rain water harvesting butts
Jul 21st, 2008 by Peter Donegan MI Hort
I always reuse the grey water from my house & throw it over the veggie plot. Butt [!] it’s time to go a stage further. I wanted a water butt. It took a little research and I go two from… fingal county council.
Made from recycled plastic, Dublin City Council [their page is a little more informative] are selling them too. I dont know about the rest of the country. Sorry!
How much? I paid €40 by bin tags [which is tax deductable] and collected myself. Thats really good value by the way. I thought they’d be sold out - but - the guy in Swords Estuary Recycling Centre said the uptake hadn’t been so great. That’s a bit of a shame and a little surprising. Maybe water charges should come in after all?
HOW TO FIT YOUR HARVESTER - [what the instructions don't tell you]
Anyhow - the fitting is a little tricky. Partly, because my instructions were wet! remember - take your time - measure twice & cut once
1] place the butt where you want it near the down pipe from your gutters. Hold the pipe in place [as it will sit]; mark where you will cut; make sure it reaches. Cut the down pipe with a hand saw and again removing about 1cm of pipe. You may need a little more - but a good ‘wallop’ [careful and easy! measure twice - cut once!!] should knock it back into place. The section supplied should now be in place & the black hose should now protrude.
2] With the butt sitting on its stand, you now need to drill into the side of the butt - again careful measure twice and cut once - to fit the connection so as the pipe from the downpipe will connect to the harvester and don’t forget gravity!
3] you’ll need a decent screwdriver to knock the lid into place
That is pretty much it! Careful when cutting - or you’ll take most of the paint off the walls [and your fingers too...!] and make sure and leave the tap in the off position… I don’t need to explain that one…. ? All one needs to do now is wait for it to rain.
We really should allow fixtures like this more readily into our garden designs…
That’s a really good idea. Of course, I’d need a garden first…hmmm…as soon as I get a garden, I’ll look into getting one of these.
Genuinely though, they’re a great idea!
A Chara Darren,
as always, you are more than welcome to drop by for coffee and plan for that ‘rainy day’!!
look forward to it.
slán agus beannacht
peter
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