Im sure many of you this has crossed your minds
Around the country we are seeing water usage restrictions as far more regular occurrence.
There have been several threads/posts on washing boats, flush engines etc.
We dont/havnt had restrictions here.. yet.
Even so I have put in 2 IBC tanks and a household pressure pump.
Several reasons.
1/ Minerals in the water: Im sick of having to dry off the boat, clears , windows.. the vehicles, house windows and other stuff, after washing .
2/ Worked out the actual cost of Auckland water with the 78% waster water cost included.. comes to about $3:72 /1000L
3/ Eventually , with the new local housing going in , the local population will out strip the available water
4/ Thru a contact new recycled drinking grade tanks at $100 each.
Went a bit over budget.. the alcathene pipe fittings are not cheap...
Water use:So how much water on a high pressure ( significantly more than mains pressure) does it to take:
1/Boat and trailer: foam up (gone in 30sec 2L hose attachment), scrub, rinse, polish (ceramic) rinse to do the boat (including blast carpets) and flush engine in a 1/2 200L tank that is about 1/3 full from rain and last flush.
175 to 200L
2/ The wifes car 75 to 100L
3/ The Ute with canopy 100L
4/ Wash down the filleting boards knives, and stainless bench 50L
Cost: 2X IBC tanks $200
Pump. took adive of good friend who worked with tanks for several decades.. a pump he suggested off trademe cheaper than he could do $230
Spouting down pipes, joins, alcarthene piping, taps, plumbing to outside stainless work bench and sink, clips and sundries Approx $250.
I put one tank on top of the other, joined by 50mm alcathene down to the pump, then to 18mm alcathene to distribution points.
Important: dont do
I found that having one tank on top of the other, with the top tank tap open caused far too much pressure in the bottom tank. Actually swelling the cage , and the air vent in the top of the bottom tank got crushed between them.
This means I pump from the bottom tank and when gets low must manually open the top tank to re fill it.. not a biggie.. 50mm pipe flows a lot of water fast vertically.
For Auckland, so long as everything is 1m off the boundary, no need for permits, water meters and stuff.
As soon as you connect into anything that connects to the water mains and/ or the waster water system, you need permits, sign off, meters etc.
I have way more water than I use in the tanks, so its used general outside water tap stuff, and tend to wash rinse lot more things there than off the mains supply.. mainly because that extra pressure.
Im thinking about.. long term, connecting to toilets, maybe washing machine ( wash soft water is so good), dish washer... maybe the hot water system (??)
It means permits, sign off ..
But before doing so I need to find out how much water these units use, and if the 2 IBC s and seasonal rainfall can keep up.
I would put up pics, but my forum pics are so many its a mission to find anything. Would like to delete the 160 rubbish (Identified and listed), and irrelevant ones. Or even Admin/Mod to do so on my be half