[pganapathy]

Originally Posted by tomthump

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I put in the charcoal last time (mybfirst time) in 1996. It is overdue for replacement. Thank you for asking. I've been wanting to do it. I think we will do it this year in 2012. We need to make our own charcoal, which IS cumbersome. You need a fifteen feet odd wide one and a half feet deep pit filled with big logs piled four or five feet high, covered with green leaves and packed with wet mud. You need a personwho knows hpw to do things right so that you get good wood charcoal instead of a pilebof ashes.

Mod team: Please avoid Quoting entire large post for replies, effects readability. Thanks

True, creating charcoal is a process for skilled people. I know a few people in Coorg that do it. Get it wrong and it is worthless, except for using as a source of fertiliser if used correctly. There was an experiment conducted a few years ago by some european scientists who concluded that the cheapest form of fertiliser was mixing urine and wood ash.

Other than the charcoal filter which you will be changing now, are there any other things you need to change or clean or whatever with the filters. For example do you need to clean the stone and sand filters in any way.

Originally Posted by tomthump

If you are looking for a high quality durable water filter, one of the best in the market is the dusc filters by Ein-Tal, Israel. We used to sell these when we dealt with FAN-JETS and Drippers as dealers for the now defunct NTB Bowsmith Irrigation, Pune. NTB tried to offer irrigation equipment by the the world's best manufacturers.
For rainwater filtration, or for other purposes, disc filters are very good. I do not know if these are still available in India. Maybe Jain Irrigation will have them.

WaterFilter overview
You search more information by browsing back from the above link.
Hope this will be useful for someone.

Will find out if Jain irrigation has any good filters that we can use.

[sajo]

Originally Posted by ZedMae

Criminal wastage. This could come to an end if the legislation on ground water comes into play. Apparently, the legislation would in an attempt to recognise ground water as public property.

+1 to that !

At a time when Pune was reeling under acute water shortage, seeing millions of liters of water wasted hurt my senses.

One would think they stumbled across an underwater lake or something, given the volume of water being pumped out.

[black12rr]

Originally Posted by PAVAN KADAM

2) Recycle method - A very simple equipments when it comes to Rainwater Harvesting for Homes, All the water collecting spots on a house is marked and proper plumbing is made which helps collect water. All this is centered to one single pipe ( Just like Headers) which joins at a Filter, ( 3 filtering process including Charcoal, and other filtering materials encased in a PVC box) and the outlet is connected to the house underwater sump tank. This water can be re-used for domestic purposes.

We have gone in for the second method and trust me, its good to know, we are conserving a natural resource.

Pavan ,which brand and how much is this filter ? .Details please .

[tomthump]

Originally Posted by pganapathy

Will find out if Jain irrigation has any good filters that we can use.

You could visit these pages too, and search back to the 'Contact Us' links if you find any useful info.

http://www.parixit.com/pdf/disc_filter.pdf
http://www.netafimindia.com/manual-disc-filters.html
http://www.jains.com/irrigation/filt...terfilters.htm

[tomthump]

Originally Posted by pganapathy

Other than the charcoal filter which you will be changing now, are there any other things you need to change or clean or whatever with the filters. For example do you need to clean the stone and sand filters in any way.

I'd suggest you look at those pictures I posted, once again. And please 'Adapt' , and don't 'Adopt'.
The steps my father devised, and which you could implement your own way, would be:
1. A rainwater catchment area
2. A diversion to a primary sedimentation place
3. An overflow into a secondary sedimentation point
4. Another overflow into a filtration tank
5. An arrangement for the filtered water to flow into a storage facility

So if you can have a cleaner catchment in the first place, your sedimentation and filtration systems could be very simple. Rainfall multiplication factor should be counted in when you design your systems, because a larger area will generate more runoff and this will in turn entail a need for larger holding areas for your point 2 and point 3 sedimentation locations. If those places are not big enough, you'll end up with a big puddle of muddied water in your filteration tank, and this will soon overload the filter.

[deetjohn]

Originally Posted by tomthump

I live in a place called Areeplachy, near Punalur in Kerala. Our house is on top of a hill, and during summer months the wells used to dry up. In the 50's my father discovered rain water conservation practices that helped keep our wells charged even during extremely dry summers. He then developed methods for rain water harvesting too. I give below a few pictures for other bhpians who may want to practice rain water harvesting on serious scales.

Brilliant! That's quite a design and execution by your late father.

Thanks for sharing with us tomthump. I do miss the 'Thanks' button in this section.

It is such a pity that we just let so much water flow without making good use of it. And this year, there is nothing flowing as well. The water situation is going to be very critical. It's very alarming!

[tomthump]

Originally Posted by deetjohn

Thanks for sharing with us tomthump....The water situation is going to be very critical. It's very alarming!

Thanks to you too deetjohn, for the nice comments.
As you suggested, indeed the water 'situation' will become serious in future, and let us hope it will not happen in the near future.
My father was concerned about recharging underground ground water resources, because conservation in situ was more important for him than harvesting of rainwater. But he also devised harvesting measures and so we have the best of both for us now.
I personally discovered that encouaring and managing natural vegetation is a great method for rain water and soil conservation. It is cheap, very effective and helps build large amounts of biomass. I have been succesfully doing this since 1987.

[tomthump]

Originally Posted by pganapathy

I have a couple of questions

Is the water that is now collected potable or easily filtered/cleaned to be potable. If not, is the water at least usable for other work in the house...
Is the big pit a mud pit or a concrete/brick pit...
How do you filter out the floating debris when you pump the water...
Do you have a major silt problem at the bottom of the tank
How often do you need to keep changing the filters.

