Using a Water Irrigation System under Water Restrictions / 4 Minute Shower Timers Free from The ABC

BewareOfThe Dog on 15/12/2019 - 13:27
Last edited 15/12/2019 - 13:28

Similar to another link, the lower Hunter(Newcastle) is set for Level 2 water restrictions to come into play on January 20. This will rule out having an irrigation/misting system connected to the tap. I am thinking of collecting grey water in buckets from the shower, and taking it out to a large container, such as a clean wizbin. The Reject shop sell some smallish ones, though I suspect Gravity won't be enough to push water pressure through.

Any idea what sort of cheap pump I could use?

No doubt a trip to Bunnings, or a purchase from ebay

Am I on the right track?

Also, ABC Newcastle said on the radio last week that they are giving away free 4 minute shower timers, from their studio. They have Suction caps attached to them. I assume they are similar to this one on Ebay

Home & Garden

Comments

  • RockyRaccoon on 15/12/2019 - 13:47
    +2

    They scream abou budget cuts and they can give away free timers?

    • SBOB on 15/12/2019 - 17:11
      +2

      pretty sure they are being paid for by Hunter Water… just using local abc studio for the advertising of the water restrictions and not having to deal with distribution

  • Some Human on 15/12/2019 - 13:52

    Can you get a water tank?

    • BewareOfThe Dog on 17/12/2019 - 08:23

      We'd like to, but its money that we don't have, plus where we'd put it is where or aircon is.

  • ShannonN on 15/12/2019 - 14:45

    three full size garbage bins stack one on top of another run gutter downpipe into top with overflow pipe to 2nd then same to bottom one. fill top any way you can until all are full gravity from top should be enough to spray garden put taps into bottom one to fill buckets etc ?

  • whooah1979 on 15/12/2019 - 16:59

    Run the sprinkler at random times between 02:00 and 04:00.

    • SBOB on 15/12/2019 - 17:10
      +1

      or, you know… don't
      either water by hand, or don't water.

      The whole idea of adhering to level 2 water restrictions is so we don't have to go to more aggressive water restrictions

      • whooah1979 on 15/12/2019 - 17:16
        -3

        Sydney have a $2b desalination plant that we're hardly using. It's about time to we put it to good use.

        • SBOB on 15/12/2019 - 18:01

          Desal plant is running
          https://www.sydneydesal.com.au/

          Cost to produce water via desal plant is way way higher than just preserving current water we have in dams
          If all our water was produced by desal plants you'd complain about the cost of water per kL as it sure as hell wouldn't be ~$2/kL

          (didn't neg you, but should have.. plenty of places in Australia are pretty much out of water.. ignore water saving recommendations and thats going to be a whole lot more areas that will also be)

          • whooah1979 on 15/12/2019 - 18:55
            +1

            @SBOB: The plant is already costing us $90 per year when not in use. Using it is only $30 more which isn't a lot considering the benefits.

          • whooah1979 on 15/12/2019 - 19:26
            +2

            @SBOB: Droughts comes in cycles. The decision to build the plant was during the last drought and construction was completed ~8 before NSW declared that the drought was over.

            We now have another drought, but this time we also have an operational plant. We should now take advantage of that and use it as intended.

        • SnoozeAndLose on 15/12/2019 - 18:28
          +1

          https://www.google.com/amp/amp.abc.net.au/article/10753334

          Already in use and still not enough.

          There is no restriction if you use recycled water.

        • brad1-8tsi on 17/12/2019 - 11:00

          Sydney have a $2b desalination plant that we're hardly using. It's about time to we put it to good use.

          Welcome to 10 months ago. It's been running since the 27 Jan 2019

          • whooah1979 on 17/12/2019 - 13:45

            @brad1-8tsi: The plant stopped production for >6 years while we still paid for it.

            • brad1-8tsi on 17/12/2019 - 14:16

              @whooah1979:

              The plant stopped production for >6 years while we still paid for it.

              Yes, I know that. I work in the industry. Somebody in government made a really crap deal (how unusual).

              The NSW Government pay a ridiculous amount of residents money to a the Canadian Teachers(?) Pension fund just to keep it in mothballs. I always think i have this wrong but is it $500k/day or a week?

              It's infrastructure that is either on or off for extended periods of time. If you had started up the desal even as late as 2016 then you would have been paying 25% more than that to dump water over the spillway at Warragamba

            • SBOB on 17/12/2019 - 16:03

              @whooah1979: You cant stop/start a desal plant in an instant…
              So it's either,

              build infrastructure with some future planning, possibly have it offline (but needing to still pay for maintenance as it still 'runs' in offline mode and ongoing tweaks/improvements/updates) and forecast when it's going to need to be online so it can be ramped up and water quality brought up to required levels..

              run it all the time flushing desal water back into the spillway while paying electricity $ to produce that water and then you'll have people complaining about running a desal plant for no reason.

              Or never build one and then you'll have people complaining about no future planning

  • Candour on 16/12/2019 - 08:12

    it is still politically unacceptable to recycle sewerage water.

    • singlemalt72 on 16/12/2019 - 08:33

      Recycled treated wastewater is used all over Australia, it is just convenience and lack of foresight that coastal wastewater goes to the sea.

    • SBOB on 16/12/2019 - 08:34
      +1

      might want to clarify - 'for drinking'

      recycled effluent is used in plenty of places.
      How do you think most golf courses look so green even during water restrictions ;)

      • petry on 17/12/2019 - 13:50

        because they're used by the right people? the ones who vote against climate change policies in support of fossil fuels and American policy? that way they don't see climate change - the grass stays green illuminated at night by distant fires…

        • SBOB on 17/12/2019 - 16:04

          Yeah…that's exactly the subtle undertones I was leaning towards…

          :/

          • petry on 17/12/2019 - 16:33

            @SBOB: 'recycled effluent' lol was 2 subtle for me…

  • Digger111 on 22/12/2019 - 15:16

    Umm, not enough water for the existing people here and we still import like over 200,000 new people each year ???? Are we really serious in this country, or just treat the existing citizens as a big joke.

    • whooah1979 on 22/12/2019 - 15:36

      Tap water is too cheap. Increase it by 100%.

      https://www.teampoly.com.au/2018/06/15/water-prices-in-austr…

      • Euphemistic on 27/12/2019 - 08:34

        We don’t pay the correct rate for tap/drinking water because we have developed a system whereby most of it is flushed down the toilet and very little for actual drinking. If we had a double system that allowed us to use lower grade water for washing and flushing and only kept drinking water for hand basins and the kitchen then we could have two very different prices to reflect how much it costs to make suitable to drink.

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