rainwater systems

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feileacan

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wondering whether it is worth putting in rainwater harvesting system. would it be better to drill a well? this is in conamara and close to the sea. had been considering bord na móna, but am daunted by the cost
 
rainwater sysstems

thanks,aj. should i consider a filter and would that make the rainwater safe?
 
I assume from your other posts that this is a new build, is this correct?

Is there mains water in the area or a group scheme? If there is then this would be the best option.

If not, then what are your immediate neighbours doing for water? In the west of Ireland then you it is either a well (deep bored or shallow) (individual or shared); a shared or individual surface water supply from a lake, stream, spring.

I know that some councils installed rainwater collection systems in council cottages in the past complete with "water houses" as big a small garage! These have been discontinued in most cases because of the risk of contamination from bird droppings and undesirable materials in roof tiles, lead flashing and gutters etc.

I would recommend that you speak to a number of water treatment contractors in your area who will be able to advise you. A poster from Galway Water Systems has posted some very useful information here in the past. But as always ask around and listen to the advice of as many people as possible.
 
hi aj
yes, it's a new build - hole in ground rapidly filling up.there is a mains water scheme, but i was hoping to go independent. i'm on this scheme at the moment and there is often too much chlorine in the water but otherwise no great prob.s with it. it's the future cost of water that bothers me and i saw this as an affordable way of cutting out one expense at least. now thinking that it may not be cost effective as budget is so tight.
 
We did a new build a couple of years ago and basically what we did for rain water harvesting was put a tank under the garage made from 12'' blocks with a concrete base into which we piped all our gutters.

This water is then used for all toilets, baths, showers, washing machine etc. but we have a seperate supply from a group scheme for drinking. The cost of the rain water harvesting system was around €3000 total and it holds about 10,000 gallons
 
thanks flynnster.
plumber suggests something similar,i.e. plastic tank in ground, gutters piped into that and all connected to a pump to serve all needs bar drinking (water). he seems to think that that will come to €2000 or not much more, as opposed to BnM's €3,400 plus installation.
 
Yeah I thought those plastic tanks were a waste of money because of the cost. Concrete blocks are much cheaper especially when you have a block layer
& plasterer on site anyway. They will generally do the tank in a day and with their desire for work at the moment you could probably get it done very cheaply.

We made a small filter tank into which the gutter water runs first. Its basically a tank about two feet deep and four feet wide filled with stones & sand to take the heavy dirt e.g. leaves out of the water first. This works a treat.
 
interesting thread for me as I was going down the route of a 2500 gallon concrete tank with the pump, uv filters etc I felt anything smaller was a bit of a waste. I was not going with a plastic tank. I felt they were not as good as a concrete tank. The complete price would be around 5k and was just too expensive. I was going to use the water for everything except drinking.

In the end I am setting up everything that if need be, I just need to drop the tank down. I am on a local water scheme where the cost is around 200 euro a year so just could not justify it as well as the budget was getting tight
 
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