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Post by ottawagardener on Dec 23, 2010 15:57:15 GMT -5
I have plans on diverting the water from our washing machine and bathtub (at the minimum) to a grey water system, possibly based on a filtration pond. My understanding is that I'll need a permit. - blech. Anyhow, anyone have any good book recommendations on the subject?
This along with my planned humanure hut (still haven't convinced the hubby to have close by the house), should cut down substantially on water leaching through the septic field.
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Post by mjc on Dec 23, 2010 18:12:57 GMT -5
This along with my planned humanure hut (still haven't convinced the hubby to have close by the house), should cut down substantially on water leaching through the septic field.There is a big problem with that idea...septic systems are designed to have a certain amount of water flowing through the whole system (leach field, included) and dramatically cutting that amount can cause the whole system to 'crash'. Check with someone, familiar with local systems to see what they are typically designed to handle...both upper and LOWER limits. Then decide how much you can divert and keep above that lower limit.
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Post by ottawagardener on Dec 23, 2010 18:53:17 GMT -5
Thank you. I will as I had not thought of that problem!!
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Post by honeydew on Dec 24, 2010 15:32:38 GMT -5
Art Ludwig has written some books that I found interesting, but have not yet put into practice. I always borrow from the library before considering purchase, but this is one I will likely end up buying: www.amazon.ca/New-Create-Oasis-Greywater-Choosing/dp/0964343398/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1293222308&sr=8-1If you look just below the book on that page they recommend two others of his books under the heading 'Frequently Bought Together', I liked them all for the different aspects of greywater and water catchment they have. Marie
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Post by silverseeds on Dec 24, 2010 15:52:03 GMT -5
Ive got 2 of arts books. The one honeydew linked and one on storage. Both seem pretty thorough to me.
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Post by mjc on Dec 24, 2010 16:38:33 GMT -5
I went through that process a little over two years ago...never did build the system, but we did get the design stage finished, designing in a greywater system dramatically changed the septic system requirements. There is some overlap in but if you don't have the minimum throughput for the system, it will clog, rather quickly.
Retrofitting can be done, but you do need to know what your system is designed to handle, first.
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Post by honeydew on Dec 24, 2010 16:49:17 GMT -5
I went through that process a little over two years ago...never did build the system, but we did get the design stage finished, designing in a greywater system dramatically changed the septic system requirements. There is some overlap in but if you don't have the minimum throughput for the system, it will clog, rather quickly. Retrofitting can be done, but you do need to know what your system is designed to handle, first. This may be a dumb question, but how do you find out what your system is designed to handle?
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Post by mjc on Dec 24, 2010 18:19:37 GMT -5
Well...when designing the system, we worked with # of bathrooms/people living in the house (some times, they use the # of bedrooms to calculate system size), whether or not there would be laundry done in the house, dishwasher, etc...all of that gives you the smallest sized system you can use. But that's actually a range. Each system in a given range has an upper and lower throughput rating.
So, with an in place system, you'll probably need to know what size it is and if it is a 'passive' or an 'active' system (they've got different ratings). And then work from there...an installer can usually tell you what the throughput should be given that (I relied on the installer for those figures). Basically what we came up with was a graywater system and two smaller tanks rather than one large tank and a greywater system. A single large tank system would have worked, too, without the greywater system. This was because, without the greywater in the septic system the throughput would have been too low for the single large tank, a single small tank wasn't big enough.
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Post by silverseeds on Dec 24, 2010 18:34:32 GMT -5
I went through that process a little over two years ago...never did build the system, but we did get the design stage finished, designing in a greywater system dramatically changed the septic system requirements. There is some overlap in but if you don't have the minimum throughput for the system, it will clog, rather quickly. Retrofitting can be done, but you do need to know what your system is designed to handle, first. The art ludwig book, had several designs for using the grey and black water right out of the septic system, both with secondary conditioning and without....
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Post by ottawagardener on Dec 26, 2010 15:18:48 GMT -5
Funnily enough, we have to replace our septic tank and the passive septic field is nearing the end of its natural lifespan - it's 30 years old but in pretty good shape considering. Maybe I need to have some long discussions with the engineer about what we need. The previous owners were empty nesters and probably underused the system compared to what it was designed for.
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Post by mjc on Dec 26, 2010 15:44:23 GMT -5
Yes...that is exactly when you want to do this. It's definitely going to be easier to build it in as part of the redesign/replacement. You should probably end up with a much smaller/cheaper system overall.
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