"Gray Water" Processing and using

[fencerowphil (Phil L.)]

Thinking recently about alternative power, etc. has made me think
again about diverting gray water for use to water a garden.  Georgia
has had some rough summers and we are on city water.  As you know,
when you buy a gallon of water, you also pay for a gallon of sewage costs.
If I am already paying for the water twice, I want to get more for my money.
Those tough summers have meant you have to plan on watering either with
rain collection (gutter and cistern idea) or with gray water.

Anybody have any experience on ways to naturally handle the
detergents in water from showers and kitchen sink, etc? 

[Radar67]

Phil, I've been thinking about this for a while now. If you pipe your kitchen sink into the gray water system, you will have to run it through a grease trap. If you size the trap large enough, it should allow the majority of the detergent to settle out of the water.

If you are collecting the gray water in a tank, there will be further settling there. If you are piping it straight to the garden, you can rely on the ground filtering out a good bit.

You can also build a sand filter from a 55 gallon drum to get the water pretty clean, almost drinkable clean. I'll see if I can find the link on the filter.

[RSteiner]

The company I work for recently built a new facility that is supposed to be a "green" operation.  They diverted all the "gray" water from various processes that is suitable for flushing the toilets in the building.  There are holding tanks which the gray water is diverted to which have both fresh water make-up and sanitary over-flow capabilities.  They also have a pumping system to get the gray water to the bathrooms.  The company's water supply comes from 3 wells on the property and is not treated in any manner before we use it, except for de-ionization of some of the wash water we use in the cleaning process.

The bulk of the water has nothing but dish soap in it, we use that for cleaning glass substrates prior to the thin film coating process which follows.  The only issue we faced was the build up of scum in the gray water holding tank which collected in the tanks of the toilets that lead to flushing issues.  Treating the gray water with a little bleach seemd to take care of the problem. 

Oh, there was or is one other situation that happens every time they dump the cleaning tank on the ultrasonic cleaning operation.  The soap used creates a lot of bubbles.  When the soapy water comes into the tank of the toilet some times the bubbles froth out around the top of the tank and there is an abundance of bubbles in the bowl.   

Randy

[JSNH]

The best I have seen was one a friend made. He has 3 daughters and the excessive water use overloaded his leachfield. He diverted only the shower and laundry water to a 55 gallon plastic barrel. It had a nylon sock on the line to catch hair and lint. It flowed to a second 55 galon tank thru a water filter. The drums were at the same level and had an over flow to the normal sewer line. They also had a drain at the bottom to drain any soap than would settle out. He had a toliet float valve to keep the tank with minimal water if the grey water was not keeping up. The polished grey water was pumped to the to the toilets with a small pump. He cut his water use in half. All he did to maintain it was add 1/4 cup of bleach per week to the shower drain to kepp the tanks from growing anything and he drained the soap from the tanks once a month. He also had a coil in the first tank that preheated his water to the water heater.

[Radar67]

Here is the link on the sand filter SAND FILTER

This is basic and I have some ideas for modification. I also have a drawing of a ground surface sand filter I could email.

JSNH, I have read about some people who disconnect their bathroom sink drain, place a bucket under it, and fill their toilet with it, sounds like your friend has a better way of doing that.

[fencerowphil (Phil L.)]

Radar

That is a great site. 

I guess, for my use (gardening), you could leave out the kitchen sink and avoid some
effort (grease trap). The end objective/use for the gray water greatly effects what you need
to do to that water.  Great ideas here for use as flushing water in toilets.  I have another
reason to believe I was better off with one boy that with three girls now, too.
 

Thought recently about our adventures cutting for Mr. Bush down near Bogalusa/Poplarville.
I have been sawing in a tornado area about 35 miles from my home.
Mr. Bush's trees were much nicer and bigger!

Phil L.

[Radar67]

I think about those adventures too, as well as the adventure with Woodbowl. I need a couple hundred trees the size of Mr. Bush's. 

For gardening use, you could just use a settling tank for the soap. A trace amount of biodegradable soap would not hurt the plants. If you were to combine grey water with collected rain water, you could further dilute the soap in the system.

I have been running all sorts of ideas for our new house. I figure I could reduce some costs if I decide exactly what alternative systems I want to incorporate before I ever start building. Some prove to save a little money and others seem to add to the cost. I would like to be 80% self sufficient within the next 5-10 years, and 100% by retirement age.

[fencerowphil (Phil L.)]

When you consider the potential benefits of things like thermal mass
and alternative heating systems or special handling of water for heat
transfer or re-use, you definitely will save by careful planning.  It will
certainly start with an all-inclusive plan for from the foundation up.

The next challenge would be keeping a builder in sync with you on all
those details.  If you do with an architect, you solve that, but bust the
budget in more ways than a water melon dropped off the back of a pickup.

[Radar67]

The next challenge would be keeping a builder in sync with you on all
those details.  If you do with an architect, you solve that, but bust the
budget in more ways than a water melon dropped off the back of a pickup.

That's easy, I am the builder, architect, engineer, and jack of all the other trades that will be needed for the house. 

[stonebroke]

How much water would someone save by using a composting toilet?

Stonebroke

[Radar67]

Depending on the toilet, 1.5 to 4 gallons per flush.

[fencerowphil (Phil L.)]

That's easy, I am the builder, architect, engineer, and jack of all the other trades that will be needed for the house. 

I pretty much knew you would be.