[Lab] Grey water tank design

[Seanna Watson]

Based on my experience using a rainbarrel, a lot of the collected crud is
gravel washed off the shingles - of course that will depend on the type and
condition of the roof.  But looking at the diagram, it seems that you can't
actually drain from the bottom of the tank, which might be an issue for the
ongoing state of the water, depending on how quick the turnover is and what
you are going to be using it for.  Also, again depending on what you are
doing with the water, you might find it easier just to have a drainpipe big
enough to pass  the debris, rather than worrying about screening it out
(and put a screen on the intake to limit the size and amount of crud that
gets into the tank in the first place).

On Mon, Apr 6, 2015 at 9:31 AM, Matthew Bells <matt at mbells.ca> wrote:

> You have a few easy options:
>
>
>
> 1.       A clear pipe outside, mounted vertically, with a pin hole at the
> top. The water will be the same level in this as the rest of the tank so
> long as nothing is blocking it from equalizing. (Like this:
> http://www.watercache.com/images/education/clear-pipe-before-sm.jpg )
>
> 2.       A sonar water level sensor + Arduino. Mount on top of the tank
> pointing down.
>
> 3.       A float that is visible. Could be combined with (1) if you'd
> like to bring the meter out and up to the level of a deck for example. This
> would basically add the height of the float to the water level. Mostly good
> for underground tanks.
>
> -Matt
>
>
>
> *From:* Lab [mailto:lab-bounces at artengine.ca] *On Behalf Of *
> janick at bergeron.com
> *Sent:* 2015.April.06 09:20
> *To:* lab at artengine.ca
> *Subject:* [Lab] Grey water tank design
>
>
>
> Not really art-related, but given the creativity of the audience, I
> thought I'd ask here first.
>
> I'm moving to the West Coast soon and the house has a large grey water
> tank in the crawl space to buffer the rain water collected by the
> eavestroughing before slowly draining through a 1" conduit at the
> bottom. Given the increasing drought conditions, I want to turn it into a
> grey water storage tank by redirecting the existing drain at the bottom to
> a tap, and moving the drain to the top of the tank to prevent overflow.
>
> Here's what I need:
>
> - Because of lack of maintenance from the previous owner, there's a lot of
> gunk in the tank that can obstruct the drain. I have temporarily added a
> screen to the existing drain. Is there a design (maybe an inverted "L"?) I
> can use for the drain INSIDE the tank to prevent floating debris from being
> sucked in and avoid a screen that will clog over time and reduce pressure?
>
> - The tank is not readily accessible so I need a remote water level
> alarm/measurement system. Given a 2ft water column creates about 1psi of
> pressure, I don't think a pressure sensor will be accurate enough. That
> leaves a float-based mechanism. Any idea/suggestions?
>
>
>
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