Click on the tabs at the top of the main page to read about various design options you can mix and match to create a shower water reuse design that suits you own particular house and garden.
Showing posts with label greywater. Show all posts
Showing posts with label greywater. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
DIY greywater - laundry and kitchen
Laundry greywater...
Some people rely on their washing machine's internal pump to pump laundry greywater out to the garden, but this is not recommended. Washing machine pumps are designed to pump water no further than the laundry trough.
My DIY solution is incredibly simple. To collect the used water I simply put the plug in the laundry trough, and place the outlet hose from the washing machine into the trough rather than down the drain hole at the back of the trough. I bought a basic sump pump (about $120), and this sits in the laundry trough. Details of this pump are given under Fig 8 on the Big Bucket Details page. I already had a round mesh filter (about 25cm diameter) from the top of an old water tank. This sits partly on the edge of the trough and partly on the top of the pump, and the machine outlet hose is positioned such that the used water passes through this mesh (to filter out lint) as it runs into the trough. I used this filter because I happened to have it, but an old sock or stocking tied to the end of the outlet hose would probably do the job just as well (or better).
Once a load of washing is finished, I connect the hose from the pump outlet to a greywater hose just outside the laundry door. I then switch the sump pump on. The water flows through the greywater hose to the front garden and into whichever one of my mulch-filled trenches the hose is poked into that day. (The mulch-filled trench method of distributing greywater is described on this page.)
The only things I need to do are connect and disconnect the hose at the laundry door after each load of washing, and clean the lint out of the filter about once per week. If your house layout permits, you could have your pump outlet connected to a thru-wall fitting, and have the hose to the garden permanently connected to the other end of the thru-wall fitting outside the house.
Stop press...
It is not that long since I wrote this post, but already I have changed the way I deal with my laundry greywater! This was mainly because of changes I made in my garden, but also partly because I was getting a little sick of having the hose from the pump outlet coiled up on the laundry floor. Rather than writing a new post or changing what I've said above, I'll simply give the information about the setup I am now using in this "stop press" - after all, both setups are perfectly viable alternatives.
Firstly, I'm no longer using the mulch-filled trenches described above because I now have raised planter boxes in that area of the garden. In order to get the laundry greywater high enough to flow into those beds I constructed the splitter box described here. Previously the greywater hose from the laundry just ran along at ground level between the laundry and front garden, but I now needed that hose to be raised sufficiently for the water to run into the splitter box.
Previously, I had not bothered to use a thru-wall fitting in my laundry because there is a door right next to the laundry trough, but the simplest way of getting the height I now needed was to take the outlet hose from the sump pump through the wall above the laundry trough. (See Fig. 2a to 2d on the Big Bucket details page for close-up images of options for thru-wall fittings). This is what the corner of my laundry looks like now:
To avoid the sagging that happens with elevated hoses, I decided to use rigid PVC pipes rather than greywater hose to take the water from the thru-wall fitting, along the house under the eaves, and to the splitter box in the front garden:
Here is a close-up of the thru-wall fitting plus screw-on barbed connector on the outside wall of the laundry:
I used a masonry bit, the hammer drill setting of my electric drill, and its highest speed to drill a 20mm diameter hole through the brick to insert the 30cm long threaded pipe for this thru-wall fitting. This was NOT easy - especially since I only had a 10mm masonry bit to drill a 20mm hole! Even so, now that it is done I think it was well worth the effort. Now, each time I wash the clothes, all I need to do to automatically water those raised planter boxes is switch on the pump, and then switch it off again once the laundry trough is empty.
Laundry powders and liquids...
There is an enormous amount of information about the effect of laundry products when using greywater on gardens at the Lanfax Labs laundry information website. It explains what factors need to be considered, and gives test results for a large number of commercial powders and liquids. The good news is that a reasonable number of readily available laundry powders, and almost all laundry liquids, are suitable when reusing laundry water in the garden. Select either powders or liquids from the left column of the Lanfax web page to find details of the contents of specific products.
Kitchen greywater...
Health regulations state that used dishwashing water should not be used as greywater in the garden due to the food particles and grease it is likely to contain. However, I seem to use a lot of water for other purposes in the kitchen, such as washing vegetables, rinsing my tea cup, and washing my hands countless times per day. All those things I do over an ordinary plastic bucket that I keep sitting in the kitchen sink.
I don't have any fancy system for delivering that greywater to the garden. Like most people, I simply carry the bucket outside and use it to water the pot plants and the section of garden closest to the back door.
Link:
Lanfax Labs: Detailed information about laundry liquids and powders to help you select one that will not harm you garden.
