Anyone here Rainwater Harvesting?
Posted: Mon Dec 22, 2014 5:01 pm
The proposed introduction of water charges [for mains water and sewage services] has prompted people to look at Rainwater Harvesting. It is clearly crazy that treated drinking water is used to flush toilets and water flowers etc. I have installed [??] a number of water butts and a 1000 litre tank to capture some of the rain that falls and to use the water , initially in the garden, but it is easily possible for this water to be pumped into a tank in the attic to supply our toilets. I buy into the thinking that water is a scarce resource and every effort should be made to conserve what we have.
Our storage capacity is around 1800 litres and the tank and water butts, free barrels and piping cost somewhere near €250. The Irish Met Service publish a chart of the average annual rainfall for the country, http://www.met.ie/climate/rainfall.asp, it is fascinating to realize that an average of 1 metre of rain falls on most parts of the country every year.
Commercial rainwater harvesting systems are expensive, typically €3K for a 3000 litre capacity system. These would not be viable unless water price per 1000 litres goes through the roof. Which is possible as the Europeans still effectively control our Government finances. Protect the Bond holders and all that shit.............
IMHO the Government made a right balls up of setting up Uisce Eireann or whatever the water company is called. The company apparently was setup to collect money from each house. Very little was said about eliminating the leaks in the system or upgrading the mains piping. How any Government can stand over their own admission that up to 40% of the mains water is lost through leaks is beyond me. Even less was said about persuading users to use less water [one small step is to capture and store the rainwater that falls everywhere].
I think every house should pay for their water supply. Exactly as for electricity and gas. But we have to pay for what we use and not a 'politically allowable' compromise of a fixed charge irrespective of water usage. Anyone here care to comment?
Our storage capacity is around 1800 litres and the tank and water butts, free barrels and piping cost somewhere near €250. The Irish Met Service publish a chart of the average annual rainfall for the country, http://www.met.ie/climate/rainfall.asp, it is fascinating to realize that an average of 1 metre of rain falls on most parts of the country every year.
Commercial rainwater harvesting systems are expensive, typically €3K for a 3000 litre capacity system. These would not be viable unless water price per 1000 litres goes through the roof. Which is possible as the Europeans still effectively control our Government finances. Protect the Bond holders and all that shit.............
IMHO the Government made a right balls up of setting up Uisce Eireann or whatever the water company is called. The company apparently was setup to collect money from each house. Very little was said about eliminating the leaks in the system or upgrading the mains piping. How any Government can stand over their own admission that up to 40% of the mains water is lost through leaks is beyond me. Even less was said about persuading users to use less water [one small step is to capture and store the rainwater that falls everywhere].
I think every house should pay for their water supply. Exactly as for electricity and gas. But we have to pay for what we use and not a 'politically allowable' compromise of a fixed charge irrespective of water usage. Anyone here care to comment?