Hosepipe ban

Thanks, that's a useful ballpark. My metered water is about £400 a year, so quite a long payback ... and to get all the £400 "back" I would need to use the borehole for domestic water too, so another couple of £'000 on purification equipment I expect ...

 

Time to install automated drip irrigation perhaps? That's some boy's toys I've always wanted to play with ...

Angian Water (others too I expect) has this exemption listed:

Use of drip or trickle irrigation watering systems fitted with a pressure reducing valve and a timer, that are not handheld and which place water by drip directly onto the soil surface or beneath the soil surface, without any surface run off or dispersion of water through the air using a jet or mist.

http://www.anglianwater.co.uk/environment/water-resources/E90894F6CB2546F88BFF82408F9B81CE.aspx

 

I have no experience of it, but reading the "Borehole Contractor's Sites" they pretty much all say you can extract up to 20 cu.m. a day without licence. That's a heck of a lot of water ... I only use about 10 - 15 times that annually!

I'm sure there is more to it, license-wise, than that, but I would not expect it to be a problem. Water Authorities may resist losing their monopoly to me, but I'm doing them a favour by reducing the capital spend they have to make. They can sell my water to a new-build property instead, I'm sure ...

Not got five-grand in my back pocket looking for an impulse purchase though :(

 

Nah, get some Boy's Toys in and lay the pipe anyway I've got taps all down the garden now:

 

I've looked closely at the cheaper irrigation systems ....

Drip irrigation is good if it works all the time .... however, when the pipe is buried, you have no clue if it is working properly ... same goes to the drip irrigation systems that have a small nozzle and feed into the planting pots ... you hqave to continuously check them to see that they are working properly

I prefer the system where you have a mist nozzle that sits above the ground and that can be seen when it works .... you also have to put a few in-line filters even if using tap water, as the nozzles can block easily ...

 

and speaking of which .... garden centres are going to take a heavy knock this year .... people will be put off with the hosepipe bans and not buy plants and shrubs if they cannot water them

 

I've just read that under a hosepipe ban it's fine to; • use a hose for childrens’ play

If anyone wants to borrow me and my kids to water their garden during the ban send me a pm for our pricelist.






Edit, you can also use a jet wash as long as it's not for the garden or car. you can clean your paths and pretty much anything else too. You can also use a submersible pump from your water butt to water your garden and refill the water butt using a hose as much as you like. Crazy.

 

I have been reading all your posts but I am still not clear on what we can or can't do ? Watering vege should be ok ? What about watering Hanging Baskets and newly planted flower seeds ?

 

Any of these on the list can be enfroced by water companies. They don't have to choose all of them so it's best to check for each individual area.

Flood & Water Management Act 2010 prohibits;

• Watering a garden using a hosepipe;
• Cleaning a private motor-vehicle using a hosepipe;
• Watering plants on domestic or other non-commercial premises using a hosepipe;
• Cleaning a private leisure boat using a hosepipe;
• Filling or maintaining a domestic swimming or paddling pool;
• Drawing water, using a hosepipe, for domestic recreational use;
• Filling or maintaining a domestic pond using a hosepipe;
• Filling or maintaining an ornamental fountain;
• Cleaning walls, or windows, of domestic premises using a hosepipe;
• Cleaning paths or patios using a hosepipe;
• Cleaning other artificial outdoor surfaces using a hosepipe.

 

Thanks very much . I think as long as I only use a watering can I should be ok

 

Yes, but Cacti sales will be up.

 

My secretary just entered my office and said: 'We got a letter again from our office in the South east of England. They're writing that they have a very serious water shortage'

'Well', I said, 'there's always a water shortage there - it can't be that urgent'

'I think it's urgent this time', my secretary said, 'the stamp is put on the envelope with a paperclip...'

 

Does that mean, in the dry South, it's Ok to lay drain pipes all over the garden and let the outside tap run 24/7 to get water wherever you need it? - as long as the tap isn't connected to the pipe by a hosepipe!