Grey water use

[monkaha]

As a drought-area dweller, I'm very concious of how much water I use. I feel kinda guilty using so much water washing my cd's. I would love to start a garden, but feel like that would really be using more than my share of water. How can I use the water from washing cd's to water the garden? It seems like it would be fairly easy, but how do I get it from the washer to the back yard? Or store it? Or is this a bad idea because of the soap (though I don't use much) or the buggies in the poop(though I dunk and swish before putting them in the washer).

Any info/links/etc would be great!!

[HerthElde]

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[Eman'smom]

Ok I've never done this, but heard about taking the hose and putting it in a trash can (clean) on the last cycle, so instead of the water draining out to whereever it goes into the can then taking the can and watering from that, in theory that water should be pretty clean.


I'd love to get the house on some sort of system so that the gray water could be uses to water the lawn (of course I'd have to get a lawn first LOL)

[rainbowmoon]

http://greywater.net/

[monkaha]

www.watercasa.org has some stuff on it too.

[madrone]

Great site rainbowmoon!

I have a gray water system set up to us gray water to flush my toilet instead of fresh water. We use soapy dish water, dish rinse water, shower water, and hand washing water for the toilet.

[boatbaby]

This is a CC from the earth friendlt tribe...

We're really conscious about water conservation. Especially in the winter when re-filling the water tanks is a cold nasty chore. But after 6 years on a boat it has gotten to where I CAN NOT physically let the water run even if I am off the boat and hearing water run makes me crazy. We don't let it run when we brush our teeth, wash our face, wash our hands, anything!

This morning when I was waiting for the hot water to run on to do some dishes, I put the dog's bowl under the faucet to catch the cold water for him to drink. Once it turned hot I filled up the small amount into the sink we use for dish washing. I do this even when I am at friend's and parent's home.
Because our grey water goes directly into the Bay, we always buy earth friendly soaps.

When it's time to gove the mutt a bath, we will catch and save our own shower water to use to bathe him.

There are so many good ways to re-use household grey water. You can water plants with grey water (in the earthships they do this and grow bananas indoors in the winter) You can wash windows, floors, dogs, etc. Just save your shower water or dish water it it's not too gruby. Reusing bath water is a big water saver!

My dad lives completely off the grid in nowhere Hawaii. He has HUGE barrells lined up around the eaves of the house and shed. He catches the plentiful rain and uses it to water his organic garden, to feed the ducks, and so on.
For those of you in rainy climates, put out an old garbage can and give it a try.

There are SOOO many ways to save water. Go for it. Your planet will thank you.


p.s. As a family of three + big dog we use about 130 gallons every two weeks. When we were on a smaller boat, eating out more, and no child we used 50 gallons every 2 weeks. Yes we DO bathe. But we also flush with salt water which is unique to our situation.

[momto l&a]

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/#other If you do a search there youll find some info.

This summer I will run our washing machine water out for the yard.

[nym]

When we lived on the Island, we lived in a commune-ity. Our house had grey water colection. The washer was in the car port attached to the kitchen. Instead of draining into the drain, we cut a hole in the carport and fed the hose through. We put a huge barrel there and then collected the greywater. We used it for water bushes and plants, the garden (flowers), washing the car or windows, floors, etc.

[Brisen]

I did this for a couple of summers when we didn't get much rain. Our washer is in the basement, and I tried hooking up a hose to the outlet hose thing and running it up through our dryer vent. Turns out our washer wasn't meant to pump water up, just out. So, after putting on a new belt, I would leave the washer open (because it won't drain/rinse with the lid open) and when I noticed it, I would go down and get a 5 gal. bucket and fill it, take it upstairs and water, go back down, repeat until the rinse was done. I would wash clothes in the morning. My toddler had his own little sand bucket he would carry upstairs and dump with me.

A friend of mine said his parents use the first rinse grey water to water their garden, and save the final rinse grey water to wash the next load in.

[Plady]

I'm taking a class on earthbag construction and today we also went over greywater usages. Apparently the first rule of greywater use is that you must not store it (as it will quickly grow all sorts of nasty things and turn into blackwater). Also, water that has been used for washing diapers is considered blackwater so it shouldn't be used for irrigating anything. After that, the main concern for saving laundry water is finding a way to slow down the output without straining the washing machine's motor and also (if you use hot water) to cool the water so it doesn't scald your plants. THe solution is to have the water drain into a barrel with an outlet (to a hose to the garden or the orchard or wherever) so that it fills the barrel faster than it can empty into the yard. That way it has time to cool, the machine doesn't burn up trying to pump water into a too-small exit and you aren't storing the water for any real length of time. However, it is also crucial to remember not to use the laundry water if you use chlorine, so it may be worth having a diverter set up to take any water from diaper loads or with bleach in it straight to the sewer or septic.
Hope that helps.

[monkaha]

That's exactly the info I needed-thanks! Is all diper water off-limits, or just my initial, get rid of the poop rinse?

[harmonymama]

grey water and cloth diapers

I too am wondering about setting up a grey water system for a cloth diapering household. We are planning to build a house with possibly no septic system. So it may be a choice between figuring out what to do with the poopy diaper water or using disposables, which we have never done and I wouldn't want to do. Anyone out there done grey water system for washer and cloth diapers? Any safe use for black water? As we may not have a flush toilet, toilet flushing may not be our answer. Any help much appreciated. Thanks.

[Plady]

We didn't get this specific but I would think that the first round of poopy water and the next rinse out would both be considered blackwater and you should not use them. You might check into percolation pits to see if that would be a safe way to dump blackwater from a diaper wash without having a septic system. However, if you do have a septic system, using a diverter in the piping so blackwater from the towels can go to the septic and greywater from everything else can go to the plants.
One other note here that gets repeated a lot (must be important eh?) is Don't spray greywater or apply to foliage (no sprinkling on grass or veggies). It has to be released underground or under mulch beds to avoid aerating bacteria.