Water Recycling/re-use

[pagreenw]

Not so much the cost of water, but because I feel that the amount of domestic waste water my household produces is a shame to just waste, I intend to save and re-use as much of our waste water as possible.

It will be a simple system, merely chanelling the waste pipes from, shower, wash basin etc into a small tank then pumping onto our garden as required.

We live outside of Korat and have very dry, hard soil here. We have a garden of about half rai, planted with trees and veg. No grass!

I'm seeking advice on how far to go with saving water. Is it feasible to re-use water from washing machine, kitchen sink etc. Do I need to avoid the plants when pumping soapy water.

Anyone have any simple filtering ideas?

All helpful comments appreciated!

[seedy]

I had a simple system in my last house. Took all grey water to a storage tank, then to the lawn as needed. Use caution as laundry soap, shampoo and household cleaning products can be toxic so I would not use on a garden.

[londonthai]

instead of the tank, I would rather dig a small pond, where the chemicals would be bio-degraded and reasonably clean water would be filtrated through the soil and a few diches.

soap is not a problem, but you can save on washing powder using warm water instead of cold - you can use half the quantity of the powder and you don't need that much rinse. Replace powders with enzymes with some more natural, soap-based.

also look for a bio-degradable dish fluids.

avoid bleach for cleaning, because it would destroy biological life in the pond

[pagreenw]

Thanks, Seedy,

Did your system use filters to remove the suds at all?

[seedy]

As it was just for the lawn, I did not bother. No other maintenance needed - I used the old house pressure water system pump when I upgraded the shower, never had a problem. Hook up the garden hose, sprinkler and go !!

[bkk_mike]

I thought grey water systems usually fed the waste water from showers/basins into a tank where it's filtered (just to remove particulates), before using it in toilets/etc, rather than for use in the garden where rainwater storage is usually better.

I will admit, for a long time, we simply ran the waste pipe from the washing machine into the garden though...

[bernardthailand]

take a look on EPUVAL system, that you can build yourself

[pagreenw]

Thankyou. Yes, it's an epuval system that I am talking about. Do you have any helpfull advice?

[Hssl]

google cool thai house

also french drains

& leech fileds

[elkangorito]

It's not too difficult to make a compact domestic waste water treatment system. I used to work for a company that made these things (Biocycle). If you follow their principle, you will have water that can be used anywhere around the house...except for drinking.

[pagreenw]

It's not too difficult to make a compact domestic waste water treatment system. I used to work for a company that made these things (Biocycle). If you follow their principle, you will have water that can be used anywhere around the house...except for drinking.

Yeah, thanks for that. They don't give their secret away though do they?!

[Beardog]

Most of the garden or lawn will tolerate anything but grease flowing through the pipes. We use soap water for the cobnut trees & they thrive on it. The first smaller house we built I just incorporated the grey wate into the septic. Next house I have setup a leech field into the trees & garden . the worst that can happen is it will sprout some new veggies since our refuse is veggie matter. It would have save a lot of water to recycle it to the needed plants & trees. I think Garry A & others have said the system works out fine.

[elkangorito]

I used to work for Biocycle back in the late 80's. The system is very good & saves lots of water. It is a bit tricky to make yourself but if you a "hands on" person, I'm sure it's do-able.

I found a couple of their technical leaflets, which can be found on their website. Just do a google search for biocycle & go to downloads.

biocycle.pdf

Biocycle_INFOPAK.pdf

[JerryPara]

A lot of good ideas here. I saw a working system at Cabana, a resort in Chumphon. It used the grey water from the rental units but fed that in the open air through a series of ponds with a matrix of grasses that help filter the water.

[CM4Me]

Several years ago I saw a program on TV (from Aust I think) which showed a system similar to what Jerry describes.

The difference is that they used 4-5 tanks (not ponds) about the size of a normal houshold bath, which were filled with water cleaning plants.

I intend to give this a go, sometime in the future, but don't ask me when

Edited January 15, 2010 by CM4Me