Can anyone tell me what size doc but tanks are
Or share their experience with but water tanks. Will be running tap water, gas califont shower and a flush toilet most likely
Cheers
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Can anyone tell me what size doc but tanks are
Or share their experience with but water tanks. Will be running tap water, gas califont shower and a flush toilet most likely
Cheers
run all of that and you will need a lot bigger tank than a normal DOC hut tank they were only for drinking water - flush toilet will use a lot of water but your shower especially with youngsters who dont know the meaning of conserve water and quick showers - you will need capacity -maybe multiple tanks linked together
A 1000 litre IPC tank goes a long way... Set up to fill from roof is always good.
IBCs need to be kept in the dark to stop algae growing.
As Barry said, 1000 litres would go nowhere if teenagers used it for showers.
You can get the 3000lt devon or similar ones pretty cheap and if you conserve water they go a fair way. Not for a full time household though
I'd recommend a 25- 30m3 tank to get you through the dry spells if it is your only water source.
Doc jobs are likely around 5m3
I went for one of these (200 litres) as a cheap option. You could link them. $115 each. Im guessing other Councils will have them.
But thats a lot of water you plan on using.
https://wellington.govt.nz/-/media/e...tank-flyer.pdf
Shower: 10L per minute (1 person = 80 litres per shower)
Bath: 150L per tub fill
Dishwasher: 30L per load
Front Load Washing Machine: 80L per load
Top Load Washing Machine: 100L per load
Brushing Teeth (tap running): 5L per minute (1 person = 10 litres)
Drinking/Cleaning/Cooking: 10L per day per person
Hand Basin: 5L per use (approximately 1 minute)
Toilet Flush (single): 6L per flush
Toilet Flush (half): 3L per flush
One more thing to consider that most don’t. If you are gaining a consent for this ‘hut build’’, then you will likely need some provision for firefighting supply in absence of a reticulated water network.
The larger tanks can be configured to ensure there is always a storage buffer there.
If your only worried about domestic use, think of a couple of people staying on a long weekends over summer and you will be thankful you went with a bigger tank, trust me.
The 2 of us consistantly use 200 litres/day, measured electronically. That includes a house pump and 1 front load wash a day, a shower each, no bath.
Have seperate tanks for the farm aminals. In an emergency I can couple between the systems.
The townies that have progressively moved out around us over the years have water deliveries start around Dec/Jan. We haven't bought water since our kids left home. We have just learned to get by on rainwater collection.
@Remmodel7 how much storage you need depends on partially on how often it rains and roof catchment area, but mostly on often and how you're using the hut.
2 personal examples.
At our bach we have a 2000L tank. At times we (wife & I) use it for several weeks at a time. Drinking, washing dishes, shower. Roof catchment approx 30m2. Annual rain fall in the area ~700mm. Can be periods of several weeks with no rain. We need to be careful how we use the water but we have never run out, however have come close at times.
Conversely at our house have 55000L. Roof 250m2, annual rain ~1200-1700mm. Dishwasher, washing machine, etc etc. Very different than bach with many times the catchment area and storage, plus double the rainfall, but we still have come close to running out at times.
Water conservation is a learned skill. Living on a life sentence block, we cringe when townies come to stay. We reluctantly tell them at the outset that we're on tank water and it's not great to have the tap running while doing your teeth, ... Kids of course are the worst, though some older females seem beyond training.Quote:
Originally Posted by zimmer
We have a large 4 br house but unfortunately being 2 storey the catchment is half a single level house.Quote:
Originally Posted by uk_exile
10ager females and showers - don't start me... Can't wait until she's 11 next year and 'that' arrives...Quote:
Originally Posted by 6x47
Hammering the 5min shower thing with both mine at the moment the 7yr boy is bad but at least he gets in, washes and then it's playtime so you can turn the bloody thing off on him. The daughter, jeez louise every shower is a female "everything" shower and apparently it takes 5 mins for the conditioner to set before you can do anything else (all bullshite if you ask me).
The biggest issue with tank size is how are you planning on filling it? They are pretty easy to move nowadays in the era of rotational molded tanks, the foundation and location side is easy really as well as long as the pad can take 25 tons! But filling the damn thing, that's your problem.
Rainwater collection off a roof is an option, if you aren't in a drought prone area but that requires for safety UV treatment and filtration. Filtration is easy, not too dear but UV treatment requires power. I would not do rainwater collection now without the UV treatment having been sick from birds contaminating the tank before, 0/100 very much not recommended. Chemical treatment is a pain in the arse and you only have to forget once and...
