Grey Water Diverter

[joez]

I am interested in installing a grey water diverter and came across this:

http://everwater.com.au/index.php?View=1_1

has anyone on the forum come across these units or this manufacturer before?

I would be interested in any feedback and estimates on installation (Preston, Victoria).

thanks

Joez71

[OBBob]

There are a few versions of that product around. They can be quite expensive but I guess it depends on your point of view! If you drainage pipes are easily accessible then installation shouldn't cost much at all.

The link below is for similar and was quoted as $1500 + gst + installation.

You probably need to have a look at your plumbing layout and see which pipes would flow into the diverter, some grey water is more preferrable than others depending on which part of your house it has come from.

I'm all for this stuff if you can make it work and not turn your garden septic!! Let me know how it goes.

http://www.justvalve.com.au

[joez]

Thanks for the info OBBob.

Found out a bit more info on the units, they are quite small and hold 60L of water. The unit automatically pumps water once its full, 60l might not sound like much but it will usually continue to fill and pump as you shower/wash etc... so in reality the throughput would be a lot more than 60L.

The unit can be connected to a garden and zoned using a "rotary Controller" which will rotate through the zones when a certain amount of water is sent to a particular zone.

I cant seem to find anything on these "Rotary controllers" though, does anyone have any info or links?


TIA
joez71

[davo_scuba]

are these things really worth it?
how much energy is it going to take to run?
after the cost of installation and running costs + maintenance is it all worth it to the enviroment ?
we ended up getting a simple diverter from the showers and basin and just using the fall to water the front yard, the grass is greener in patches where we have moved the hose around but i don't think that we are having long enough showers to water the garden. we are planning to get a tank and run the toilets and dishwasher from this as well as using the water outside but am I getting the balance right a few litres saved over energy to run the pump (i don't just me the cost to us).
if anyone has any info i would like to know.
davo

[OBBob]

In terms of overall worldwide environment impact maybe you are correct and the energy consumption would cancel out the water saving (although I don't think the pump would darw much)??

However I guess the point is that locally we are in drought, so our water resource is the highest priority at present.

Sounds like yoiu are doing your bit and if you have fall to utilise on your proprty you have the best of both worlds.

[silentC]

I think it would be marginal. Mains water has a cost associated with delivery too: there's the infrastructure which includes storage and treatment plants and the delivery system which will nearly always incorporate pumps. Even gravity systems using reservoirs need to have the water pumped up into them.

So if you store some of the water and reuse it for another purpose that would have consumed water from the mains, then if the cost is the same or less than the original delivery cost, you are in front.

[joez]

Some of the systems going around are gravity based drip systems:

http://www.waterwisesystems.com/greywater_gardener.html

[silentC]

BTW On the rotary controller, my old man has had a little bit to do with them. He reckons he's never been able to get them to work properly. The idea is that when pressure is applied, it trips a toggle so that when pressure shuts off, it rotates to the next outlet. The next time pressure comes on, the toggle is tripped again and so on and the unit revolves around to each outlet in turn. He reckons that the mechanism is too prone to malfunction and it gets stuck. That might be just the version he has experienced. I'd like to give them a go because it beats having to move hoses or, as we are doing at the moment, going around and shutting off valves and opening others every day.

[joez]

Hi Silentc, yeah they are the one I am talking about.

heres a link: http://www.fimcomfg.com/valves.htm


They retail for about $100 : http://www.wetearth.com.au/Product/ProductList.asp?lngSubCatID=238




joez71

[silentC]

I think the problems people have had with them are due to low pressure and possibly crap getting into the valve. One problem would be say if you had a pump connected to a tank down the bottom of a hill and you wanted to pump up to your garden. If you run a single line up the hill and put the valve up there, instead of running 5 or 6 lines down to the pump, then there may not be enough pressure to index the valve. Or not having a big enough pump.

If you wanted to use one of them, I'd just make sure the pump is strong enough. You'd probably want to filter solid waste out of the water too in case it clogs up the works. Washing machine water is the worst because of all the lint but human hair probably wouldn't do it much good either.