DIY Projects for the Self-Sufficient Homeowner: 25 Ways to Build a Self-Reliant Lifestyle (6 page)

5 Connect a drip
irrigation tube or garden hose to the spigot. A Y-fitting, like the one shown here, will let you feed the drip irrigation system through a garden hose when the rain barrel is empty.

6 If you want,
increase water storage by connecting two or more rain barrels together with a linking kit, available from many kit suppliers.

Gray water is a term used to describe wastewater from your
water source that is free of contaminants like toilet waste and garbage disposal remains. Water that has come into contact with these types of contaminants is referred to as “black water” and its reuse is strictly prohibited for public health reasons. Wastewater generated directly from the tap (usually while you’re waiting for the tap water to heat up or cool down) contains very few or no contaminants, such as soap, cleaning chemicals, food waste, or other added organic and inorganic material.

A small gray water
recovery sink that drains automatically to a reservoir makes it easy to reuse gray water for watering plants or gardens. Gray water systems like this make it easy to recycle thousands of gallons of clean tap water each year.

Gray water can be collected easily and used for many household purposes without treatment or filtration. It is not suitable for consumption, however. Gray water that contains some contaminants, such as laundry suds, dish soap, or shower/bath water can be used for some limited purposes, such as flushing toilets.

A simple way to capture gray water for reuse is to install a diverter in the form of a small sink basin and drain. Instead of leading to the sewer, the diverter’s drain is directed to a closed receptacle, usually in the basement or outdoors. The captured water can be used for watering plants or the lawn. To avoid allowing bacteria to fester in the gray water receptacle, do not allow the water to stagnate.

The gray water collection sink seen in this project is a fairly simple technology. Advanced recovery systems are designed to help you reuse wastewater of many types. They are complex and can involve double-plumbing throughout parts of your home, along with water purification processes and chemicals, holding tanks, plumbing switches, pumps, subsurface irrigation systems, and other components. If you’re committed to reusing as much water as you can for as many purposes as possible, hire a professional to design the best system for your family’s needs.

Installing a Gray Water Recovery Sink

The Envirosink gray water diverter apparatus installed in this project is available for sale online and from “Green” home retailers (See Resources,
page 158
.) It is designed to be mounted in a kitchen sink deck knockout—usually the one reserved for the sprayer or the soap dispenser. It can be used with any kitchen faucet—you simply spin the faucet to empty into the diverter.

Once it is diverted from the sink drain by the collection sink, the gray water is directed through a hose to a reservoir from which it can be dispensed easily for general household use. The reservoir should be a sealed tank with an overflow fitting that leads to the home drain/waste system (if indoors) or a well-drained runoff area (if outdoors). The plumbing for the runoff system should include a P-trap and an air admittance valve (or other backflow preventer).

How to Install a Gray Water Diverter Sink

1 Choose the best spot
for the diverter sink to be mounted. Usually, this means taking over an unused knockout in your sink deck or removing a sprayer or soap dispenser. Otherwise, you can drill a hole for the diverter as close as possible to the diverter.

2 Attach the diverter sink’s drain tailpiece
to the sink deck or countertop. Apply a small bead of kitchen and bath caulk around the edges of the hole and press the tailpiece flange into the caulk. From below, slip a 1/8" rubber washer onto the tailpiece and then hand-tighten a flange nut.