Water supply question

[thekitchendesigner]

If i had a mains water supply going into a building, but no proper drainage, what options have i got for disposing or re-using of waste water?

This wouldnt involve toilets, just running water from a tap for washing hands or filling kettle or whatever.

I'm thinking that caravans have the same issue so what do they do? Are there tanks which it can go into and then someone empty them?

What are my options?

Also, can i do anything useful with rainwater runoff? Sounds like an odd question i know, but if i collected rainwater in a tank or something, could i make use of it in any way?

Any eco-friendly/Green options i'd really like to consider!

[Pelenna]

Rainwater runoff can be used as 'grey water', used in gardens and toilet flushing - I'm not sure of details (I'm an electrical engineer not a water engineer!) but I've seen it done in many of the new builds I've worked on. There's some useful information at www.reuk.co.uk (http://www.reuk.co.uk).
Hope this is of some use!

[CKG]

If its only a small ammount of water with no bits of food in you could just let it go into a soak away or onto the land.

We have a sink that we use for filling buckets to wash our vans every morning, that goes into a soak away no worries.

[andysv1k]

As for your first point, you should check with your water supplier as this situation may not even comply with water regs and as this is a legal requirement, its quite crucial, there are big fines for breaking the regs.

As for the second, collecting rainwater and re-using it is a very good way of being a little more green, and if you are on a meter, could potentially save a good amount of money too.

I have rainwater harvesting at home that is used to flush the toilet, its a very basic system and hence didnt cost very much, as i am on a meter i expect payback to be within 1 year!

Before i installed it, i did some monitoring to see just how much water is used, not too scientific but my estimate is that with 2 occupants, a single toilet, we will consume about 40,000 litres of drinking water every year just to flush the toilet, i expect to be able to save around 30,000 of that with the rainwater harvesting system.

The system will be upgraded next year to improve filtering and will also be solar powered (exsiting electricity cost is around £5 per year so not much of a saving but makes you feel a bit better when perched on the throne!)
We have refined the design quite well now so it is both completely solar powered and automated with mains water backup for those times when theres not much rain and the store runs dry.

Andy.

[ozskins]

yes rainwater harvesting can be used as grey water, wc and washing machine water and save big on water use.

professional systems are available with up to 30% funding for most businesses. shout if you need any further help