Hello All

Stupid question I'm sure.

Do you fill your tanks with rain water or from local supply. If it is rain water do you collect from the house roof and transfer it somehow

Regards

Dave

City water.

If you wanted to go to the expense of tanks pumps & guttering you could use rainwater for clothes washing, watering the grass, washing the car etc.

You could build underground tanks from concrete.

If you use an underground tank using concrete rings stacked up on top of each other and want to use it for showering, brushing teeth :

1- Be sure they make a seal between the rings, rainwater can seep in and you will have murky water.

2- Be sure that when they refill around the tank ,they do not throw in blocks, bricks and rocks, ceramic tiles, sand or soil only!

Or else you will eventually end up with cavities/pockets around the tank after a rainy season or two.

Both, but not "transfer" is my experience. In a small Issan Town we can get Municipal water supply MOST days. Hence we have some pumps and two 2000 liter water storage tanks of Municipal water that has gone through four filters. The cleaner the water the safer for cleaning, cooking and bathing inside the home. I think "dirty" water can cause problems with washing machines, water heaters, pool filter pumps, and a dish washing machine. Not to mention shower heads. We clean the sediment filters twice a month.

While Government water is now "free" for a few months, it really is not when you consider how much the carbon and magnesium in water filter tanks cost. We have ONE exterior water tap that is direct from the Municipal water service line and so it bypasses the filter system. This could be a good source of water for watering the yard or cleaning the car.

A back up supply of water for when we do not have a source of Municipal water is from four water storage tanks linked to rain gutter down spouts. Certainly good water for gardening on a normal basis, and during the extended periods that water is just not available though the municipal supply it is useful for the garden or "bucket" bathing. The "overflow" from each rain storage tank is to our "Grey water" in ground cement rings.

You would have some plumbing challenges to somehow "transfer" rain water into your "municipal" water pipe system in my opinion. Perhaps other Thai Visa Forum members have solved that challenge.

Whatever you do with either water supply insist that they install the pipes DEEPER than they want. At our home only two water pipe breaks from gardening so far in 2008.

The 2000 liter DOS tank we now use for rain water storage was previously used to on our construction site to maintain a water supply for mixing concrete and for the bathing needs of a construction crew. The 1000 liter DOS tank was previously used in our rental home in the same community which just does not have a consistent supply of Municipal water. I purchased four Diamond Brand Sandstone 2000 liter tanks for our home since the price and quality seemed attractive in comparison to other brands. A local "pump shop" set up the water systems and had lower prices than other stores in our area. I paid 9000 baht for the 2000 liter polymer tanks delivered.

Absolutely Bob. The 2 systems should not be in any way interconnected.

I personally would not be using rainwater for drinking or brushing my teeth unless I have a reverse osmosis plant in my yard. And a good laboratory for testing.

You can save some money & help save the earth by using rainwater to water the grass & wash the car.

What Tony is discussing is how septic tanks are made. They are not meant to be watertight. Nor would the rings ever be watertight. Those rings are porous.

My underground tanks would be poured into forms.

It really depends on where you live.....

We're in a village house in Isaan and the municipal supply in unreliable and often VERY dirty.

In our case, rain water is the best for "all things cleaning", including showering and washing dishes.

The municipal supply can be used for these purposes only when it comes thru cleanly - not very often.

Of course, city living provides better municipal supplies.

We use bottled water for all things related to cooking and cleaning teeth.

You can buy lilters to deal with that.

Can be made drinkable with reverse osmosis.

Another option would be to have drinking water trucked in.

We live 65 km southwest of Khampaeng Phet and about 11 months of the year we get municipal water which I store in 20 x1500 litre concrete ongs or the Thai round storage tanks.

We only use that for general use such as laundry, showers, toilet flushing etc. It goes through 2 filters before we use it.

We also have 2 x 3000 litre stainless steel tanks which we store rainwater in all year round and over the last 5 years so far we have had no ill effects.

:D

Went out & got some pictures of the big filters.

The only caveat is that you might need a pump to force the water through this big bugger.

No idea what's inside or how to clean it. That's a stainless steel one being covered by a valves display. The fiberglass one would do me.

This pair I saw at Home Work, Central bang na.