Many London home owners baulk at the idea of fitting rainwater harvesting because of the problems involved in getting a 5000 litre rainwater tank through those narrow Victorian doors and stairways into the back garden. But the new race of tanks that come as two shells which get fixed together on site have done a lot to ease this problem.
In the case of Jay Hayter and Chris Mead, typical young professional Londoners, they had such an ambitious streak when it came to their own house and its renovation that by the time their Graf Carat 2700 litre tank kit had been delivered (under #2000 including VAT and delivery) they had together dug by hand the hole necessary for burying the tank... 2 by 2= by 2 metres. They had even carried the excess soil through the house in sacks and off to the dump!
The 2700 litre tank would not fit through the stairwell of the house, despite the Carat being shipped in two halves only 80 cms wide... they're 2 metres long. So Chris sweet-talked the neighbours into letting him (and friends) lift the tank halves over four neighbours' walls to get to his back garden. They installed it and piped it up to the toilets and washing machine on their own.
Their 80 square metre roof will now collect around 75,000 litres of water annually, sufficient for toilet flushing, clothes washing and 150 litres of water daily for the garden. The 2700 litre tank will provide this daily amount of water for a couple of weeks during a drought or hosepipe ban. Jay and Chris are cutting their water bills by half and estimate recouping their investment in 6 to 7 years. Similar to some of the other sustainable options, this may appear to be a long term investment but they are really happy.
Jay and Chris are interested to see whether environmentally-friendly features like solar heating can be built into a terrace house, and what problems have to be overcome. This job was more emotional because it was being filmed for the BBC's "It's Not Easy being Green!" presented by Dick Strawbridge for broadcast early in 2009.
Chris sat triumphantly on his tank before covering it over with earth and said to camera:
"We have been able to install our rainwater harvesting with no professional help at all. For myself and Jay, both of us with limited DIY experience, this has been possible. Where plumbers, electricians and plasterers are concerned, I'm happy to pass that on to someone else.
"But I'm really, really pleased that both of us, Jay and I, have dug this hole, we've had the confidence knowing that what we're doing here is right. We can do the work now, then for years and years to come this will be free water every time we flush the toilet, every time we wash our clothes, we know that we can look skywards and we'll say "Thanks. You know; free water! Great."
"I'm over the moon!"
Author Resource:
Rainwater Harvesting Limited supplies rain water harvesting storage tanks, pumps, filters and management systems to households and commercial businesses. RainWaterHarvesting.co.uk is a large information resource offering valuable technical information and advice in addition to 1000s of product specifications. Download the invaluable rainwater harvesting tank size calculator
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