Tanks for the memories

Thousands have lived without love, not one without water.

W. H. Auden

Now that the gardening season is up and running, our thoughts turn to watering.  When we purchased this house we were amazed at the three giant 20000 litre tanks under the house, connected by a maze of pipes and with three pumps servicing the house.  We were assured about how well designed the whole thing was, and how wonderful the water security for house, garden and firefighting.  In fact, the system was very poorly designed (or implemented) and subsequent investigations revealed the following weirdness:

Some obvious problems here!

1. The bore water and rain water are not separated but mixed.  Consequences include a rusty hydronic heating system and mineralised water being used for human consumption.
2. All domestic water from only a single tank, no access to any other tank.
3. Garden being fed by rainwater mixed with bore water!
4. Bore pump had no feedback loop and thus needed to be manually turned on until overflow of mixed tank was detected.

Crazy crazy stuff.  So $6000 later and here is the new system:

So now rainwater fills two tanks, both of which are accessible for domestic supply.  The bore pump is on a feedback loop that means the pump only turns on when the bore tank is low.  Bore water supplies the garden and firefighting only.  Rainwater supplies domestic and can supply firefighting together with bore water if required.  An extra pump ensures the garden is fed from the bore water tank.

Next on the list is to check out the quality of the bore water.  It is from 300m below the surface so that should be most interesting.  The final system should be up and running later this week so we'll let you know how it all runs!

Take care and enjoy a nice glass of pure water as we hope to soon...