Grey Water

[Mansfieldman]

I want to recycle my Grey water from the bath tub and washing machine into garden beds.

I can connect all the pipes nesacary to get to the beds easily.

What is the best way to infuse the water into the bed below the soil as too avoid runoff - AGPIPE?

Mike

[ozwinner]

Welcome.
What about leaky hose, its like a rubber hose, that well leaks.

Al :)

[snowyskiesau]

'leaky hose' or trickle irrigation works best. You might need to check the rules as some states require gray water work to be done by a licensed plumber [and we all obey these rules don't we? :D]

Be sure to keep it away from the vegies and herbs.

[OBBob]

Just for my own interest, what are doing in between the bath and the trickle irrigation? Is the norm to put in a storage tank in between ... or will the bath just drain really slowly? Maybe there is another meathod you have thought of?

[Clinton1]

You can not, legally, store greywater due to health and stinkyness concerns. Just run it straight out to a distribution system.

[woodsprite]

Have only last Friday spoken with an agricultural engineer about this very situation. He is only on tank water and is about to fit an 'illegal' grey water system - simply putting a 44 gal drum in a hole in the ground, letting the septic outlet flow into it, and using a float switch to turn on a pump to circulate the water around the garden.

This is probably not what you are after though! About a month ago he and I were talking about how best to distribute my own grey water - his suggestion (which I have today started installing) was to run the water into a 1 inch polypipe around the garden beds and where there are plants and shrubs to be watered, fit a smaller flexible dripper tube - these are about 6 ml outisde diameter. He said to put longer tubes in at the beginning of the flow (closest to the water source) and as you get further away from the water source, use shorter dripper tubes. This helps to regulate the flow and contributes to all plants getting their fair share of water. This is what he will be hooking up to his pumped system - I am using the same setup for my gravity feed system.

He said the benefit of this over the agi pipe is that you can move the ends of the dripper tubes around and reduce the chances of one area getting water-logged.

And yes, grey water needs to be used immediately - it becomes very toxic very quickly, especially in the warmer weather. Storage in a tank (eg a 44 gal drum in the ground) should never be more than 24 hours.

Hope this helps.

Started out with nothing - still got most of it left.

[Cliff Rogers]

... 'illegal' grey water system - simply putting a 44 gal drum in a hole in the ground, letting the septic outlet flow into it, ......

septic outlet is not grey water.... :(

[snowyskiesau]

Glad I'm not his neighbour!

[silentC]

You mean I paid $7000 for a septic/effluent treatment system when I could've just used a 44 gallon drum :eek:

:rolleyes:

[Audrie]

There is a terrific new greywater system on the market developed in Western Australia called the Greyflow system which you might be interested in. You can find it on a website called http://www.yourwatersaver.com.au/

Audrie
Green Vision Architecture

[OBBob]

Any idea what the Grey Flow is worth? Does look like an interesting system.

[Audrie]

Under $2000 I think, with a government rebate of $500 which covers the installation.

Audrie

[OBBob]

Wow, that's more expensive than what I expected ... I guess the 44Gal drum would be looking good again!

I guess it depends what it comes with really? Also there appears to be a simpler gravity fed version that would be less expensive I expect.

[Audrie]

It looks like you might have been looking at the G-Flow. Bit confusing that they are named so closely.

Look on the other page
http://www.yourwatersaver.com.au/?grey-flow

[Audrie]

GFlow is a smaller unit about $600 and is for preconstructed buildings where you cannot get at the plumbing.

[S.O.P]

I work for a Greywater Diversion company (I won't say which one due to any conflicts of interest).

Basically, you need to buy/install an approved system to be 'legal'. The 44 gallon drum or the wheelie bin is all well and good but don't let your local Council Inspector see it, nor allow the water to pond or run off or store for longer than 24 hours as previously mentioned. Greywater is better distributed sub-surface, no spraying with the hose to avoid the runoff, smell and any chance of airborne pathogens associated with the dirty water. Do not use greywater on your root vegetables either. Use garden-safe washing machine detergents such as No Phospates and Low Sodium.

Approved systems must be Watermark licensed and installed by a licensed plumber when cutting back into the waste/sewer or grabbing shower/bath fixtures to have any chance of receiving your rebate. Also, your local council will have specific rules regarding the the use of greywater on your property. Some councils, such as Toowoomba in QLD, ban the use of diversion systems.

Here is a list of the approved systems in QLD:

http://www.lgp.qld.gov.au/?id=4077

That list does not seem to be all inclusive. Nor does the Watermark search have all of the currently licensed products.

2 of the products on that list are gravity-fed diversion systems so they use no moving parts (the Nylex Greywatwer Diverter seems limited in it's abilities). The others are pressurised systems using sump pumps and controllers. Some are fully installed systems with proprietary drip irrigation, some are DIY.

If you are going to the 'dodgy' route using a sump pump in a drum, the best way to distribute your water would be to slide some 19 mm low-pol through a socked ag-pipe. Before you do, take a 2mm drill bit and drill the 19mm a couple of times every foot or so. Trench the agpipe into your garden bed and put a tap on the end of the line, with access, to allow you to flush out the filth with some fresh water every month or so. Create a manifold of taps close to your pump or garden beds so you don't spread too much water over too great a distance so each large garden bed is it's own separate irrigated area.

Any questions I will gladly answer them here or in a PM.


Edit: Here is the link to the certifying body with each certified product listed (2 pages):

http://standardsmark.saiglobal.com/CertifiedProducts/default.aspx?ilID=ucLicenceList&tbSearchValue=5200.460:2005&ddlSearchField=6&pageIndex=0

[bugsy]

can you still use the garden safe washing liquid on a vegie garden?

