Posted: Thu Mar 29, 07 5:37 pm Post subject: As promised
I've been up to my mates house tonight to return the Cambridge Roller that I borrowed for yesterdays reseeding.
This mate is the member known as Hawkeye.
Hawky as we can call him, has a thirsty household, in as much as he has five people and two poly tunnels to quench.
What he's done, is to implement a number of water saving measures. He's collected as many water containers as he can and captures as much rain water and utilises it in the house but mainly for his vegetable growing enterprise.
Here are a series of pictures to explain the system he has devised. Its simple but very effective.
In this shot, the water comes directly from the roof and into the square container. Its contents are used to service the toilets in the house. The water is fed into the system by gravity and is controlled by a ball cock. During fine and dry weather when the water from the roof is not sufficient the water is replenished with stored water via an electric pump.
These are just a fraction of the water containers that are dotted strategicallyaround the property harvesting rainwater from the outbuildings. By using a submersible electric pump the water is moved around the property as and when required. Heres the proud owner and inventor.
Heres the small poly with its own water supply followed by the other huge one he has.
Inside the big poly are yet more water containers. These have come from farmers merchants and once contained some form of animal feed supplement.
By a system of plastic piping and pumps the water is shipped readily all over the property to where its needed.
Hawkeyes water supply is metered , so obviously the saving he is making on his water charges is immense.
Perhaps its a system thats not for everyone, but money is money and we can all consider implementing some of these water recycling measures.
The proof of the pudding is in the eating as they say and here are some pictures of whats happening in the poly .
Runner Beans
and whatever !
Bodge . Your Downsizer roving reporter.
chez
Joined: 13 Aug 2006 Posts: 35935 Location: The Hive of the Uberbee, Quantock Hills, Somerset
Posted: Thu Mar 29, 07 6:44 pm Post subject:
Fantastic system. Various ebay people sell those big square containers - I have a long term plan that involves a couple of them for storage for the garden ...
although its not a bad system in therory it make the house look like a junk yard.i wouldnt want that attached to my house there must be better ways than this.
I notice he has also put battens under the tank to spread the load. If he built the roof and is happy living below it, fair enough, but I agree it looks a bit dodgy!
Its not just a good system in theory its a good system in practice as well. This is a working smallholding.
no i am not to posh.
it looks unsightly and dangerous and i wouldnt want my house looking like the dingles what happens if the is a hard frost and the water freezes.It would come through the roof.
All im saying is there must be a better way.
sorry forgot to mention the poly tunnels which look fab.
Perhaps you could come up with a few suggestions Carrot Muncher , rather than knocking a working mans efforts to make ends meet. He certainly couldn't keep his Polytunnels watered and his crops growing on his budget without this system.
I didn't for a minute envisage this sort of criticism of the mans efforts. I'm fairly sure that I understand where you are coming from, however I'm quite happy that most people who have read this article have taken a favourable view of my friends efforts.
Ice might burst a pipe, all the water might leak out of the tank onto the roof (?) Presumably the roof is watertight though. I would be more worried about the fact there could be a tonne of water directly above me as I washed the dishes, in fact, I would be inclined to WASTE a lot of water washing dishes, to reduce the volume stored above my head!
what happens if the is a hard frost and the water freezes.It would come through the roof.
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