Grey water via bore hole or storage tank.

[MikeSharp01]

Given discussion elsewhere and cost it struck me that a bore hole might be a cheap option for grey water delivery to your toilets etc than using storage where you need a big hole. A bore hole would perhaps deliver water that needed no treatment for such a purpose. Anybody any experience of doing this?

[JohnMo]

Our only treatment is particulates filtering and UV. But due to our borehole being in pure sand (34m depth of it) we had to steel line the bore hole, so an additional treatment was needed to eliminate iron oxide. If left untreated would turn all water users brown. So treatment may not to to expensive any way for whole house use.

[S2D2]

49 minutes ago, JohnMo said:

Our only treatment is particulates filtering and UV. But due to our borehole being in pure sand (34m depth of it) we had to steel line the bore hole, so an additional treatment was needed to eliminate iron oxide. If left untreated would turn all water users brown. So treatment may not to to expensive any way for whole house use.

Can you give a rough estimate of annual running costs for consumables and electricity as I suspect these might start to add up? I presume yours is for drinking water quality though rather than grey water?

[JohnMo]

Electric not metered so not that much idea, but pump will only run for a short while.

 

Annual service is about £100 to £150, filters, UV light etc.

[Kelvin]

Our borehole water is moderately hard so we’ve fitted a softener in addition to the three paper filters and two UV lights. We also have a nitrite filter but the nitrite levels have reduced to zero so I’ve switched that off. The expensive part of the borehole is drilling the hole and there’s a degree of uncertainty with that as you pay for the hole  whether they find water or not. Some companies use water diviners with some degree of success to take some of the chance out of it. I know someone that uses water from a burn as grey water. Pumps through a filer  into a tank then through another filter then into the house. The filters are manky within a few days generally and the water is always slightly brown. 

Edited August 1 by Kelvin

[Nickfromwales]

Estimated cost of flushing WC’s (etc) p/a? What is/are “etc”?

 

Estimated cost of buying and installing equipment and drilling borehole?

 

I assume mains water is at boundary or on site already?

 

If this isn’t to delete your water bill 100% then I can’t see this a) saving money, b) being a good idea.

 

The cold mains needs zero maintenance, no pumps replacing etc.

[SteamyTea]

You can get a map of borehole locations and depths from the British Geological Society.

Many are very shallow and are usually on farms.

[SteamyTea]

8 minutes ago, Nickfromwales said:

If this isn’t to delete your water bill 100% then I can’t see this a) saving money, b) being a good idea.

If you still use the sewage system, you still have to pay.

 

Have I mentioned that we still have the most expensive water (well the waste really) in the country.

If I was building a new house, I would go for a borehole and sewage treatment plant.

I estimated that it was about 15 years payback, 15 years ago.

 

Sea is clear today.

Not bad considering the population has doubled in the last week.

 

 

Edited August 1 by SteamyTea

[Nickfromwales]

5 minutes ago, SteamyTea said:

Not bad considering the population has doubled in the last week.

…probably also helped that you stopped tossing your slop bucket in there? 

[SteamyTea]

20 minutes ago, Nickfromwales said:

…probably also helped that you stopped tossing your slop bucket in there? 

That is what happens in Falmouth, all those up country yatch owners.

 

Wales must have a similar water problem to us, all your major towns are on the coast, built on rock, seasonal tourists (god knows why), lots of rain. All the tings that make a water system expensive.

Edited August 1 by SteamyTea

[Kelvin]

21 minutes ago, SteamyTea said:

You can get a map of borehole locations and depths from the British Geological Society.

Many are very shallow and are usually on farms.

It’s quite incomplete though. There are four near me all drilled in the last 5 years not on it. 

[SteamyTea]

10 minutes ago, Kelvin said:

There are four near me all drilled in the last 5 years not on it

Is that because the owners did not register them, so probably putting waste into the public sewer without paying.

[Nickfromwales]

9 minutes ago, SteamyTea said:

god knows why

I’m a tourist attraction.

