Wednesday 23 April 2014

Saving water...

Firstly, Happy St. George's Day!

Also, welcome to Primroses Attic and from Bloglovin - Nikki.

I read recently, that the average sized roof, in a year of average rainfall, allows 85,000 litres of good rainwater to flow down the gutters and into the drains.

These last few weeks in East Anglia have, on the whole, been very dry, but changing this week! Being on a water meter, (which has saved us on average £400 a year), we have to watch our use of tap water in the garden.

Last year, and especially in that short but very hot Summer, we invested in a small pond pump to take the bath water out of the window and into containers for our flowering plants. It was barely enough so more needed to be done.

Before the rain overnight, I had already used our black dustbin of water and started on one of the 3 water butts behind the garage. Only aesthetic reasons have stopped us having slimline butt/s down our narrow driveway, or water butts in the front garden. No more!

This week we bit the bullet and ordered some on-line, as we were having no luck at all wherever we went, to find any that were usable despite their price stickers on the shelves! On average, a 220 litre butt was anywhere from £35 to £40, then there was the stand (we have run out of bricks/slabs), plus the down-pipe diverter kit and connecting kit. Not a cheap option initially, but in the long run, it saves lots of water from being drawn on our meter.

We remembered a special offer the other year from Anglian water, linking to this company here
and ordered what we needed. It would seem the more you buy, the cheaper they get, so again, not necessarily cheap in the first instance. More importantly than cost in my eyes though is health, it will save my back from lugging cans of water from round the back of the garage, through the back garden, down a path, through a gate, into the front garden, over and over again. When these are in situ, I shall only have a carry them for a few feet.

I have no idea if your own water company does this. If not, I can't imagine that only Anglian water customers can order from here, we didn't have to give any proof that we were with them although our delivery address probably gives it away!

I'll let you know when they arrive and show you where we have put them. About 28 days delivery.

8 comments:

  1. I have 6 butts, a diverter from the roof downpipe which goes into first butt then runs into the others in a line.As we have a small garden I allow a nieghbour to collect the water from our shed.

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    1. The ones attached to our garage do that as well.

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  2. The smaller ones include a stand etc. I may have to check the piggy bank! Thanks for that.

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  3. It's hard to imagine that all that water falls off our roofs going to waste. We've often thought of a water meter but missed the boat when they were converting for free some years ago and to be honest we simply never got around to it. That's quite a saving you make DC so may have to look into it and invest in some butts too. Thanks for the advice.
    Patricia x

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    1. Several years ago, they were going to put everyone on a meter, but decided against it! We went on their website and it said you can trial a water meter for free for 2 years. If you don't want it after then, they disconnect it. If you do, they leave it in place, there was no charge. We have saved literally hundreds of pounds being on one, without too much change in how we use our water. Butts are essential I think when on a meter, especially in hot, dry summers.

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  4. We have 2 attached to the garage, but I think we may have to invest in some to attach to the house. Thanks for the info about where we can get them - delivered too, which is useful now we don't have the car!

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    1. We have another 2 downpipes we could also attach to but will stop for now when these come, otherwise we might look like water butt city. Might change our minds though when we get used to these!

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