[ponddigger]

h,i after the cold spell with water so scarce what do members think of rainwater harvesting . yours ponddigger

[Sive]

I think we should be using far more stored rainwater...especially for flushing toilets with. It is absolutely mad that we use treated water for such a purpose. And the same goes for gardening.
But then we will always take water for granted if we don't pay for it........

[ponddigger]

you are right sive,that why i am installing a 1000 gallon underground rain water system at my house in co tipp ,which includes a pondless waterfall to keep the water circulated.i will post photos of the project next week yours ponddigger

[Sarah Evans]

sounds like a good project and the environmental benefit makes it even more worthwhile. Look forward to your updates. We use rain butts but even at the rate we go through them they fill and spill. So a rain water system may be a future investment

[sandra12]

We Keep our roof clean here and collect all our drinking water off it. Run it through a basic Brita filter then mostly boil it for tea. We are not dead yet.
No chlorine make the tea taste so much better too.

[ponddigger]

hi can any body tell me why this post was moved from water features in ireland including all aspects of water gardening .yours ponddigger

[verge]

Pondigger, it was decided to move it to Sustainable Gardening practices as rainwater harvesting is the gathering, or accumulating and storing, of rainwater.

[ponddigger]

thank you ,but the system i use includes a pondless waterfall

[brennan.jm]

[ponddigger]

hi just to let know my rainwaterharvesting system worked for me over the cold spell.the tank is buired under the ground,the water did not freeze.i used a pump to pump water in to the tank in the attic

[ponddigger]

hi some photos of my rainwaterharvesting diy system

[ormondsview]

In Kerry, we had frozen water pipes problems and had to drain all the water out and close the heating during the cold spell to avoid bursting the pipes. What plans to people have in the future for these flash freezes as it is now the second year and last year was not just a blip? In Canada, we are insulated by having a six foot frost line for pipes going into the house. Our holiday home, though, may not be built to that code. Has the council suggested ways in which the water shortage could be avoided due to people running taps to stop the pipes freezing and to stop depleting the reservoirs in winter. Albeit, the cold snap is never more that 2 weeks, but may still happen again this winter without warning.

[medieval knievel]

my boss is german, and was telling me that in germany, your incoming water is metered, but you also pay another charge for your outgoing water - to the point that the surface area of your roof is supplied to the authorities so they can calculate how much run off there is from the roof going down the drain...

[ormondsview]

That's why I have 6 water barrels (though they are not taxing us for rainwater into the drains yet) and it is worth every bit of effort to keep them emptied. As for them overfilling, just run a weeper hose off them.
In Toronto they are disconnecting the drains to the mains as our sewer system is as old as the first development (100 years) and when it gets full, the whole mess runs into the lake. We've had rains we've not seen before. In one hour, traffic can be stopped dead on the gardener express.

[medieval knievel]

one of the reasons the tolka is not a healthy river is that lots of developments in castleknock have the runoff from the sinks, etc., going into the storm drain run off rather than the waste system, and the storm drain run off runs to the tolka - so lots of phosphates and detergents being dumped in untreated.