[S.O.P]

Guidelines state, and these vary, that greywater cannot be distributed onto root vegetables. As long as the water is dispersed under-ground, your vegies should be fine.

Some guidelines recommend to never use greywater on your vegie garden but as long as you are smart about it, it shouldn't be a problem. Many people, use greywater fine on their root vegies, it's just something that should be avoided.

In regards to the products used, the gardensafe ones (no phosphates, low sodium) are fine, just don't use them on your root vegetables or make contact with what you are going to be consuming.

[bugsy]

thanks for the reply to an old thread.
I do use furrows between my plants for water to run down so i never actually touch the plants.

When you talk about "avoided" is this because of contamination of the vegetable or more a health reason asscoiated with distribution of greywater (washing in this case) ?

[S.O.P]

I'm not aware of the science behind it, but greywater, has a risk of pathogen transmission as the water is 'dirty'. And even worse if it has a chance to sit, or pond.

All guidelines err on the side of caution, just to be absolutely safe for everyone involved and presumably to avoid litigation at all costs. Technically, you shouldn't lets kids or pets near where greywater is distributed, nor should it be exposed to the air. You should always wear gloves when working with it.

That said, I have had very old greywater, or close enough to blackwater, spray me in the face, have cuts on my hands and handling it etc. but I'm fine as have everyone else in the company that installs and services the systems.

Personally, I'd use it on everything except for root vegetables and get it distributed the 100mm minimum under the surface of the soil.

[ratchet]

do not connect directly to your washing machine outlet

depending on the lenght of your pipeline it can put back pressure on the washing machine pump and burn it out ---- personal experience

good idea to have a surge tank close to the machine , and run by gravity to the garden

I do my lawn

[bugsy]

do not connect directly to your washing machine outlet

depending on the lenght of your pipeline it can put back pressure on the washing machine pump and burn it out ---- personal experience

good idea to have a surge tank close to the machine , and run by gravity to the garden

I do my lawn

I had a problem when i first installed a hose onto our washing machine.
I have 20 metres connected.

The problem was the washing machine just kept filling up after a while
On closer inspection, i suspected that a siphon effect was happening , similar to when you siphon out of a container.
The water was just running straight out from the machine and down the hose before it would get a chance to wash.
So i made a couple of more loops behind the machine for the S bend effect and that seemed to fix it.

[rhancock]

Heres a link to another thread on the same topic where I explained what I've done. http://www.woodworkforums.com/showthread.php?t=38490&page=3 (way down at the bottom of the page)

[S.O.P]

Heres a link to another thread on the same topic where I explained what I've done. http://www.woodworkforums.com/showthread.php?t=38490&page=3 (way down at the bottom of the page)
I think you might be running a non default posts per page.

I see your post on page 7, last post. Is this the one:

http://www.woodworkforums.com/showpost.php?p=562803&postcount=105


Surge capsules are the way to go if you have a flat or sloping away block and if you are doing it the right/correct way, plumbed back into the sewer. And highsets allow you to grab shower/bath water into the top of the capsule as well. That's how our system works. And you can push the water a heap further with gravity or pressure from the capsule. Some jobs we have done, we can water 100 - 200 metres away from the water source.

[rhancock]

yeah, you're right, sorry. I changed it show more posts as I'm on broadband. BTW, how do you get it to link straight to the post?

Yes, I' ve got my system plumbed back into the sewer in case of overload or blockages. Our block is flat and we're about 2m off the ground so i"m hoping I can get it to run the 25m to the bottom of the garden, but haven't been able to test it yet.

I bought a 40l drum last week for the final version. I need to get together decent fittings for the overflow to the sewer and he outlet to 13mm irrigation pipe. I also want to fabricate a filter like this one: http://cgi.ebay.com.au/RAINWATER-WATER-TANK-INLET-FILTER-MEDIUM-CLEANER-IN_W0QQitemZ140147830917QQihZ004QQcategoryZ29522QQcmdZViewItem but without the price tag... Anyone know where you can buy "A 25 MICRON BAG" material?

[S.O.P]

In the top right hand corner, there is a number. Click on it and it's the direct link to the post.

As for the bag, good luck. I'm not sure what micron our bag is, but the dripper outlets are quite large compared to the bag. Shouldn't be too hard to knock something up.

25 metres will be easy, especially if it's downhill or slightly downhill. If it's flat, I'd run 19mm. On some jobs, if the difference between the highpoint of the garden and the capsule is small and it needs to travel uphill to get to the highpoint, we use 25mm and drop to 19mm when we get there. 13mm on steep slopes or larger runs.

[rhancock]

Thanks for the advice on the link, and the bag.

As for the pipe size, I want 4 separate runs from the tank, one about 4 from the tank, two about 10m, and one about 25m from the tank. If I use 19mm for the long run, won't it get more water than the others? I actually want more water on the closer ones, and less on the further one as it only waters 3 lemon trees.

[S.O.P]

You have to break it up into separate areas for it to work well.

In a way, you are right, if you want somewhere to receive less water, use 13mm. The water will always find the easiest exit point and push more water out there ie. the lowest point, closet to the source, the end of the line etc.

What you are best off doing is looking at the lie of the land and creating a tap manifold in an intuitive spot. I don't know what your garden looks like, but you want to keep the water basically on the same level/contour and not too spread apart. Then you just control every couple days which area gets water. So you only ever use one (or sometimes two) taps at a time.

It's hard to explain and when I get a little more time, I will try if you need it.