Some people rely on their washing machine's internal pump to pump laundry greywater out to the garden, but this is not recommended. Washing machine pumps are designed to pump water no further than the laundry trough.
My DIY solution is incredibly simple. To collect the used water I simply put the plug in the laundry trough, and place the outlet hose from the washing machine into the trough rather than down the drain hole at the back of the trough. I bought a basic sump pump (about $120), and this sits in the laundry trough. Details of this pump are given under Fig 8 on the Big Bucket Details page. I already had a round mesh filter (about 25cm diameter) from the top of an old water tank. This sits partly on the edge of the trough and partly on the top of the pump, and the machine outlet hose is positioned such that the used water passes through this mesh (to filter out lint) as it runs into the trough. I used this filter because I happened to have it, but an old sock or stocking tied to the end of the outlet hose would probably do the job just as well (or better).
Once a load of washing is finished, I connect the hose from the pump outlet to a greywater hose just outside the laundry door. I then switch the sump pump on. The water flows through the greywater hose to the front garden and into whichever one of my mulch-filled trenches the hose is poked into that day. (The mulch-filled trench method of distributing greywater is described on this page.)
The only things I need to do are connect and disconnect the hose at the laundry door after each load of washing, and clean the lint out of the filter about once per week. If your house layout permits, you could have your pump outlet connected to a thru-wall fitting, and have the hose to the garden permanently connected to the other end of the thru-wall fitting outside the house.
Stop press...
It is not that long since I wrote this post, but already I have changed the way I deal with my laundry greywater! This was mainly because of changes I made in my garden, but also partly because I was getting a little sick of having the hose from the pump outlet coiled up on the laundry floor. Rather than writing a new post or changing what I've said above, I'll simply give the information about the setup I am now using in this "stop press" - after all, both setups are perfectly viable alternatives.
Firstly, I'm no longer using the mulch-filled trenches described above because I now have raised planter boxes in that area of the garden. In order to get the laundry greywater high enough to flow into those beds I constructed the splitter box described here. Previously the greywater hose from the laundry just ran along at ground level between the laundry and front garden, but I now needed that hose to be raised sufficiently for the water to run into the splitter box.
Previously, I had not bothered to use a thru-wall fitting in my laundry because there is a door right next to the laundry trough, but the simplest way of getting the height I now needed was to take the outlet hose from the sump pump through the wall above the laundry trough. (See Fig. 2a to 2d on the Big Bucket details page for close-up images of options for thru-wall fittings). This is what the corner of my laundry looks like now:
To avoid the sagging that happens with elevated hoses, I decided to use rigid PVC pipes rather than greywater hose to take the water from the thru-wall fitting, along the house under the eaves, and to the splitter box in the front garden:
Here is a close-up of the thru-wall fitting plus screw-on barbed connector on the outside wall of the laundry:
I used a masonry bit, the hammer drill setting of my electric drill, and its highest speed to drill a 20mm diameter hole through the brick to insert the 30cm long threaded pipe for this thru-wall fitting. This was NOT easy - especially since I only had a 10mm masonry bit to drill a 20mm hole! Even so, now that it is done I think it was well worth the effort. Now, each time I wash the clothes, all I need to do to automatically water those raised planter boxes is switch on the pump, and then switch it off again once the laundry trough is empty.
Laundry powders and liquids...
There is an enormous amount of information about the effect of laundry products when using greywater on gardens at the Lanfax Labs laundry information website. It explains what factors need to be considered, and gives test results for a large number of commercial powders and liquids. The good news is that a reasonable number of readily available laundry powders, and almost all laundry liquids, are suitable when reusing laundry water in the garden. Select either powders or liquids from the left column of the Lanfax web page to find details of the contents of specific products.
Kitchen greywater...
Health regulations state that used dishwashing water should not be used as greywater in the garden due to the food particles and grease it is likely to contain. However, I seem to use a lot of water for other purposes in the kitchen, such as washing vegetables, rinsing my tea cup, and washing my hands countless times per day. All those things I do over an ordinary plastic bucket that I keep sitting in the kitchen sink.
I don't have any fancy system for delivering that greywater to the garden. Like most people, I simply carry the bucket outside and use it to water the pot plants and the section of garden closest to the back door.
Link:
Lanfax Labs: Detailed information about laundry liquids and powders to help you select one that will not harm you garden.
DIY food
This post is not really about how to grow your own food. There are plenty of excellent websites giving that sort of information.