 

I worked in Falmouth a lot, in the dry docks, lovely little place. Plenty of beer and scoff from the Admiral Nelson.
 

Anywhere with a coastline is great tbh, and we’re spoilt with the Gower peninsula. 20-40 mins from my front door gets us most the way along it, Oxwich, Wormshead and Rhossili etc. 

[SteamyTea]

Just now, Nickfromwales said:

I’m a tourist attraction

I work in one, one of the few left.

 

1 minute ago, Nickfromwales said:

with the Gower peninsula. 20-40 mins from my front door

Yes, but shit views.

 

3 minutes ago, Nickfromwales said:

worked in Falmouth a lot, in the dry docks, lovely little place

It has changed a lot in the last 35 years.

Not a place I go to much since I stopped being at the University.

[Nickfromwales]

17 minutes ago, SteamyTea said:

Yes, but shit views

Not at all, you’re just obvs using your reading glasses to examine them. 
 

I doubt we’re helping Mike much here….

[SteamyTea]

4 minutes ago, Nickfromwales said:

helping Mike

Making him smile will help.

[saveasteading]

Who  allowed that building on the island, spoiling the view out to sea?

 

5 hours ago, MikeSharp01 said:

grey water delivery to your toilets 

I've done this once with rainwater. 500m2 roof all going to a 10m3 tank.

That size got the building through a dry summer.

But it was an office, so lower usage.

I think it was a big success, paying itself in 4 years as opposed to my forecast 10.

 

The hidden cost is the secondary plumbing: a completely parallel system.

There is a hidden cost benefit too, if you are on mains drainage but I assume you are to soakaway.

Cost too if the tank pump breaks down, which ours did every couple of years.

There was no need for filtering, only a settlement chamber, just in case.

 

If the tank is too small then you run out, and need mains water, but that can be linked in to be automatic.

 

Have never done it again, because a hunch said the parameters weren't right.

Instead I have specified mains water but lots of garden rainwater storage.... butts and perhaps a bigger tank in the ground.

 

[SteamyTea]

1 hour ago, saveasteading said:

Who  allowed that building on the island, spoiling the view out to sea?

Don't know, but owned by National Trust now, the biggest thieving bastards around, who fail to mention, after you have paid £6.50 to park, walked over to it, that you cannot go into even the harbour but now without paying extra and pre booking.

Edited August 1 by SteamyTea

[BotusBuild]

2 hours ago, Nickfromwales said:

Rhossili

Ah, memories of an all-night party on the beach while a student at Cardiff Uni back in the 80s.

[Kelvin]

2 hours ago, SteamyTea said:

Is that because the owners did not register them, so probably putting waste into the public sewer without paying.

Nope. There are a few rogue hole drillers…

[SteamyTea]

4 minutes ago, Kelvin said:

Nope. There are a few rogue hole drillers…

Will they do me a hole for a couple of hundred quid.

Only radioactive granite to get though.

[MikeSharp01]

5 hours ago, Nickfromwales said:

 

If this isn’t to delete your water bill 100% then I can’t see this a) saving money, b) being a good idea.

What I was thinking of was deleting the sewage treatment cost that is worked out as a proportion of the metered water. If I use grey water for the cisterns then the mains take will reduce and that's worth £3.70 per cubic meter of mains water not used. 

[saveasteading]

36 minutes ago, MikeSharp01 said:

that's worth £3.70 per cubic meter of mains water not used. 

Correct. Sewage assumed to be the same m3 as mains water bought. I don't know if that applies everywhere.

[MikeSharp01]

1 minute ago, saveasteading said:

40 minutes ago, MikeSharp01 said:

 

Correct. Sewage assumed to be the same m3 as mains water bought. I don't know if that applies everywhere.

True for Southern at least so assume the same everywhere.

 

I have put in the parallel plumbing to the three loos in case we choose to go that way. 

[MikeSharp01]

I forgot to add that not only would you save the waste water charge but also the fresh water charge so that adds up to £6.50 m^3. That means that if you had 2 IBCs buried in the garden you would have £13 of liquid assets