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Going green... my ideas for private water supply

Simon Cole

Member
Joined
25 Dec 2018
Messages
840
Location
Snowdonia
So I've got a stream at the bottom of the garden that just about flows the entire year. I was thinking of using a bankside filtration chamber to run water up towards the house, then into a black IBC (with a pond heater inside for the winter), and finally pumped around the house. I reckon that I'll need one of those three chamber UV and mechanical filters and some chlorine tablets for the tank, but I'm not sure about pumps. I am quiet interested by a negative pressure pump that would come on when the tap is turned on inside the property. I'm also not too sure how I could tell if the filter stopped working. I'll be drinking the water. I'm hoping to be off-grid before winter when it gets too cold. Has anyone done this kind of thing before? Hopefully I can also use the gutters, but I have found out that is a bit more risky due to bird poo.
 
All possible, however once you got over 20 cubic meters a day, you'll need a license. In general abstracting water is a PIA, as you may own the ground under the stream but you do not own the water (you have some rights to it, though). I used to know someone who did this, as I used to fish the river he was sucking from and they became ill. It was quite common in Norfolk/fenlands to do this. I have no more experience with this though :)
 
It will be about 20 litres per day. I'm quite frugal. The house was built before the legislation and the hole would be in my garden, but thanks for checking. I recognised that they are actually quite dangerous, so the key I suppose would be getting an early warning if the UV light failed. I've got a 30W fish tank UV but I think I need UVC and I don't know much about the unit. But I could add that to the system to give it double UV exposure. My existing supply pipes are iron and covered in coal tar pitch and they have started to corrode. So I'm already drinking dangerous water with high carcinogenic PAH load. Water company have refused to do anything, so it's over to mother nature.
 
I have no personal experience, but i know i my country they no longer use Chlorine but H2O2 instead to disinfect.
And the filters used are the Membrane filters, these are actually big versions from the available survival kit membrane water filters.

The filters are build up from a bundle of tiny straws (tube membranes) that are semipermeable and filter in microns, so small that anything cellular organic can't pass and the small 57-gram pocket version is labelled around 40.000 litres lifecycle with 99.999% clean and odourless output at +/- €40.

It has some limitations regarding chemically polluted water, heavy metals and viruses. I'm not sure if a simple filter exists for that. So for long term drinking it, some more testing and possible action is required.
 
Wow - valuable information Marcel. Cheers. I reckon the UK is quite far behind. I think peroxide doesn't quite have the persistence. but it seems daft to overlook the option of chlorine free water. No more aquarium conditioners. The filters you mentioned sound quite fantastic. I'll buy one. I will probably get a carbon filter included in the kit. I guess something like Seachem purigen, or a flocculant or coagulant would do a good job at removing some chemical pollutants (compounds). I'll probably fill the tank once a month and could chuck a bit in. I can get the odd water test done too, but I'm not too worried about surface water heavy metals - although there was a history or arsenic quarrying in a few valleys nearby, so a one off check would identify whether the water runs over a historic tip. The Council are obliged to do this if you request it apparently. So it's all looking good. :cool: I'm still a bit worried I might get cancer from drinking the existing mains water slosh so I'm in a rush to get this project off the ground.
 
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