@pganapthy
Sorry I did not reply earlier. I do not know if this will be a 'back to back' post and outed. Still as you asked and maybe I'll only look in after a while I shall leave my comment for you.
- The water we use is rainwater runoff from our yard, and not potable.
- Yes indeed it is useful for all other purposes, and we use it for just that, brushing our teeth, bathing, cloth washing,... everything except drinking, and cooking.
- The final soak pit is a stone lined pit with a regular soil bottom onto which the charcoal is filled, the intention being to filter the water and then allow itbto flow into an open tank, through a small diameter pipe.
- We now use a sumersible pump, so floating debris is not a worrying factor.
- Silt is a problem for us because three of the four walls around our tank have fallen in. The first one fell in 1992 when we had a few days of prolonged rain. The other three fell in later. The stones and mud from the first two, we cleared during the proceeding summer months when the water levels went down, but the dirt and stones from the fall in for the last five years are still in the tank.
- The cleaning out is a cumbersome process because you need to do it manually, and haul out a great deal of stuff. Climbing up all those steps is delaying and so we need to pass it from person to person, which can be rather expensive. So it would be a good idea to have good and strong structures in the first place.
- Regarding filters, that is a dicy question. See, my father had our whole yard filled with river sand many years back, to cover the regular soil. So there was no muddy water ever flowing. The system he deviced was based on that equation, where you had a moderately clear rain water stream.
(Ten years ago I did think of buying truckloads of sand and storing for future use, but discarded the idea as a very silly plan. But now I feel I made a big mistake because one truck load will cost be around 25K now)
But over the years we used up a lot of sand for our various needs and now we have a thin layer which does not really give an efficient soil cover. So during heavy rains even the filtered water that falls into our tank is rather muddy.
This, as you asked, will certainly result in silt at the tank bottom.
So you must leave a whole lot of leeway for the future, which means having at least four times capacities for everything in your calculations.
- On changing filters, See, we use charcoal, but that is because we have the facility, and even today I can still use charcoal because we have a large area in our property and a whole lot of trees. The cost will be very high, which is why I keep putting it off, but if necessary I can do it.
If you find that not possible, you could have more sedimentation tanks, debris traps and percolation sand filteration.
- Anyway, as of today I am using harvested rainwater from a quarry tank my father began work on also fifty years ago, and which I started using this year. I've posted pictures here of that too.
- We also have natural springs in two valleys, which we maintain by retaining natural vegetation. One is a bubbling brook from a rock crevice, which I believe is more than a hundred years old. The other is a dry stone tank, with very good recharge, which I only use as a recreational water fall, with a siphon system and a few pvc pipes.
I hope this answers your queries.

[nutmello]

Note from Mod: There are several spelling & grammatical errors in your posts. This negatively affects the board experience for other readers.

Kindly ensure that you proof-read your posts prior to submission. Also, it would be a good idea to use spell-checkers.

[tomthump]

Update: we repaired the retaining walls around our rainwater tank, and I am posting a few pictures. The work is not finished, we have to build a fence, and also plastering and removal of silt.

[mooza]

Bangalore is entering a grave water crisis. Only 15 days more of water supply, and then kaput.

Requesting all TBHPians to encourage as many people as possible to install Rain Water Harvesting systems in their homes. It just takes a day to do the job.

We are thankful that our Rain Water Harvesting system at home is paying itself really well in this time of crisis to water our plants, cleaning of the driveway, car washing and house-floor mopping, thus saving thousands of litres of water.

Please spread the word and make a difference

[tomthump]

Lots of people are doing rain water harvesting, AND reaping the benefits.
It would be even more beneficial if we could also put in place rain water conservation measures.
Such as preventing too much soil erosion,

encouraging soil cover such as natural vegetation,

and also practice localised conservation of rain water. ( which means, allowing rain water to sink underground close to or exactly where it falls)

This I suggest because harvesting will benefit only the individual(s) who do it. But conservation could possibly help a whole lot more people because the conservation is huge and gives a sustained long term benefit.
Wells get recharged, ground water reservoirs are replenished, natural springs give year round water, etc.
we've been doing it here I say it from experience.
Maybe it is not possible in all terrains and for all soil types. But where it can be done, the results are good.

[triedeverything]

Another DIY, with a lot of inspiration from this thread : )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsnwTJCOve4

This is just one part of the roof. We intend to cover other parts slowly.

[ZedMae]

Originally Posted by triedeverything

Another DIY, with a lot of inspiration from this thread : )

This is just one part of the roof. We intend to cover other parts slowly.

Excellent stuff. The trick with the ball was too good. Did you have any reason whiile sizing the tank?

regards

[triedeverything]

Originally Posted by ZedMae

Excellent stuff. The trick with the ball was too good. Did you have any reason whiile sizing the tank?

regards

Thank you. But again, it's really not my idea. I found a video on youtube that I used as the base for this.

I haven't calculated the size of the tank. There's actually someone in Bangalore who's done this and uses only rain water for all his needs. He has tanks in various places of his house all amounting to a massive 40,000 liter capacity!
The tank you see in the video is just 500 liters It gets full in no time. I've planned this setup for a larger tank, that's why the pipe is hanging a feet or two above the tank, so that once I upgrade, the elbow will go through a hole in the tank lid. Vitamin M shortage right now

And yes... if you are in Bangalore and trying something like this... I can help with any questions you have.