Need Help? Contact one of our Super Mods

**Kath** · 13-09-2008, 08:10 AM

Anyone on it? Can you give me some info?

**Vim Fuego** · 13-09-2008, 08:16 AM

Originally Posted by Kath

Anyone on it? Can you give me some info?

Yup, what do you want to know? Subject to my limited knowledge of course ...

**Kath** · 13-09-2008, 08:23 AM

Originally Posted by Vim Fuego

Yup, what do you want to know? Subject to my limited knowledge of course ...

Excellent

So, how does it go from rainwater to water you can drink?

What happens during a dry spell? How much does it cost to buy it and how do you get it?

**TimberFloorAu** · 13-09-2008, 08:28 AM

We love tank water.

If its for drinking:

Then make sure you have a first flush system installed.
( will add links as necessary )

If installing from scratch, make sure you get a good quality pump. We had a wicked one, cant remember name...either Onga or Davey ( think it was Davey )

I actually found a link cpl years ago, to a kiwi fella who designed a ball valve system for your tank. Essentially, instead of drawing water from the bottom of tank ( as is 99.99999% ) of systems, and thats where sediment site, his system, has a floating waterpipe, on a ball valve within the tank, so you actually pull off the cleanest water.

Having said that, due to the fact tanks dont let in UV, the water doesnt degrade

Theres a formula for working out the size of tank you need.
( will get link )

Attached 2 images, annual rainfall, and average usage table:

Mean average rainfall ( from BOM )

Brisbane
950mm
Sydney
1,215mm
Canberra
618mm
Melbourne
650mm
Hobart
618mm
Darwin
1,705mm
Adelaide
553mm
Perth
758mm

The amount of rainwater you can collect is dependant on a number of factors including:

The area of your roof.
Average rainfall in your area.
The number of down pipes connected to your tank.

The formula to bear in mind when calculating how much water you can collect is this;
One millimeter of rain falling on one square metre of roof (1m x 1m) will collect one litre of water.
To make this calculation work you need to understand how much rainfall you are likely to receive in your area per annum.

So.

For the sake of this calculation let�s assume you live in Brisbane and your house has a 200 square metre roof area.
Therefore the calculation becomes 200 (roof surface area) x 950 (mean average rainfall for Brisbane) = 190,000 (potential amount of water in litres captured by your roof over a 12 month period).
Assuming you will have one down pipe feeding into your tank, the last part of this equation is to divide 190,000L by 4 (assuming you have four down pipes serving the roof and all provide an equal supply of rainwater) = 47,500L.

**TimberFloorAu** · 13-09-2008, 08:32 AM

Some Prices for tanks ( round are more economical but take up more room ) we had round

Plastic Tanks QLD - Water Tanks

McCrackens are getting big. McCracken's Water Services : Irrigation, Pump, Reticulation and Water Management Specialists

We have several shops up this way.

**Kath** · 13-09-2008, 08:36 AM

Loads of info as usual Ste, thank you