Rather, it is about the reasons for DIY food. Of course there are many reasons - the freshness and the intense bursting-with-life flavour of home-grown produce, the avoidance of chemicals (if one chooses), and some sort of basic satisfaction or sense of achievement. Some might say DIY food saves you money, but I doubt if that is really the case, especially in the short term. It certainly is not true if you put a dollar value on your time...but there are other values.
In "Growing food in our cities" (p2, Best Garden Ideas - Growing edibles, published by The Diggers Club), Clive Blazey presents some compelling reasons for DIY food.
Blazey then tells how Cubans, who formerly relied on imported oil, tractors and fertilisers, have been growing their own food on disused building sites since the 1990's. These days "the city of Havana produces 60% of its own food" and "80% of the nation's food is organically grown".
Whenever I read yet another article about the current and potentially increasing food security problems being caused by climate change, I can't help remembering something I read many years ago about the breakdown of the old Soviet Union. The author (Solzhenitsyn, I think it was) said that the hardships caused by disruption of mass food provision and distribution systems would have been much more dire were it not for the fact that many Russians were still in the habit of growing at least some of their own food in their own gardens. He wondered how well the average American (and presumably anyone else who relies entirely on supermarkets for their food) would survive under similar circumstances. For me, this is yet another compelling reason for pursuing DIY food.
I currently fall far short of food self-sufficiency. However, I am accumulating experience and knowledge about how to grow food - there's so much to learn! - and about what works well and gives good yields in my local area. Maybe this knowledge, and the seeds I am saving, will some day assist others who want/need to grow their own food as well.
I wonder how many people assume (without realizing that it is an assumption) that our supermarkets are obliged to keep us fed (they're not!), and to do so at "affordable" prices?
To quote from Clive Blazey again (p14, Best Garden Ideas - Growing edibles), "In just 40 square metres you can grow 472kg of vegetables [per annum] which is enough for four people". (His planting plan is available online at http://www.diggers.com.au/pdf/MiniPlotHarvestPlan.pdf .) To do that he says you will need plenty of sun and well-rotted manure, and also compost and blood and bone. You'll need to practice crop rotation, sow high-yielding heirloom varieties, and provide 22,800L of supplementary water per year. (I think you'd also need to do some preserving of the summer bounty to supplement the few types of vegetables harvestable during winter.)
I understand Blazey conducted the trials on which his yield figures are based at Seymour, 98km north of Melbourne, which has a mean annual rainfall of 593.9 mm. Comparing this with average rainfalls in your particular area will give you an idea how much supplementary water you would need. (For rainfalls within Australia, go to Climate Data Online and select Rainfall - Monthly - your location.) For example, Sydney's mean annual rainfall of 1129.6mm is almost double that of Seymour, Perth is also higher at 738.6mm, but the Adelaide figure is only 542.6 mm. So, by rough guesstimate, the supplementary water requirement in Sydney would be around 12,000L, in Perth it would be around 16,000L, and in Adelaide up to 25,000L of additional water would be required to grow those 472kg of vegetables. Even this worst case is quite achievable - one of my rainwater tanks holds almost that much.
A family of four having 3 minute showers with a water-saving shower head would generate 4 x 30 x 7 = 840L of greywater per week. Assuming slightly longer showers when washing hair, etc., we can probably assume at least 1,000L per week. (Click on the tabs at the top of the page, or start with this page, for collection and distribution methods). Given the wet winters and dry summers expereinced in much of southern Australia, we might need to water our gardens during only 26 weeks of the year, and so we'd only collect the used shower water during those weeks. That would mean a ballpark figure of 26,000L of greywater from the shower per year. That is enough, even in Adelaide!
One complication with the above greywater figures is the health guidelines for safe use of greywater, which indicate that greywater should not come in direct contact with food that will be eaten raw. Even so, lettuce, carrots, spring onions, and other salad vegetables that touch the ground could be in a separate bed that is watered with rainwater or mains water, and the shower water could be used for the other vegetable beds and for some fruit trees.
Despite being very approximate, the above figures indicate that a lot is possible, even for those who might not have quite the expertise, space, or soil fertility to match the above yields. Even a few pots on the patio containing, for example, a tomato bush, a climbing cucumber plant, a few loose leaf lettuces and some strawberries will avoid some of the food miles, packaging, etc. involved in supermarket food.
Food swaps
http://communitygarden.org.au/food-swaps-in-south-australia (SA)
http://www.sustainablemelbourne.com/events/sga-food-swaps/ (Vic)
http://www.pigswillfly.com.au/?p=7542 (Vic)
http://yarraneighbourhoodorchard.webs.com/aboutyuh.htm (Vic)
http://www.ceres.org.au/node/114 (scroll down for national list)
Blazey's 40 square metre planting plan
http://www.diggers.com.au/pdf/MiniPlotHarvestPlan.pdf . (I've not personally tried this planting plan, so I'd be interested in comments from anyone who has.)
