water storage tanks - concrete - polly - bladder

Water usage measured on a daily basis! That is tough news for people who like long showers :-)

I raise the question! Are Water Storage Tanks for individuals home the answer?

I don't know about other countries but in certain parts of Australia especially my state Victoria we are certainly facing a very serious water shortage.

In my state alone the capital city Melbourne is now on what is politely called "Stage 3a" water restrictions. The Government is so concerned that it has instigated a program heavily promoted on the TV and other media to encourage people to only use 155 litres of water per day per person.

Some of the basic restrictions are:
Gardens :

• Hand watering only between 6-8am with a hose fitted with a trigger nozzle.
• Manual dripper - between 6-8am.
• Automatic dripper - between midnight and 2am.
• No evening watering is allowed at all.
• Lawns are not allowed to be watered at any time.
• Motor cars cannot be washed with a hose.

But you can only water on certain days.

Odd number houses can water on Sunday and Wednesday. Even number houses can water Saturday and Tuesday. No watering at all is allowed on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays.

Pools and spas cannot be filled, supply must be purchased elsewhere?

These are only some of the restrictions, if you are interested check out the full list on the Southeast Water website.

The Government has given no indication when these restrictions will be eased. But have indicated that the cost of water is likely to increase quite dramatically.
I am critical of the Government because in my opinion they have bowed to the Green movement and flatly refuse to build any further dams.

To add insult to injury they have built a North - South pipe line, effectively taking the irrigation water away from the farmers who are also suffering from lack of rain fall.

The Government has also infuriated the lovers of our beautiful coastline ( I include myself in this category) and destroyed the pristine coast near Wonthaggi to build a Water Purification plant at the cost of millions. I believe the completion is at least 2 years away!

The Greens are not happy with this either! Surprise Surprise, do they like anything? Next thing you know they will try to stop the Clouds from blocking the Sun :-)

"Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink."

Well not exactly but getting close to it in Australia.

Words in quotes borrowed from "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" written by Samual Taylor Coleridge.I hope he does not mind?

Fortunately for us as a family, we live on a 2 acre block and do not have a mains water connection.   Although we still pay a levy to the Water Authority!

Our water supply comes from the sky in the form of rain!
We have a collection system that is the envy of anyone who sees our set up. I will try to explain.

• On the property we have collecting water:
• The Main house approx 40 square
• What is known in Australia a Granny Flat
• A Bungalow (Studio)
  
• A four  car garage (now a workshop / office)

Now each one of these buildings feed into water storage tanks. In all we have 3 concrete tanks, and 2 plastic feeder tanks.
The whole system is connected together with pipes and after a good downpour it replenishes the tanks very quickly. In all our total storage capacity is approximately 60,000 gallons.
To supplement the pressure from the tanks we have pressure sensitive pumps to keep the pressure of the water supply to the houses at a constant pressure.

I would urge anyone who has not already done so to install a water storage tank and have it connected to the guttering around the house to collect the rainwater for domestic use , such as drinking , showering etc. It can be used for the garden as well but in our instance we have a bore for that purpose.

As you can see from the diagrams they do come in all shapes and sizes.

Water Storage Tanks are not all that expensive and depending on the cost of your water, will be amortized very quickly usually over a couple of years.
There are other advantages in using tank water in that it does not have any of the nasty chemicals added to the water by the authorities.

If you don't want to go to the expense of buying a pump you can place the tank on a stand to give you some pressure. Of course the higher off the ground you raise the tank the more pressure you get at the tap.

Warning:  In our state they must be fitted by a licensed Plumber and the run-off connected to the Storm water drainage system.

Water does not have to be stored just in outside tanks that look ugly and take up too much space.

Water can be stored in underground tanks and to give you some idea have a look at the diagram. This method allows the water to stay reasonably cool in the Summer and is less likely to freeze in the Winter!

Water can also be stored under the house in a double skinned bladder and as you can see by the image the water is collected in the large pipes and is outletted to the pressure sensitve pump to feed the house it's water requirements.