Grey Water Part II

     My last post introduced the concepts of grey and black water and started thinking about what we can do reuse water in our homes. As I stated previously, my introduction to these concepts was a long time ago in the Peace Corps so what I was taught back then was a DIY guerilla style plumbing hack. There were diagrams of how to make a composting toilet using bamboo, hurricane screening and coconut husks (among other things). This would never pass U.S. building codes but it worked for the place it was designed to. Luckily, people are picking up on the fact that we are using too much water here in the US and they are starting to make products to remedy that.
    In my last post I showed you a grey water system that used the bathroom sink to flush the toilet. Well here is a system that uses the shower, bathroom sink and washing machine water and turns it into irrigation water for your plants.

     Ok, it doesn't look like much but that is because it goes in the grounds and isn't designed to be cute. Inside is a main filter to catch the hair and larger particles. Than it goes through a second, finer, filter and then feeds your drip irrigation system. You can also get a storage tank so that if you are using the shower and the washer at the same time it will hold the extra water and release it to the plants later so you don't just flush that water away like you use to. This particular product is the Flotender Greywater Filtration system but there are others out there. http://www.flotender.com/pages/greywater-recycling-systems-with-drip-irrigation This page also has a great 6 minute video that explains the whole process and I think even I could do it.
     Looking back at the pie chart in the previous post you can see that installing one of these simple systems could take roughly 30 gallons a day and put it on your lawn. Which is 30 gallons less that you have to pay for in watering the plants or 10,950 gallons in a year. Does this make anyone else super excited? My birthday is coming up soon...
     A more complex system which could handle more water and store it for longer might look something like this:

     This image is again from LaFayette University as they are awesome. Here we see all the grey water going into a septic tank. They include what looks to be a dishwasher so it seems that it is debatable as to what category it should go it. Some consider it grey water and other black water. Food is fuel so why not? Perhaps why they can put dishwasher water into this system is because it goes into a septic tank. In the septic tank the heavier particles sink to the bottom. Then the water is filtered through sand and pumped to the plants. The concept of simply filtering grey water to use for plants is the same as the above system but this one is larger and has three separate components. This would be great for a hotel, community center, or apartment building where there is more water than from just one family. And the fact that is is bigger makes it more expensive. Although the Flotender system is not cheap, starting at around $4,000, it might just be worth it.