Mean annual rainfalls
Climate Data Online. Select Rainfall, then Monthly, then enter your location. Look under the "Annual" column in the "Mean rainfall" row of the table.
Preserving the harvest
http://urbanfarmingoz.com.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=64:preserving-the-harvest&catid=6:ufarm
Growing food
Sustainable Gardening Australia
Buying local - next best thing to growing your own
http://www.localfoodmap.net/
Community gardens
http://communitygarden.org.au/
Farmers markets directory
http://www.farmersmarkets.org.au/markets
Rather, it is about the reasons for DIY food. Of course there are many reasons - the freshness and the intense bursting-with-life flavour of home-grown produce, the avoidance of chemicals (if one chooses), and some sort of basic satisfaction or sense of achievement. Some might say DIY food saves you money, but I doubt if that is really the case, especially in the short term. It certainly is not true if you put a dollar value on your time...but there are other values.
In "Growing food in our cities" (p2, Best Garden Ideas - Growing edibles, published by The Diggers Club), Clive Blazey presents some compelling reasons for DIY food.
Nearly 30% of the CO2 in our atmosphere is caused by us not growing our own food.
Non-renewable energy is used to plough the fields, harvest and process the crop and take it to market. The fertilisers, pesticides and weed killers used to grow the crop are derived from oil. ... The kitchen fridge uses more energy than the farm tractor. ... Up to 25% of the energy is consumed in wasteful packaging.
If this [growing our own food using compost rather than fertilisers] sounds like Utopia it is, and we have been there, before the supermarkets manipulated our lazy nature.
Blazey then tells how Cubans, who formerly relied on imported oil, tractors and fertilisers, have been growing their own food on disused building sites since the 1990's. These days "the city of Havana produces 60% of its own food" and "80% of the nation's food is organically grown".
Whenever I read yet another article about the current and potentially increasing food security problems being caused by climate change, I can't help remembering something I read many years ago about the breakdown of the old Soviet Union. The author (Solzhenitsyn, I think it was) said that the hardships caused by disruption of mass food provision and distribution systems would have been much more dire were it not for the fact that many Russians were still in the habit of growing at least some of their own food in their own gardens. He wondered how well the average American (and presumably anyone else who relies entirely on supermarkets for their food) would survive under similar circumstances. For me, this is yet another compelling reason for pursuing DIY food.
I currently fall far short of food self-sufficiency. However, I am accumulating experience and knowledge about how to grow food - there's so much to learn! - and about what works well and gives good yields in my local area. Maybe this knowledge, and the seeds I am saving, will some day assist others who want/need to grow their own food as well.
I wonder how many people assume (without realizing that it is an assumption) that our supermarkets are obliged to keep us fed (they're not!), and to do so at "affordable" prices?
So...how achievable is DIY food?
To quote from Clive Blazey again (p14, Best Garden Ideas - Growing edibles), "In just 40 square metres you can grow 472kg of vegetables [per annum] which is enough for four people". (His planting plan is available online at http://www.diggers.com.au/pdf/MiniPlotHarvestPlan.pdf .) To do that he says you will need plenty of sun and well-rotted manure, and also compost and blood and bone. You'll need to practice crop rotation, sow high-yielding heirloom varieties, and provide 22,800L of supplementary water per year. (I think you'd also need to do some preserving of the summer bounty to supplement the few types of vegetables harvestable during winter.)
I understand Blazey conducted the trials on which his yield figures are based at Seymour, 98km north of Melbourne, which has a mean annual rainfall of 593.9 mm. Comparing this with average rainfalls in your particular area will give you an idea how much supplementary water you would need. (For rainfalls within Australia, go to Climate Data Online and select Rainfall - Monthly - your location.) For example, Sydney's mean annual rainfall of 1129.6mm is almost double that of Seymour, Perth is also higher at 738.6mm, but the Adelaide figure is only 542.6 mm. So, by rough guesstimate, the supplementary water requirement in Sydney would be around 12,000L, in Perth it would be around 16,000L, and in Adelaide up to 25,000L of additional water would be required to grow those 472kg of vegetables. Even this worst case is quite achievable - one of my rainwater tanks holds almost that much.
