Great! you think...but, it comes at a cost.
Our new house was built with a lot of "green" issues in mind, and one was to be mindful of water. We don't have a piped supply, we are reliant on what the council call "one Unit" which is 1800 litres per day, drip fed into our tank. So when building this new home we put in an extra water tank, partly buried in the ground and all the downpipes from our large roof feed into it. Therefore when it rains, the water is harvested off the roof and fills our tank. This tank water can then be used to water the garden, and water the stock out in the paddocks.
However, one big flaw has come to light. The plastic tank we put in the ground is not suitable for in-ground, and has folded up like a handkerchief. Now when it does rain (which hasn't been very often) the water just pours off the roof, out of the pipe into the ground and goes to waste. We can't afford yet to replace the tank with a concrete one *boo hoo*
Less available water plus hot weather has equalled water problems. We keep just about running dry. The 40 head of stock drink so much when it is hot. So we have had water restrictions in the house...".if it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown flush it down"....keeping all water that veges are cooked in and letting it cool in a bucket for watering container plants...... 3 minute showers....and I have even started collecting all the water from our washing machine.
The first time I collected the washing machine water I could not believe it! so much going to waste, something like 50 litres! So I have learnt to turn our machine off after it has done the "wash" bit, pull all the clothes out and let them languish in the laundry sink, then put the next lot of clothes into the same washing water and do that lot too. Then I let the water go out, while collecting it in some large flexi plastic tubs I have. Which I painstakingly take to a bit 40 gallon drum in the garden for watering purposes. I follow the same process in the rinse cycle.
I really hadn't realised what a lot of water clothes washing takes up and I wish we had come up with a grey water collection system for it. I am thinking of getting some drums to put outside the laundry window, and letting the hose go out the window!
We are just waiting for an extra unit of water from the council to be set up, at VAST expense I might add...$6500 for a unit! per year
In the meantime I continue to lug buckets of water everywhere!
Wow. Water may be everywhere but is certainly costly when you need to pay for it.
ReplyDeleteI've collected our water from the washing machine before (and sprained an ankle carting it outside) as we were renovating and it had nowhere to go so buckets it was. I never dreamt there would be so much water! We can't do full loads in our machine either - as in it can't be programmed as a full load as it runs the tank (was 500 litres, new one only 400) dry. Half it is with what I call almost a full load of clothes. Our water comes from beneath the ground and seems plentiful but I still hate to waste it.