Guinness
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| posted on 23/5/06 at 09:41 PM |
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22 gallons in under two hours
Despite my outward appearance (three petrol cars none of which average more than 20mpg) I do care about the planet / environment (I did my degree in
Geography) and would ideally like the planet to still be here for my son.
So I've been watching "It's not easy being green" with Dick Strawbridge.
Inspired by him and the current fuss about water shortages I bought a water butt for the back yard on Sunday. Altered all the rainwater pipes at the
back of my (small) terraced house to run into the thing via a diverter kit and connected it up at about 2pm on Sunday.
When I went out to check on it at 4pm it was already full (22 gallons) and the rainwater was going back down the drain. It had rained, but it
wasn't a downpour and it filled the water butt.
Now you'd think that if the govt / water companies where really concerned they'd get there arses in gear and start thinking small rather
than installing massive pipelines and desalinaisation plants. Failing that fitting a few massive water butts to some big factories might help!
Now I've just got to find something to do with all this water. (I don't do washing cars). Ebay?
Cheers
Mike
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zxrlocost
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| posted on 23/5/06 at 09:54 PM |
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in the west mids mate for the last 6 days I would say it has rained non stop for about 60% of the daytime at least
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JoelP
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| posted on 23/5/06 at 09:58 PM |
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put the butt halfway up your house and fill the toilet off it 
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MikeR
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| posted on 23/5/06 at 10:04 PM |
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i'd say its rained more than that in the west mids - my garden is SOAKED! lawn is waterlogged 
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Simon
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| posted on 23/5/06 at 10:28 PM |
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Mike,
Yeah, been thinking about rainfall for the last few days - especially after the downpour we had on Sunday.
1 litre of water = 1mm per sq m.
therefore 1 sq km gets 1,000,000 litres of water per mm of rainfall
Makes you wonder what they do with it!!!
ATB
Simon
[Edited on 23/5/06 by Simon]
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greggors84
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| posted on 23/5/06 at 10:29 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by Guinness
Now I've just got to find something to do with all this water. (I don't do washing cars). Ebay?
Invent an engine that runs off water! 22 gallons would last you a while!!
Chris
The Magnificent 7!
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dpnomad
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 posted on 23/5/06 at 10:59 PM |
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Fresh Air Car
http://www.theaircar.com/
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David Jenkins
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| posted on 24/5/06 at 07:28 AM |
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Many local councils sponsor compost bins - we've just got 2 for the grand price of £6 each (they're £40 in the shops) - so your idea of
sponsoring or encouraging water butts is a very good idea.
David
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wildchild
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| posted on 24/5/06 at 08:04 AM |
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quote:
Originally posted by greggors84
quote:
Originally posted by Guinness
Now I've just got to find something to do with all this water. (I don't do washing cars). Ebay?
Invent an engine that runs off water! 22 gallons would last you a while!!
Stick a wind turbine up and electrolyse it into hydrogen!
I would be quite keen to stick one in the garden. Unfortunately we are in a terrace so the downpipe for our gutters is in the neighbours garden! Not
much use.
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DarrenW
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| posted on 24/5/06 at 08:58 AM |
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Mike - why dont you use it to water your lawn and borders????????
Joel has the right idea - install them high up so they can be used in the foul system or even gravity feed to wash a car etc. Im very surprised there
isnt a system cheap that can fill a tank in the loft that diverts back to standard downpipe when tank is full. Maybe the Govt should impose more green
on new builds. Super sized water butts, underground heat exchangers, etc. If we all had to have them the costs may come down a bit.
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matt_claydon
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| posted on 24/5/06 at 09:10 AM |
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quote:
Originally posted by DarrenW
Im very surprised there isnt a system cheap that can fill a tank in the loft that diverts back to standard downpipe when tank is full.
Would be great if you could put it in loft, but unfortunately it needs to be below guttering level unless you want to use a pump, and then you start
defeating the greenness of the idea!