A family of four having 3 minute showers with a water-saving shower head would generate 4 x 30 x 7 = 840L of greywater per week. Assuming slightly longer showers when washing hair, etc., we can probably assume at least 1,000L per week. (Click on the tabs at the top of the page, or start with this page, for collection and distribution methods). Given the wet winters and dry summers expereinced in much of southern Australia, we might need to water our gardens during only 26 weeks of the year, and so we'd only collect the used shower water during those weeks. That would mean a ballpark figure of 26,000L of greywater from the shower per year. That is enough, even in Adelaide!
One complication with the above greywater figures is the health guidelines for safe use of greywater, which indicate that greywater should not come in direct contact with food that will be eaten raw. Even so, lettuce, carrots, spring onions, and other salad vegetables that touch the ground could be in a separate bed that is watered with rainwater or mains water, and the shower water could be used for the other vegetable beds and for some fruit trees.
Despite being very approximate, the above figures indicate that a lot is possible, even for those who might not have quite the expertise, space, or soil fertility to match the above yields. Even a few pots on the patio containing, for example, a tomato bush, a climbing cucumber plant, a few loose leaf lettuces and some strawberries will avoid some of the food miles, packaging, etc. involved in supermarket food.
Links...
Food swaps
http://communitygarden.org.au/food-swaps-in-south-australia (SA)
http://www.sustainablemelbourne.com/events/sga-food-swaps/ (Vic)
http://www.pigswillfly.com.au/?p=7542 (Vic)
http://yarraneighbourhoodorchard.webs.com/aboutyuh.htm (Vic)
http://www.ceres.org.au/node/114 (scroll down for national list)
Blazey's 40 square metre planting plan
http://www.diggers.com.au/pdf/MiniPlotHarvestPlan.pdf . (I've not personally tried this planting plan, so I'd be interested in comments from anyone who has.)
Mean annual rainfalls
Climate Data Online. Select Rainfall, then Monthly, then enter your location. Look under the "Annual" column in the "Mean rainfall" row of the table.
Preserving the harvest
http://urbanfarmingoz.com.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=64:preserving-the-harvest&catid=6:ufarm
Growing food
Sustainable Gardening Australia
Buying local - next best thing to growing your own
http://www.localfoodmap.net/
Community gardens
http://communitygarden.org.au/
Farmers markets directory
http://www.farmersmarkets.org.au/markets
DIY planet rehabilitation
While those in power are quibbling over the economic impacts of reducing our carbon footprint and haggling over how to apportion/regulate our limited supply of fresh water, and while the UN posts warnings of increasing food security problems, there are many, many "little" :) people who are quietly (and not so quietly!) getting on with "doing it themselves". Call it DIY planet rehabilitation if you like.
Household by household, we are reducing our own carbon footprint, collecting and reusing our own water, and growing our own food. We are getting on with the business of sustainable living without waiting for decisions and action from people in power. In that sense, this is a DIY blog.
It is also a DIY blog in the traditional sense of DIY - projects we can do ourselves instead of hiring experts to do them for us. DIY projects, especially original ones, tend to involve a good deal of trial and error. Please email me about your own sustainability-oriented DIY projects so that I can publish your ideas here. Allow others to learn from your mistakes and copy your tried-and-tested successes! Also feel free to use the comment function to suggest improvements and alternatives to the methods described in this blog or to add additional useful information. Enjoy!
Links...
1 million women
http://www.1millionwomen.com.au/index.cfm?ruuid=4FFDB6A5-9689-1AD3-F54D2CEC032CF853
Greenleap
http://www.green-innovations.asn.au/
Climate Code Red
http://www.climatecodered.net/
Geelong Sustainability Group
http://www.geelongsustainability.org.au/
Household by household, we are reducing our own carbon footprint, collecting and reusing our own water, and growing our own food. We are getting on with the business of sustainable living without waiting for decisions and action from people in power. In that sense, this is a DIY blog.
It is also a DIY blog in the traditional sense of DIY - projects we can do ourselves instead of hiring experts to do them for us. DIY projects, especially original ones, tend to involve a good deal of trial and error. Please email me about your own sustainability-oriented DIY projects so that I can publish your ideas here. Allow others to learn from your mistakes and copy your tried-and-tested successes! Also feel free to use the comment function to suggest improvements and alternatives to the methods described in this blog or to add additional useful information. Enjoy!
Links...
1 million women
http://www.1millionwomen.com.au/index.cfm?ruuid=4FFDB6A5-9689-1AD3-F54D2CEC032CF853
Greenleap
http://www.green-innovations.asn.au/
Climate Code Red
http://www.climatecodered.net/
Geelong Sustainability Group
http://www.geelongsustainability.org.au/
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