Rainwater Recovery Systems

If you want to go the whole hog on renewable sources then here is another way to save water and help to keep the area around your house dry when we have one of our frequent showers.

Rain water recovery systems come in different shapes and sizes. Basically you have a gutter system around you house and out houses leading into a tank. 

Some tanks are buried below the ground which keeps the water at a constant temperature. These tanks can be used by more than one house.

They have self maintaining filtration system, gauges so that you can see how much water is in the tank and security locking systems to make sure that the water can not be tampered with.

Each house has a supply from the tank and the water can be used for flushing toilets, washing machines, watering the garden, washing the car and so on. Most systems are not recommended for drinking water or cooking but there are a few available.

A simpler type of recovery system is barrels for collecting the water that falls from your roof through the guttering system . You can also use containers with close able lids to make sure that you do not have animals fall into them. There are all sorts of small pumps that can be used with these systems to make them more accessible for use.

On farms and in really remote areas large tanks systems that stand above the ground are often used for rain water collection. There is information on the web about these large systems but it would be very difficult to get planning permission for a normal dwelling house.