Grey water on the garden

Inspired by Kristen's thread ( http://gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/Thread-Leaky-Hose-Suppliers.html ):

Has anyone got any ingenius ideas about using grey water on our gardens, but without spending too much money or having excessively big water butts?

What I'm thinking is when the washing machine does it's final spin, it pumps out quite a lot of water, which then goes straight down the drain. The irony is that at our house, the outlet is directly below the outside tap that come summer, I'll be connecting the hose to when I need to water the back garden.

 

Chum of mine has put perforated drainage pipe under his veg patch, and hooked it up to the bath downpipe - so when the bath is emptied it all goes into his "soakaway" under the veg

Biggest problem IMHO is that these things are trivial to include in a new-build, but cost a fortune to retro-fit :(

 

Thanks for that. I'll research that idea and see if I can come up with a cheap solution.

On about new build effeciencies, my boss put me onto ground source heat pumps a while ago. Same deal, putting one in before everything is built is very cost effective, and results in upto 75% reduction in energy used for heating your house and providing hot water, but to retrofit one is very expensive as they have to dig your entire garden out to a depth of 1 metre to lay the massive zigzag pipe that has to go in. Aparently in Sweden most new builds get one by default, that and turfed roofs where it is practical, and 'light wells' for lighting. It can't do much good though because our government reckons we're world leaders in energy saving, and we don't get any of that here.

 

Some "Affordable Housing" (if that is the right name) was built in our village last year. All the houses have ground-source heat pump and solar panels etc. which I was pleased to see

Ground-source-heat-pump not much use with conventional radiators (unless you have oversized ones), so you need under-floor-heating - another nightmare/fortune to retro fit :(

 

I seem to remember from somewhere that the water companies rely on our waste water to flush the sewers.
Might be wrong but I remember there being problems some years ago during a drought

 

Yes, I expect that is right. We have cesspit (or something like that) and soakaway here (so not contributing to mains-drains). We use twice as much water in the Summer as the Winter - which suggests to me that we use, in the house, about the same amount as we put on the garden during the Summer. So if I replaced the cesspit with a proper digester then I could halve my Summer water usage (give or take) by "reusing" the household water onto the garden.

But that would be an investment of thousands to save a few hundred quid a few ... the sums just don't work - so, sadly, it won't happen until the cesspit comes to the end of its working life and needs replacing anyway.

 

We are moving into a different area here, might have to start a new thread tommorow but i'll leave you with this,

http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/Generate-your-own-energy/Air-source-heat-pumps

Ground source is now old tech, I have the tails on my heating system to put air source in when I can afford it.

 

Never understood that. Heat needed in Winter, rather than Summer. -10C air temperature, soil is what? 15C? Lot more differential to "pump", and I can't believe the COP is as good.

 

Hi,
Doesn't soap, washing up liquid, washing detergent cause a problem to plants? I've never dared use it but would do if it's safe.
Cheers
D

 

Hi Ex,

Its made from petrochemicals, so I wouldn't be wanting to eat food that had been watered by it.

You can get friendly alternatives to every cleaning product.

http://www.ecover.com/gb/en/Products/

Someone who had a digester told me that they search their friends bags when they come to stay, as they found out the hard way that just one bar of petrochemical soap was enough to destroy the enzymes. Meaning the whole lot had to be pumped out and started again.

Did you know that ordinary washing up liquid is harmful if ingested in any large amount ? Always rinse your plates or use the eco friendly one like we do.

If you water with grey water, its a good idea to move the leaky pipe from time to time, to stop the build up of fats & salts.

 

I *really* fancy frisking some of the friends that come to stay ...

... there again there are some I would rather not :(

 

I *really* fancy frisking some of the friends that come to stay ...

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Thats how I got the injunction. :DOH:

There are always these to consider, if you are on a water meter they would pay for them selves in a few years.

http://www.rainwater-harvesting.biz/acatalog/Underground_Tanks.html

 

Show me some Maths and convince me please.

Everytime I have done the maths the payback is 50 years or more ... :(

 

500 litre tank, with pump, £400.

Present water bill £120 a year.

Watering the garden when we lived in house with water meter, £450 a year.

Thats my only experience so thats what i'm basing it on. Sorry to be vague.

 

On soaps in the garden, I was previously led to believe that it is harmless to plants.

In fact, I had been told it is in some cases beneficial, as it contains nitrates or some such.

Also, I did a fair bit of research (albeit from my computer) a couple of years ago into the effect of hydrocarbons on plants. Apparently certain plant species (or more specifically the micro organisms they form a symbiotic relationship with) metabolise the hydrocarbons and break them down to naturally occuring minerals and gases. I think that it was a combination of Willow and some type of Reed that gave the best results, so granted its not practical in the typical suburban garden.