Rainwater Harvesting

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noj

noj

noj

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After we moved into our new place we discovered that the house had a rainwater harvesting/grey water system installed when it was built.
I'm guessing it was one of those eco-drive things the developers did at the time.

For some bizarre reason the previous owners never looked after it or never actually got the developer to fully commission the system!

From what we've been able to figure out the system is a direct pressure system that stores 3,500ltrs of water. Not cheap to put in (we reckon about 6k) so its mind numbing that the previous owners never used it!

Now we're looking at getting it fixed.....not cheap :(

£350 for a service company to come out to inspect...
£250 for a control unit which we appear to be missing
£500 for a new pump (if we need, no idea but I'm guessing if a pump has bee left unused for 10 years its not going to work)

We have no idea how the system works or what its connected to, at a guess I'm thinking it must run the toilets at least....

Anyone have a system - are they worth it? We would guess spending around £1200 to fix the system will take 4-5 years to pay back through the water bills.
 
I guess it depends on how long you plan to be in this house for, if you can afford the initial payments to fix it and if you're happy to wait 3-4 years before it starts paying for itself.

Honestly, it would not be at the top of my to do list but if you have the money ready and feel it will help in the long term, go for it.
 
I take it you're on a water meter then as it would pose no savings if you were on the old rates system?

I say go for it if you plan on living in the house any length of time but to be fair our water bill is only £13 -14 a month so would take an absolute age to make back.
 
Maundie said:
I take it you're on a water meter then as it would pose no savings if you were on the old rates system?

I say go for it if you plan on living in the house any length of time but to be fair our water bill is only £13 -14 a month so would take an absolute age to make back.
Click to expand...

yeah we're on a water meter with bills around £20/month so will take a long time to pay off the costs of repair..

it just seems incredibly daft that we have this in place but can't use it. Maybe I should just get hold of a cheap pump and shove it in the tank attached to a hose and use it in the garden instead.
 
Totally agree, can't understand why it was never used, maybe they thought it wasn't worth the saving to have it repaired/commissioned if they were thinking of moving.
 
3500 Liters is, what, a fivers worth of metered water (Including the corresponding sewerage charge)

There is a reason why it was never commissioned and a reason why none of the subsequent owners bothered with it either!
 
Orionaut said:
3500 Liters is, what, a fivers worth of metered water (Including the corresponding sewerage charge)

There is a reason why it was never commissioned and a reason why none of the subsequent owners bothered with it either!
Click to expand...

but it came with the house when it was first built. The house is 11 years old and had the previous owners bothered they could have insisted that the developer fix it....why they never did we'll never know.

We're only the second owners.

3500 is about £10.50 on the water meter charges (inc waste water) I take the point though :)
 
noj said:
but it came with the house when it was first built. The house is 11 years old and had the previous owners bothered they could have insisted that the developer fix it....why they never did we'll never know.

We're only the second owners.

3500 is about £10.50 on the water meter charges (inc waste water) I take the point though :)
Click to expand...

Does your water come with free gold dust! :D

I checked my own bills before posting and for me a fiver (well, just a bit over, but I chose to use round numbers for emphasis) would cover it (Including the sewer charges)
 
Orionaut said:
Does your water come with free gold dust! :D

I checked my own bills before posting and for me a fiver (well, just a bit over, but I chose to use round numbers for emphasis) would cover it (Including the sewer charges)
Click to expand...

if only it did :)

I just used the numbers from the water companies website:

£1.233 per cubic meter on supply
£2.270 per cubic meter on waste

but your point still stands - its going to be expensive to fix and probably not worth the investment even if we plan on being in the house for 15+ years.

I'm thinking a housepipe and pump and use it to water the garden is probably a better alternative.
 
Have a look at it yourself I reckon there is an interesting project even if you only land up watering the garden with it!
 
As has been said, it's just not worth it in my eyes.

Given the only thing that you'd want running from it is the toilets, (everything else you'd want clean water from the mains), and the odd possible wash the car water the garden jobby, I doubt you'd ever see a return on any money spent.
 
we were obliged to install similar in Belgium its the law now. (6000 liters)

We'll never see our 4K back but at least we have free water for gardening now.

To install properly for use with toilets and the plumbing would have cost another 1,5K

However if it's collecting rainwater it will nearly always be full with the amount of rain we get in Northern Europe so a lot more than 3500 liters but agree it's not value for money but is good for the environment not all environmental projects have to be cost effective as well ;)
 
I wouldn't waste £1200 fixing it as it will take years to make back the money in water savings. My metered water bill works out at less than £15 a month.

It's like the hype over A-rated condensing combi boilers, not work replacing an old boiler for as it will be time to replace again before you get the money back.
 
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