Lowest Water Bill

I got my latest bill the other day and it is down to £50 for the last 3 months. It was around £100 before my leaking problems right at the start of my project. I had to shutdown the system for 4 days when the tank froze in the cold weather.

So I am really happy with the system and will look into expanding it in the summer.

Almost Finished.....

I have installed some extra water butts that were around the garden not being used and have connected them up together. I use these for reserve when my main tank runs dry. This has only happened once so far. My main tank is full again now.

I have moved the connections and the pump away from the electrics and into the corner of the garage and have finished insulating the pipes.

My meter has almost reached 5000 liters. That equates to around £21.00. I still need to do final calculations and also monitor how much electricity the pump uses to work out what I am saving.

I have also swapped out the timer for a digital one as the manual one broke down. I know run the pump twice a day for a 5 minute period. Within this 5 minute period the pump will switch off when it is full.

Update

I have almost finished the job at last. I have lagged most of the pipe work and have been running on rainwater for the toilets for the last few months. I have used almost 4000 liters. Will try and post some more photos soon.

Running on the tank again.

I have started on lagging the pipe work going from the garage into the loft now.

The last picture shows the new float switch and it is much better quality than the last one. For a start the magnet is not exposed and so will not rust. Also the switch has a better connection allowing for a tight fit. I have been monitoring for 1 week and finally no leaks.

Next up is to finish the lagging and boxing in the outside tank.

Redesign of tank float connector.

Due to my leak I have been spending some time redesigning my float connector connections. It has been far too hot to go in the loft space lately so I am waiting for it to cool down. I have got some new connectors to use which sould solve the leak problem I am hoping.

The filter that I made from an old drinks container seems to be working well. We have had much rain lately and my tank is full again.

Another Leak!

There was a leak where the float valve went into the tank and it has made some of the artex fall off the ceiling.   Wife is not happy.    Another job to do.   It is not too bad and I think that I should be able to repair it.

I have added an extra filter going into the main tank.   I used a plastic container with some filter media in it.  Not sure if it is going to work but did not cost me anything as it was just going in the bin.

I have got a manual timer that just runs during the day.  Will see how this works out.   Still lots more to do.

Rain water is flowing in more ways than one!

Well what a weekend.   I have now connected up 3 toilets and they are using rain water.  I have had lots of problems to over come.  Had some real problems with the relay the I got from ebay and after 2 failed ones arriving I decided to get one from maplins.   It is working well.

As you can see I have already used 300 liters of water.

I added in a small hose pipe as the water was gushing out quite a bit and making the relay switch the pump on an off again.   It is just pushed in so I am not sure how long it will last.