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Jumpy Guy
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| posted on 24/5/06 at 09:46 AM |
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i was thinking of putting a water butt on my garage roof, and using it for the garden, and possibly the downstairs loo..
i need to check the roof is strong enough, so....
How do you calculate the weight of water?
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iank
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| posted on 24/5/06 at 09:48 AM |
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quote:
Originally posted by Jumpy Guy
i was thinking of putting a water butt on my garage roof, and using it for the garden, and possibly the downstairs loo..
i need to check the roof is strong enough, so....
How do you calculate the weight of water?
1kg per liter (as near as makes no difference)
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David Jenkins
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| posted on 24/5/06 at 09:48 AM |
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1 litre of water is 1kg (actually, a tiny amount over, but who cares).
Damn! Someone got there first!
DJ
[Edited on 24/5/06 by David Jenkins]
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wildchild
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| posted on 24/5/06 at 10:07 AM |
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yep, possibly the easiest density to remember.
(although steel at 7860kg/m^3 is now permanently burned into my mind from work).
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NS Dev
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| posted on 24/5/06 at 10:15 AM |
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Ahhhhh, doncha just love the pace of human progress!!!
My house is an ex council house, and one day chatting to the old dear next door who has lived there since they were build in the thirties I asked why
the roof on the old outhose was reinforced concrete.
"Simple", she said, "to hold the weight of the big tank".
"What big tank", I enquired. "oh, there used to be soft water tanks filled by the gutters on the outhouse roof of every house on the
road, you used the water for flushing the loo and washing clothes, and could either use that or mains water in the bath and sink, tap worked either
way"
So the soft water tank was plumbed into the downstairs bathroom, giving a gravity feed from the outhouse roof to there and to the outside toilet and
the washhouse in the outhouse, plus 3 way taps on the bath and kitchen sink and hot water boiler to select soft (rain) water or mains
water.......................................
now we have an upstairs bathroom, requiring pressurised mains water, no rainwater collection, and droughts every year...........................
isn't progress great!!
Retro RWD is the way forward...........automotive fabrication, car restoration, sheetmetal work, engine conversion
retro car restoration and tuning
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NS Dev
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| posted on 24/5/06 at 10:17 AM |
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quote:
Originally posted by wildchild
yep, possibly the easiest density to remember.
(although steel at 7860kg/m^3 is now permanently burned into my mind from work).
where do you work with steel in leicestershire........?
I work at desford tubes!
Retro RWD is the way forward...........automotive fabrication, car restoration, sheetmetal work, engine conversion
retro car restoration and tuning
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John.Taylor
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| posted on 24/5/06 at 12:11 PM |
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Try typing 'grey water' in Google - it's rain water collection and usage on a large scale (schools mainly).
I'm a building services engineer and this is the only sensible environmental concession that actually works. Solar and photovoltaic's use
more energy to produce and maintain than they generate - even in the Mojave desert! (type 'SEGS CA' in Google). Even there they have to
use natural gas to supplement the arrays and only stay in profit thanks to Government subsidies.
Small wind turbines are efficient if sited correctly - Blackpool Borough Council tested one on a 'green re-development' on the front and
it's not generating anywhere near predictions owing to being too windy in winter and not windy enough in summer!
Deep bore holes with heat exchangers in them to scavange heat from the earth have negative efficiency owing to the costs of boring 100-200m into the
earth.
This energy efficiency lark is all a load of guff. We just need to stop cutting down trees and get the developing Asian countries to stop producing
CFC based gasses.
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flak monkey
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| posted on 24/5/06 at 12:13 PM |
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Our house in coventy has an ouside toilet (its got and inside one too! ). Theres a tank on the top of the roof of the outside toilet which used to
be used for holding the water to flush it. Not sure when the houses were built, cant be that old though seeing as cov was flattened in WW2.
David
Sera
http://www.motosera.com
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