diy rain water harvesting system

dathi

paddy i buried an ibc in back garden for rainwater what i did was took it of its timber pallet put 100mm of weak concrete in the bottom of hole put the ibc in and filled it with water and concreted the sides with a weak mix and finally used a couple of lintels over the top with more concrete.

ponddigger

hi all.i have a ibc tank underground for 3 years with marine plywood around it, it is still perfect.you can get clean ibc tanks,plenty of people selling them, hi cm how do you do a sand point well:Dponddigger:D

CamperMan

I dug a hole in the ground to the point water started to fill the hole from the water table, I then hammered the steel tube with a point on the end 150cm below the water level, added more steel pipes until it was 50cm above ground then backfilled the hole


sand point well head



http://www.simplesolarhomes.com/install-driven-sand-point-water-well/

ponddigger

hi cm.thanks for imfo.where did you buy the steel driven pipe with the point on it also the pipes with treads on them .i would like to build one of these wells:Dponddogger:D ps did you use a hand pump to work your system,if so any photos

CamperMan

hello pond digger.

I didn't see any of those sand point well in Ireland, I see them in most hardware stores in Germany..

at the moment, the well is capped off, I do not have a hand pump attached, what I do is simply screw a pipe on the end of the tube that is coming out of the ground then pump the water to the water tanks using an electric water pump..

I put the well there in case we run out of rain water.



here is the end of the well coming out of the ground.

if you can't find one of these wells in Ireland, let me know, they sell complete kits in Germany...

ponddigger

hi all.here is a video about sand driven well . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGfgJwUyByE .thanks cm for imfo and photo,let me know where i can buy a kit in germany :Dponddigger:D

ponddigger

hi cm.how far down did you drive the point before you found water.10 ft 12ff:Dponddigger:D

CamperMan

ponddigger wrote: »

hi cm.how far down did you drive the point before you found water.10 ft 12ff:Dponddigger:D

I hammered mine down to a distance of about 12ft..

but for others that want to do this, the depth to hammer it down to will depend on the depth of the water table in your garden

ponddigger

hi all,found this artical on small well on the internet:Dponddigger:D http://www.fdungan.com/well.htm

CamperMan

what I must do without any delay is protect the water from freezing in the garage, all the outside water tanks have frozen solid it's that cold here.... so cold that I spilt some water and it froze on the ground in under 2 minutes..

the garage where the main IBC tanks are and the water pumps is a standard block built garage with a metal up and over door..

anyone any ideas on the cheapest way to insulate the IBC tanks so the contents don't freeze, even with a small electric heater in there, the digital temperature gauge is showing 5 Deg C, it was sub zero before I put the heater in there

CamperMan

Today, I drained the water pump and removed it from the garage, even with the heater on, it is below zero in the garage, the water in the insulated pipes froze solid... can't risk an expensive water pump breaking with the ice!

ponddigger

hi cm, how did you get on with the frost:Djack:D

CamperMan

ponddigger wrote: »

hi cm, how did you get on with the frost:Djack:D

never seen anything like it, 300 litre ice cubes outside.

I wish we had the money to feck off to a warm country for the duration of this cold spell..

Discodog

Enspire Renewable Technologies Ltd wrote: »

One point worth noting is not all tanks are considered potable tanks which mean the tank is not suitable for domestic uses outside of watering the garden.

Potable refers to drinking water not general domestic use.

The French use a Cistern. Basically they dig a big hole & line it with plastic. They then put a covering on it such as railway sleepers. Pop in a submersible pump & you can store huge quantities. The lack of light prevents algae.

ponddigger

hi all.baught a diy rain waterharvesting kit at a car boot sale this morning.the stand is made of old scaffodill, jack

CamperMan

ponddigger wrote: »

hi all.baught a diy rain waterharvesting kit at a car boot sale this morning.the stand is made of old scaffodill, jack

for disaster survival situations, better off keeping the water tank locked up inside so nobody can contaminate your water supply or steal it..

that is one of the reasons why I put the IBC tanks under lock and key in the garage...

dathi

hi all lidl have a garden pump for sale at the moment, it has electronic control, so that you can hook it up to a tap at one end and your ibc at the other end, turn on the tap and the pump kicks in

ponddigger

hi dathi thanks for imfo ,it looks a good pump:Dponddigger:D

ponddigger

hi all.got my new driven point well to day.hope to try it soon:Dponddigger:D

rainson

35x wrote: »

HI Ponddigger

Really appreciate your accounts of your progress. Setting up myself, but in a shed with a pressure pump for present.
Looking for about 6m of approx 2.5" to 3.5" or 65 - 85 mm diameter flexible plastic pipe to get water from eavechute to tank, but no local store in Portumna, Athenry or Loughrea can me. Anybody help??

You will find the pipe your looking for at JFC Weir rd Tuam. Important: If intent on using rainwater for anything more than flushing toilets, or watering gardens etc. You need to remember to apply treatment to remove colouring fromthe water caused by leaves etc and then Ultra Violet to kill bacteria, caused from bird droppings which land on the roof off the building which you are extracting the water from.

Raiser

Anyone setting one of these up at the moment?

Wondering where to buy a cap for my IBC to fit a Hozelock type garden hose adapter - Same as Paddy147's below.

https://us.v-cdn.net/6034073/uploads/attachments/227614/164445.JPG

Mines a Schutz 1000L - Think the fittings are standard on ends of valve outlet?

- So I need the cap, the hozelock adapter and then some fitting for inside of cap to thread into this?

Theres a post on this already saying any farmers co-op would stock these but your man who asked said that the thread was different on the one he was given???

redser7

Hi Raiser, replied in PMs but just in case anyone else is interested, the problem I had was that my tank had a fine thread cap (which was missing when I got the tank) whereas most tanks have the coarse thread. I was looking to knock up an adapter myself. Finally found the right cap and made an adapter. I got a 1 inch to 3/4 inch tap reducer from Aldi, drilled and filed a hole in the cap, put the reducer through the cap and siliconed all round to seal it. After that it was easy to screw on a standard 3/4 inch tap/hose adapter and bob's you uncle. It's working really well and no leaks.

ponddigger

hi raiser.i cant send you a pm you inbox is full.i have a hand pump:Dponddigger:D

Raiser

ponddigger wrote: »

hi raiser.i cant send you a pm you inbox is full.i have a hand pump:Dponddigger:D

Made some room in inbox Jack - Sorry! Will PM ya now.

- Redser thanks again for the help - Good call posting valuable info on here also too.....

Builderfromhell

Found this on donedeal.
Fittings to connect most pipe sizes to IBC.

http://www.donedeal.ie/for-sale/machinery/1590614

manna452121

This pump will be back next week http://www.lidl.ie/cps/rde/xchg/lidl_ri_ie/hs.xsl/index_22107.htm

ponddigger

hi all here is a video ye might like,jack http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8TUmEC-zYQ&feature=channel&list=UL

ponddigger

hi all just put in a ibc tank in a friends garage:Djack