Grey water is water that has been used for washing people or clothes. This shouldn't be confused with black water which has been used to flush the toilet or wash food scraps down the kitchen sink. It definitely should not be confused with drinking water. It is somewhere in between.
I used to pipe all the waste water from the house out into the paddock and let nature deal with it. Unfortunately nature, in the form of our three Labradors, dealt with it by pulling the pipework apart halfway across the yard and eating any solids that came out of the pipe. Not a good look.
I've been thinking about using the grey water to enhance the house yard for quite a while. The prospect of visitors attending my grandson's first birthday party seeing the primitive setup we had spurred me into action.
First thing I did was buy a 500 litre plastic tank from Bunnings. These tanks look like giant plant pots with lids and cost $80. I dug a hole under the house and set it in the ground with only about 10 centimetres showing once the hole was filled in.
Next I bought a submersible pump. I really wanted one with a separate float switch that would allow me to set a maximum water level to start the pump and a minimum level to stop it. Unfortunately such a setup would cost over $400 for the relay system and $300 for the pump. I had to settle for a pump with a built in float switch, and all such pumps available will not allow my tank to completely fill before switching on. I was forced to buy one for around $150.
The plumbing under my house is quite rudimentary. As I live out in the bush mandatory plumbing regulations are regarded as mere suggestions in this part of the world. Fortunately all the grey water I wanted to collect emerged from three plastic pipes and fed into a plastic funnel near where I placed the tank. The plastic funnel terminated in a 100mm round socket at 45 degrees to the ground. A 45 degree bend pushed into the socket so the output was directed parallel to the ground and a couple of adapters matched the output to some 60mm pipe that led out to the paddock. I disconnected the adapters, turned the 45 degree bend so the output pointed directly down and used about a metre of 100mm poly pipe and a 90 degree bend to direct it into the tank. A 100mm flange and some silicon sealant made it all look neat at the tank end.
The submersible pump sits on the bottom of the tank and its output rises through some rigid poly pipe to a 90 degree bend, emerging from the tank just above ground level into a clip on hose adapter. Thirty metres of blue garden hose clips onto the adapter and a "Canberra" sprinkler clips on the end of that.
A Canberra sprinkler produced fairly large droplets rather than a fine mist that may be carried away by the wind, and it has a relatively large orifice that can cope with any particles that may find their way into the system.
About 24 hours after the waste was plumbed in, midway through the last morning shower of the day the system sprang into action. With a faint humming sound and, an excited shout from our little girl, the sprinkler began watering a big sandy bare patch on the front lawn.
So far so good. When I got home from work the 500 litres of water was no-where to be seen. Hopefully it is in the ground, helping the grass to grow into the bare patch of sand. I moved the sprinkler to a new location and the magic happened again the next day.
Time will tell if a greener, thicker and more widespread lawn will result, and whether going grey was worth the effort.
In the meantime I feel good about it.
No comments:
Post a Comment