What are the other options for water supply, even a couple of IBC's on a trailer and top up in town will get you through a dry.
Bugger using an IBC for tap water that’s going to be potable.
Who knows what industry it might have come from and had through it since. You can buy glyphosate/1000Lt for example.
As above, any tank chosen is ultimately limited by the catchment area filling it vs use rate.
Probably getting a bit sidetracked from the main question but a sealed downpipe system means you can pretty much locate the tank anywhere you want, so long as it is below the gutter level, your fine.Quote:
Originally Posted by No.3
A teaspoon of chlorine every time you arrive or add another 1500 bucks to install a UV filter if your concerned about possible contamination.
My vote is get the biggest tank you can or set your system up to add additional tanks later. You’ll eventually wish you had two of them anyway.
Re treatment the house we brought last year had no proper filtering on the rainwater system. Just a first flush on the main pipe to tank and tank has a felt bag on it's inlet. Nothing else. Water tasted ok and no one sick after a few months but we decided to test it anyway as wife was concerned. Low pH so bad for plumbing corrosion and moderate ecoli. Not good! Since then we have been refilling containers from a town supply.
Plumbers quote was $7k to supply and fit pH neutraliser, filters and UV into the pump shed. Buying and fitting it myself for $4.5k :-) There's exposed alkathene pipe in there so easy to fit using Hansen fittings with a short bit of copper pipe and compression fittings at UV outlet. Will cost About $400 per year for replacements filters, UV tube and electricity. $1/day to not get sick is worth it. Hard to do properly in off grid locations though.
stayed in FS and later most were DOC huts for I quess 30 years had water from the tank- never crook but did not drink the water fresh - always a cup of tea- and I guess mouth wash cleaning teeth - so does one need to filter - from all of this I quess it depends on a few factors for your hut - how easy is it to get a number of tanks in there if you want whole hog and showers - flushing dunnys - you will need water and lots of it - but are there other options - any creeks nearby - alternative source for shower and toilet - spring up the hill maybe -pipe it back to hut -then just a tank for drinking water - or no flush dunny just a long drop and lime it every few days nothing wrong with it -although the townie kids might say otherwise - showers those little solar pack ones
No, not hard but you have to get the right DC LED (new tech) UV filtration system to be able to work off DC off grid power. Benefit is no annual bulb changes with the LED tech, as the LEDs don't suffer the from wavelength shift like the bulbs do as they age.Quote:
Originally Posted by uk_exile
It's not the townie kids I find, it's the townie moms that moan whinge and bitch until your ears bleed... As far as the filtration and sterilisation, if you get it set up 'right' from the get go it will just work and with the right maintenance you will have minimum issues with it going forwards. Are you planning on running a pumped pressure system or some form of head tank setup?Quote:
Originally Posted by Barry the hunter
Funny story, I went to pick up the kid from preschool in town one day, and grab his crap and turn around and he's pissing on the citrus tree in it's pot. Um, excuse you? He looks and me, "bush wees". The lady at the center was trying not to crack up, as she's looking at me like it was my fault. It actually was his dairy farm mom that started that! Shrug, quiet chat about that not really being kosher to do to a tree in a pot on ceramic tiles and away we went.
A number of 2000 litre water tanks are installed in the bigger huts on the TA trail in the South Island. In one case the BCT installed x2 water tanks totalling 4000 litres in 2024. Check out the BCT website /fb to view the various water tank installations and maybe ask advice.
Thanks for the advice so far everyone. Water collection will be off the roof. 44m2 roof which equates to 66000 litres per year available.
Current house supply is off roof so no stranger to that kind of set up.
Farm supply water will be at the hut site for a fire house but non potable.
Was thinking a 5000l tank. I wanted to steer clear of a 30000l track just for aesthetics. Perhaps I could have a small collection tank then solar pump up hill and gravity feed back
I have a 4000l “big water tank” brand tank off a shed for stock water. Nice height (low to get under gutter for gravity feed) can manoeuvre it to move and seems well made. Would seem about right for a hut and use as you described.
