Well, nothing new or grand here, but thought I would share what I did (all day) yesterday with our shower and bath water. Firstly, after much asking about I discovered that for Bendigo area at least, you can DIY GW plumbing IF it is not permanent - meaning that if needed the 'system' can be qucikly disconnected and the waste flow directed back into the sewerage or septic system.
I used 50mm grey water diverter valves - available at rip-off prices from hardware shops and plumbing supplies. Interesting - last Firday I checked prices ar our local Home hardware - $27.95 a piece - on Sunday they were $19.50!! These are good simple valve mechanisms, but a bit over-priced I reckon.
Anyway, out house is lucky enough to have clearance underneath, albeit only about 18 inches, so I spent the day inserting the valves under our old shower-over-bath, and the more recently added bathroom. The plumber re-built the plumbing system of the house during our renovations and extension and was kind enough to organise the pipework so that I could relatively easily fit the valves.
I ran 1 inch poly pipe suspended from the floor bearers so that it had a slight fall, to a 200 litre solid plastic barrel beneath our verandah (we have a fair slope on the land and their was room for the barrel plus some). Fitted a 19mm plastic tap at the base of the barrel, and now, we have collected our first lot of shower water! Repeated this for the new shower.
Yes, it means that we still have to empty the barrel each morning into buckets, but at least we can now use the water on the garden. Around these parts water is getty very precious - Lake Eppalock is down to 3% of capacity and the entire supply capacity for central vic is at about 12% - and we are all on maximum restrictions - NO outside watering except with recycled water.
I will today rig up a pipe from the barrel to run along a couple of garden beds so we can trickle feed the plants as needed. But I am happy to spend 10 minutes each morning bucketing water around the garden.
Our laundry water goes out through a similar valve, but directly onto the garden via a few connected lengths of that corrugated flexible pipe (also sold at rip-off prices). So now we are able to recycle about 80% of the water we use.
For those who do not know, grey water should not be stored for longer than 24 hours, and can become VERY toxic very quickly, so it needs to be dispersed around the place pretty promptly.
All up cost was a bit under $100.00 for the valves, a lenght of the flexible pipe and a few fittings. Seeing that we are unlikely to be ablke to water gardens from taps and hoses for at least another 12 months (if ever) I reckon this was a good investment.
Now all I have to do is wait for my bumps and bruises to heal! Not a lot of room under the house and those bearers and joists are HARD!!!:(
Interested to hear what other folk have done with their grey water.
Cheers,
Jeff