In my efforts to reduce my foot print so to speak I am going to be hooking up a tank, not a big one just a 60-65 liter tank to the down stairs toilet this will be a holding tank for water that comes from the upstairs shower. Once this tank is full from a shower the extra just goes on to the septic tank like normal, I could try to capture it all but 60 liters is really all that would ever be needed (max). They say the average number of flushes per person in Canada is 5 flushes a day. My down stairs toilet takes 4.6 liters per flush. So a 60 liter holding tank will provide 13 flushes per day, easily enough for 2 people. I crunched the numbers and even though I am using water efficient toilets. A per person savings is just under 2000 gallons a year. That's per person so multiply out how many people in your home and that's how much water you could be saving by doing this. Of course if you have the old style toilets that use way more water you could save much more! I have a suspended ceiling so I can get access to the upstairs shower drain. The tank I just welded up is made to fit up in the ceiling between the floor joists, and there will just be a normal fill line run to the toilet so the toilet fills and flushes like normal. All automatic.
Because I only want to build this once, and no leaks...Stainless steel!
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
Awesome idea. For those with. Ah be less ceiling space, a flatter but longer rectangular unit could be fitted in between 10 inch floor joists?
Always liked what they do in the Caribbean for water, big Water cistern under the house or On the property to collect roof water during rainy season. Wisely used, it will last a family during dry periods.
Great idea!
Some thoughts on it.
On systems I have seen there are filters/methods of cleaning tank. These were gray water/laundry water the trees type systems. Would imagine shower water would start to accumulate some nasty solids fairly quickly.
Are you disconnecting supply line to toilet? Or tying into it. If tying in, make sure you use a back flow preventer to avoid contaminating your potable water.
Great idea!
Some thoughts on it.On systems I have seen there are filters/methods of cleaning tank. These were gray water/laundry water the trees type systems. Would imagine shower water would start to accumulate some nasty solids fairly quickly.
Are you disconnecting supply line to toilet? Or tying into it. If tying in, make sure you use a back flow preventer to avoid contaminating your potable water.
Unless my google foo is real bad, I cant find anyone else doing this in detail, so like you I am thinking that it could accumulate solids but I don't know that for sure. I wont be disconnecting the toilet fill line as such just modifying the hook up so just by turning a ball valve I can choose using the tank or if lots of guests are over I can close the tank valve, open the pressure supply line to supply the toilet tank for the many needed flushes..It will be a learning experience. If I find I need to add a filter so be it but I am thinking I wont have to...time will tell. If I also need to weld a access hole/hatch for cleaning out, again no problem, I can do that. I hope that maybe once a year I just run a little mixture of lye into it, let it sit for a day and see if that keeps everything running well. Lye is damn strong stuff, I use it to strip paint off metal.
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
Here’s a thought. Seeing as hair will mix with soap and accumulate in corners, what if you made a round basin and had a small funnel or sloped bottom effect with drain at the center. Will create a bit of natural swirl and keep stuff moving?
Here’s a thought. Seeing as hair will mix with soap and accumulate in corners, what if you made a round basin and had a small funnel or sloped bottom effect with drain at the center. Will create a bit of natural swirl and keep stuff moving?
I suspect that would work.
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
I Cut this pipe ( the one I am using ) off of another piece of stainless pipe, and when I put my tape measure to the left over piece it was just a little longer than the piece I am using to hold shower water. If there is anyone else in the Ponoka to Edmonton area looking to do the same I will just give this piece away to you if you can use it, I have no use for a left over piece this short . I will cut a couple stainless end pieces for you to weld on if you want. Pm me if you have a use for it and I can drop it off in my travels. I think the wall thickness is 1/8th inch, so its solid easy pipe to weld on, likely will hold 70-75 liters
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
Adapter to hook into the shower drain is made. Inside the black pipe right above the brass barbed fitting will be the first pre filter. I forget the name of the stuff, its used in the oil field, water goes right through it like nothing but oil does not go through (I am hopping it will block dissolved solids). I will pick up this stuff when i am next in Edmonton.
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
Peppercorn, took some time to find the site about gray water withe the laundry to trees info. Based on info there, I don't think I would do the shower to toilet tank. Having said that, experimentation and empirical evidence rule. Let us know how it goes.
Peppercorn, took some time to find the site about gray water withe the laundry to trees info. Based on info there, I don't think I would do the shower to toilet tank. Having said that, experimentation and empirical evidence rule. Let us know how it goes.
Thanks for that article and taking the time to find it for me, at first as I was reading it I was thinking not really applicable to what I am doing on my small scale then mid way through it there were a couple things I had not thought of. Minor things but still concerning, By the time I finished reading, some work arounds were coming to mind.
I am still going ahead but will construct things a little different, not much different but a little to ensure a trouble free system. Of course only time will tell if it works trouble free.
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
The site is dated in some aspects so there may be newer tech available. They are also pretty strong on pointing out when something has a poor ROI or doesn't make sense environmentally. That is good, to a point. I'm not a stickler for using either of those criteria as things can change quickly.
A grinder and buffing disks make me the welder I am not, and will never be qualified to be. I could take that tank all the way to a mirror finish, but no...
Now I have to add a fill fitting, a drain fitting, a sight glass fitting (over kill, I know), and a fitting that goes to the toilet, with maybe a airbreather fitting, going to the stack, not sure on that one yet I think the tank will fill without that.
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
I had a little fun when welding this tank up. One of the characteristics of welding stainless steel is the intense brightness of the arc, way more intense than stick welding mild steel. Think of the brightness like on scale of those old carbon rod airplane search lights. I waited until evening, just as it was getting dark I struck up my rod. I was outside in front of the garage and around me are tall spruce trees.
I knew with each rod I struck up I was illuminating all the trees right to the top branches. I know anyone outside in a 2km radius could not have missed the glow up high in the trees.
I did this welding all off my (now 1 year old) LiFeP04 batteries. I was just showing off, like when there is a power failure and your the only one with a generator so you fire it up and turn on all the outside lights. I thought it funny to do...
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
covid zombies are on their way
First pre filter built.
Edit; my thought are that having a screen right up in the drain pipe itself will work best as the drain water flowing past/0ver it should scrub the screen clean, such is my theory, time will tell. Couldnt find the screen material that I wanted to use so I had to use ordinary stainless screen.
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
