Hello,
I have installed a water butt and after a night of rain, it is now full to the brim but what to do with the water I have collected? I have read some of the old posts here and I see some of you use it for flushing toilets and supplying washing machines. It seems you pump the water into a header tank in the loft. How big a tank do you use: I'm thinking for a few toilet flushes and a run of the washing machine each day it must be a decent size?
How do you get the water into the loft? Do I have to have an ugly piece of MDPE on the side of my house? I read that MDPE is preferred because it will not burst when it freezes; why is that? Is it because the walls are thick?
It seems to me that you have to pump the water up to the header tank; couldn't you just miss out the header tank all together and pump the water to the toilets and washing machine? Would this be preferable? Would you get a better flow this way; what head do you get from the tank? Does it take forever for the toilets to fill by gravity?
It seems that either pumping to a tank or pumping to the "appliance" I will need a pump, but which sort: there are so many to choose from? I see that Tool station sell a bronze equivalent of a central heating pump, would this work for either application? It says it has a 5.5m head:
Or would their range of centrifugal pumps be better for direct pumping:
What about the pumps: are they noisy? I don't want to upset the neighbours with their noise.
Thanks, Stephen.