I would recommend a floating water take. A guy on trademe sells them. We went 11,000 liters on our holiday pad. No flushing toilet but
Problem you'll have with that maths is it is not a constant even flow of water off your roof year round. You'll have 66,000 theoretical liters per year but with the way our weather patterns are 1/2 of that will drop at the same time and your tank will not be able to store it. It will drop out the overflow on top of the tank (which as an aside you need to factor in with your groundworks and tank base so you don't end up with a sinking tank or a muddy mess around your hut).Quote:
Originally Posted by Remmodel7
My tank (20KL concrete) went from half full to overflowing in the first 5 days of this current weather pattern and has been overflowing ever since (and even the 3/4" overflow can hardly keep up!). I almost need to put a sprinkler hose onto the overflow to spread it out a bit as it drops in one place and can start digging a hole...
A solar transfer is an idea - but if you aren't there and it keeps running past when the gravity tank is full where will that runoff go? You don't want it sliding back down the hill washed out! And a level switch or something to turn the supply solar pump off when the top tank is full is a pain in the arse to set up - not too complicated but a pain in the arse.
A 3/4" overflow is never going to keep up.
My tank's overflow is piped away from the tank and spews into a paddock.
Just had the wettest month for some time (since Oct 24 when I started keeping good records) so tank has had considerable periods of overflowing. Did consider at one stage, another tank but given we haven't needed to buy water for many years the economics didn't work out. Even with the increased cost of water we could still buy many truck loads before it equaled the overall cost of another tank.
Neerest and newest neighbour has spent just on a grand so far this season on truck loads of water. Ouch!
Sorry, getting OT from hut water.
Hopefully there will be a Puretec LED retrofit kit in future as annual UV bulb change isn't low dollars.Quote:
Originally Posted by No.3
Yeah I hear that - I'm running 30w bulbs in my setup (large house spec) which is over what we need in truth but at the time there was not much in the pricing and the 30w setup came standard with the size of fittings that the rest of the system had so it was a lot less hassle installing it (plug and play basically).
I'm running the bulbs closer to 24 months than the recommended 12 months, and accepting the reduction in sterilisation effect from the aging bulb but as I said the 30w system is quite ovespec'd for our useage at this point so it's a tradeoff I am prepared to accept. The 30w setup is a lot longer than the 22w(?) setup that is the next size down, it's not about the bulb's power rating but the length of time the water travels over the UV surface. Which for us is usually much longer than it needs as our consumption is not very high... Our supply is usually very clean and I'm making sure the bird proofing is all A OK as well.
True, and it doesn't but the water that can't escape through the overflow goes out the hatch so no real issue.Quote:
Originally Posted by zimmer
We used to use a lot more domestic than we do, but I recently reconfigured the bore pump to be able to connect to the irrigation system and the bore pump is about 1/3rd the size of the domestic pump. Much cheaper to run ground water into the gardens with the smaller pump and also saves on running the water through the domestic filters. Also means we have a much greater effective reserve in our domestic water tank as we aren't pouring it onto the garden from the UV filter setup... Basically means we can get away with the rainwater collection for 3/4 or 4/5 of the year with only 3 or 4 top ups from the bore needed to keep us in potable water. Also means we are actually using the bore pump more often to irrigate which it likes a lot more than being left 90m down a dark wet hole and ignored!
@No.3 we've got a Puretec Hybrid G9 so a 46W UV lamp. $200 to replace and they recommend annual replacement. Would be great to get longer lasting and lower energy use LED. From what I read cleaning the quartz tube regularly is as important as lamp replacement.
Plumber specified the G9 then I independently gave Puretec the water test results and they confirmed it's appropriate. Bit of a science getting it right! Like you we can likely stretch filter and lamp replacements a bit due to volumes.
Yeah I'm yet to pull the quartz tube - I shine a torch up it and have a look each time I change the bulb but haven't yet felt I've needed to pull the quartz tube, You need a spare on hand before you touch that part, and I haven't got one as yet. I've been inspecting the 1 or 2 micron carbon block each time I've changed the filters out and it's usually very clean so not much going into the final treatment stage. I'll have to get my nerve up shortly and pull it and replace the gaskets or orings...
Yeah it pays to check out the seller for sure, especially here in Marlborough where a lot of vineyards bring in IBCs full of sprays.Quote:
Originally Posted by Moutere
I found mine from a honey exporter, only ever had foodstuffs in it
Yeah certified food grade IBC's are the ones to look for - but it pays to ensure and spell out that it's going to be storing potable water and can't have contaminants. If the seller can't evidence that the IBC is clean don't buy it. That's even for storing garden water...
If there was any doubt about them and you can't find one locally that's clean you can buy them brand new and they aren't that expensive for the piece of mind factor. You can also get them that the bladder or tank is not opaque so you have less of an issue with algae and stuff growing in the tank.