My homemade reedbed water harvesting project
Project overview
| Project: |
Grey water reclamation at home |
| Client: |
Me / Planet Earth |
| Cost / Value: |
“Undisclosed” |
| Programme: |
Spring 2006 – Spring 2007 |
| Client’s Requirements: |
How to beat the hosepipe ban and save the planet |
| The inspiration and research: |
Article on Monday, 13 March 2006 |
Article on Monday, 13 March 2006, extracted from BBC News.
Britain's biggest water company will ban hosepipes and sprinklers from next month, the firm has announced. Thames Water, whose eight million customers will be affected by the ban, says two unusually dry winters have caused "serious" water shortages. The South East has experienced its driest period for more than 80 years
I used the water usage calculator on the BBC website and estimated that my family uses approximately 400lts of water per day. That equates to 133lts per person which compares favourably to the national average of 155lts per day. Of this about 60% is for showers and baths. However, the above calculation did not include the irrigation system that I have in the garden. I recalculated the water usage including use of a hosepipe to water the garden, but for a reduced time to account for the difference between a hose pipe and irrigation system rate of flow. This added 90 lts per day. Coincidently the water used for showers and baths equates to 80 lts per day.
We already did some water conservation by collecting rain water using a single water butt and leaving the grass to grow a little longer, and not watering it. So it seemed a simple solution to use the bath waste water to water the garden. At this point I should have just decided to have showers with the plug in and siphon out the water with a hose after it had cooled. As sane people eventually did. You can even now buy special products specifically designed to make it easier.
