it...

[meow2222]

Standard rainwater divertor does all those.

[Andrew Gabriel]

You don't want to store grey water at all. It will start ponging, particularly during the summer and because it starts off warm. Run it directly onto the garden.

Some warnings: it's not clean -- don't splash it over fruit and veg that you are going to eat. In Australia where use of grey water is more common, it is required that it be discharged below the soil surface so that it cannot come into contact with edible fruit and leaves. This reduced incidence of food poisoning. Never use grey water from a kitchen (or anywhere where uncooked meat and gone-off food is handled/washed) on areas where food is grown as that can have a significantly higher concentration of pathogens (not to mention detergents, fats, and other nasty cleaning products).

[chris French]

Yeah, but all these suggestion for collecting from the down pipe will only work if the discharge is into a downpipe. Will apply to lots of older houses yes, but not where it goes straight into the soil stack

There are various things a round for diverting waste water, you can get a manual syphon device with a little hand operated pump to prime it, and there is (or use to be) some sort of device that you put in the waste pipe and operated with a cord to divert the water when you wanted to.

[Huge]

Nothign wrong with putting (diluted) detergents on the garden.

I agree about all the other stuff, though.

[Adam]

This would satisfy your manual option, but it is not cheap.

Adam