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Greywater Toilet Flushing

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ultrabumbly 25 Aug 2015
So the other half's uncle recently retired and is setting about many Wallace & Gromit projects.....

He's overjoyed with the garden watering system he has implemented using the guttering on their house and outbuildings. I foolishly mentioned over Sunday dinner that while in the US I had come across a couple of houses where they used grey water to flush the bog. In most cases this was monkey wrench gang climber types with a bucket under the sink, but in one case it was a well thought out system that collected all the sink/shower/bath water into a fill tank for the flush cistern. Aunt is not pleased I have sewn this seed in his head!

Are there any outstandingly good reasons she can use to tell him "no!" Are they likely to contract legionaries' or some starfish eating parasite or any other potential horror stories.
I'm keen to encourage him as though mechanically competent he is the clumsiest/scruffiest workman you can imagine and it is generally good comedy and it keeps him happy.
 Oujmik 25 Aug 2015
In reply to ultrabumbly:

I suppose you'd have to be careful what you put down the drain from the sinks/bath etc in case it clogged the toilet, some kind of filter for hair etc might be a good idea.
 Philip 25 Aug 2015
In reply to ultrabumbly:

I'm not convinced about grey water, and we have done a lot of eco improvements. Sink, bath and shower waste water contains bacteria and a food source. I think water efficientcy at the point of use is better than all the chemicals you'd add to your cistern keeping the water fresh.

On the other hand, recyling it for the garden it a good idea.
 Armadillo 25 Aug 2015
In reply to ultrabumbly:

As it will involve storage of water, any system will need a means of controlling growth of bacteria etc. This is commonly done by dosing with chemicals or by having a UV treatment stage.

There is a British Standard for it. This link will give you the overview, although they want money for the full document

http://shop.bsigroup.com/en/ProductDetail/?pid=000000000030184123


ultrabumbly 25 Aug 2015
In reply to Philip:

Yeah the one well thought out system I saw was in (the usual American type) of split level housing. The kids' bathroom downstairs took the feed from the parents bathroom and so never hung around for long. It did however have a pool type lift out net that it ran through for periodically removing any large bits of hair and so on to stop them from wrapping around a ballcock farther down stream. The kids thought it was great as it was one of the teenagers chores to clean that bathroom and utility room and she found the toilet was in fact self cleaning. I'd imagine much of how practical it is would depend on the ratio of the use of the two sets of facilities.
 Andy Morley 25 Aug 2015
In reply to ultrabumbly:

Why not collect rainwater to use? There will be far fewer problems with what might have gone into it, and he can filter it through sharp sand (the widely accepted way) or through glass-fibre insulation (which is what many people use in some Caribbean islands). He'd just need to install a cistern somewhere and the odd dose of bleach would kill off any bacteria that might otherwise accumulate.
ultrabumbly 25 Aug 2015
In reply to Andy Morley:

he's already using all the rainwater for watering a large, terraced, garden. After a quick look at what people have mentioned it might be a whole lot simpler and involve less chemical usage to suggest to him that he takes some of the greywater from their bathroom and filters it for supplementing the garden water during times of less rain.... don't know if I could enjoy their home grown veggies quite the same though

Any ideas are good as the research is part of what keeps him busy. Pretty much anything that keeps him away from his woodturning for a while is good. Not only can the whole family no longer find a use for any bowls but I think we have all saturated any and all regifting opportunities with friends .....

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