Adding Raised Water Accumulation Tank and Finish of the First Phase

I added a raised water accumulation tank which is installed above the toilet-tank.  That allows the water to flow by gravity into the toilet-tank, instead of using the manual pump.  By that, the system became almost fully automated, and the first phase of the system is completed (with the exception of possible small improvements).  The accumulation tank can hold about 60 liters.

Schematic description of the current system:

The water accumulation tank I added is installed in the medicine cabinet / laundry closet that is in the shower room.  Below is a picture of the accumulation tank with a brief description of the main components (see detail below):

The tank is held inside the closet, because of space limitation in the shower room.  However, apparently, closing closet doors partially hide the tank, as seen in the following image:

The connection to the toilet-tank and to the clean water is done as follows:

The main components of the accumulation tank and its installation are described below.  Note that all the entries and exits to and from the tank are sealed using silicon or adhesive epoxy to prevent water leak.  This is because the plastic tank is flexible, and I assume that just using rubber seal is not enough is this case.

1. Recycled Water Entry

The shower water entry pipeline from the pump.  The entry is at height of about 2 meters, height that the pump handles with no problems (something I was afraid of before the installation).

2. Water Exit to the Toilet-Tank

Installed at the bottom of the accumulation tank.  Water exit is horizontal, because of space limitations in the closet.

3. Clean Water Entry

The clean water entry is required in case there are not enough recycled water to fill the toilet-tank.  The clean water entry into the accumulation tank is controlled by a toilet-tank fill-valve that is installed in the tank.

 

4. Extra Water Exit

Allows extra water to flow out from the accumulation tank into the toilet-tank, in case the recycled water overflows the tank.  That allows recycled water entry into the accumulation tank even when it is full.  The extra water exit pipeline is lower than the recycled water entry pipeline.

5. Water Drainage in case of Water Leakage

To prevent the closet from being filled with water in case of leakage from the accumulation tank, I added a small plastic box underneath it, with a pipeline that drains the water outside of the closet.

          

   

6., 7. Installing the Accumulation Tank

Since a full accumulation talk weighs almost 60 Kg, I installed two iron rods on the wall, put on them a closet shelf and put the accumulation tank on the shelf.  Two metal angels connected to the shelf prevent the tank from falling from the shelf.  I also installed two hooks to the wall behind the tank and tied the tank to them with a rope.

Gray Water Recycle from the Shower to the Toilets

Following is a short overview of the current status of the system I am building for reusing shower water at home, especially for the toilets.  The system is still being involved, and I will describe in the blog future enhancements.

A short video that shows how the water are accumulated is available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYHzrQ627DQ.  A video showing the first prototype of the system is available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0JIirw_4O4.

To collect the water from the shower, I built a lifted portable shower basin, which allows to use a small plastic box beneath it to collect the water while taking a shower.  The box also includes a floating switch that is activated when the box is being filled.  The switch activates a 12V pump that is pumping the water into an accumulation tank.

Pumping the water from the accumulation talk to the toilet is done manually, using fuel hand pump.  Future enhancement will be to either use electric pump of to put the talk high enough to use gravitation.  The main problem with such solution is that cleaning of the tank will become more difficult

The following pictures show the portable lifted shower basin, the pump and the accumulation tank:

     

Main system components and usage steps:

1. A lifted and portable shower basin to allow collecting the water beneath it:

   

2. Since the shower basin is lifter, I had to use a lifted shower head, using a “S” shape shower head:

   

3. When taking a shower, I put a small plastic box beneath the lifted shower basin to collected the water.  The plastic box includes a floating switch to control the pump operation:

4. During the shower, the water are pumped from accumulation tank:

     

5. When using the accumulated water, I pump the water (manually for now) from the accumulation tank to the toilets tank:

Electric supply:

As the pump uses 12V DC, I installed the required power supply in the bathroom: