rainwater barrel [...]]]> In many areas of the country, particularly the south east, water supply has become a serious problem. What you design in rather depends on what you want to achieve. There are different levels -

• rainwater barrel to water the plants
• multiple barrels
• large water tank system for garden, car washing and flushing toilets

rainwater barrel to water the plants – there are products such as the Rain-Sava which can be fitted into a rain water fall pipe to divert rain water into a barrel. When the barrel is full the rain water stays in the fall pipe. Reused plastic barrels are usually available from companies which clean and recycle barrels, very often ones used to import fruit juices.

multiple barrels – It is possible to link fall pipes where it is convenient, and save the water in barrels linked together, with an overflow to a gully. It will probably need some basic calculations for the sizing of fall pipes and barrel connector pipes. Bear in mind that fall pipes are usually oversized for the area of roof they serve and you may not need to go above the 68mm diam. pipe size. Most rainwater goods manufacturers have sizing tables on their web sites (eg. Hunter Plastics). It is usually sufficient to link the bottoms of the barrels with 22mm push fit plumbing (anything larger is difficult to find tank connectors for).

large tank system – Various tank systems are available, usually for burying in the ground near the house, so it is important to know that you can excavate sufficiently deeply. Depending on the annual rainfall in the area you may be able to quite easily supply 20% of your annual needs for water from the house roof.

Take for example a two storey[for the purposes of part B (fire) of the Approved Documents to the Building Regulations] this means a. any gallery[for the purposes of part B of the Approved Documents] - A raised area or platform around the sides or at the back of a room which provides extra space. Habitable room A room used, or intended to be used, for dwellinghouse[for the purposes of part B of the Approved Documents] - A unit of residential accommodation occupied (whether or not as a sole or main residence): a. by a single person or by people living together as a family b. by not more than six residents living together as a single household, including a household where care is provided for residents. (See also paragraphs 0.22 and 0.23.) Dwellinghouse does not include a flat or a building containing a flat. purposes (including; for the purposes of Part B, a kitchen, but not a bathroom). if its area is more than half that of the space into which it projects; and b. a roof, unless it is accessible only for maintenance and repair. four bedroom house with a total roof area of 80 m². in an area which gets rainfall of 600mm p.a. Assume there are four people in the house each using 150 lit. per day.

number of days supply p.a. = 80 x 0.6 x 1000/(4 x 150) = 80 days

However there are several other possibilities for harvesting and economising

• collection of water from outdoor areas such as car parking and paving
• collection from outbuildings
• economising with water saving taps and showers
• composting toilets which use no water
• recycling grey waterThis is the waste water that comes from the baths, basins, showers and washing machines. Kitchen sink water is known as black water. see Recycling grey water for toilet flushing

Regarding the first two ways of collecting water, drainage will probably have to be supplied for these areas anyway so it is easy to link that into the storage.

It may well be that using these extra areas for water collection could double the amount collected. Using composting toilets will immediately save 30% of water. The use of various types of water economising features could save another 20%. The equation might then look like this

number of days supply p.a. = (80 x 0.6)+(80×0.4)x 1000/(4 x 80) = 250 days

This assumes only 66% of the water gets stored from the extra outdoor areas.

The way this type of system works is that rain water is filtered before it reaches the tank. If there is too much then the tank overflows into the drains. If the tank gets below the level of being almost empty then mains water is allowed into it to provide enough water for the house. There is a pump in the tank which supplies the house in the normal way. Drinking water cannot come from the tank because, by law, this needs to be off a rising main so that residual chlorine is present in it for disinfection.

A few points to bear in mind -

• Correct tank sizing is very important. Too large and it will be a waste of money; too small and it will not catch enough of the water during rainy periods.
• Collecting water from hard paved or parking areas is a useful contribution to a SUDSSustainable urban drainage systems. Various ways of holding back rain water and allowing it to percolate into the ground instead of taking it to a drain and sewer. This helps prevent flash flooding. See Surface rainwater and SUDS approach.
• However there is more pollution on the ground than on a roof so this needs to be covered by the filtration system which comes with the tank storage system. Filtration systems can involve considerable maintenance if the collected water is of low quality.
• There will be less water collected from a living roof, particularly a turf roof.
• Similarly there will be less water collected from recycled polythene paving systems which use grass or recycled gravel infill.

The Environment Agency have guidance on harvesting rainwater.