The area that I live in has been in a drought for a year or more. As such we now have water restrictions on washing the car, watering the garden etc. Initially I set up a drainage hose from the washing machine outlet to containers outside to enable me to collect the waste water so I could water the garden. This process worked fine except for the back breaking work of emptying the waste water (grey water) onto various places in the garden.
The next stage was to develop an automatic system that would distribute the grey water into the garden and have the following features.
1) Filter the water before sending it to the garden.
2) Automatic pump to allow water to be delivered to the high end of the garden.
3) Timer to prevent water stagnating in the tank.
The system uses a wheeled trash bin which is made out of 5mm thick plastic (nice and sturdy). Grey water comes into the top of the bin into a filter. When the bin fills to around 3/4 full, a water level switch triggers the pump controller to turn on the pump sitting at the bottom of the bin. The pump continues to operate until the lower water level switch is triggered.
The pump controller also has some logic built into the program to detect if water is in the bin but not high enough to operate the high water level switch. If this situation occurs, at 10 hour timer is started. If the water stays in the bin for 10 hours the pump will start and empty the bin. This stops the water from stagnating. I also have another timer that detects the run time of the pump. If the pump runs for longer than an hour (without any of the level switches being triggered) then the fault LED will be lit and all pumping will stop. This would indicate that the output pipe is blocked.
The next stage was to develop an automatic system that would distribute the grey water into the garden and have the following features.
1) Filter the water before sending it to the garden.
2) Automatic pump to allow water to be delivered to the high end of the garden.
3) Timer to prevent water stagnating in the tank.
The system uses a wheeled trash bin which is made out of 5mm thick plastic (nice and sturdy). Grey water comes into the top of the bin into a filter. When the bin fills to around 3/4 full, a water level switch triggers the pump controller to turn on the pump sitting at the bottom of the bin. The pump continues to operate until the lower water level switch is triggered.
The pump controller also has some logic built into the program to detect if water is in the bin but not high enough to operate the high water level switch. If this situation occurs, at 10 hour timer is started. If the water stays in the bin for 10 hours the pump will start and empty the bin. This stops the water from stagnating. I also have another timer that detects the run time of the pump. If the pump runs for longer than an hour (without any of the level switches being triggered) then the fault LED will be lit and all pumping will stop. This would indicate that the output pipe is blocked.
Remove these ads by
Signing UpStep 1: The schematic of the pump controller.
The pump controller is built around a PICAXE 8m PIC. The reason I chose this particular PIC is that it is programmed in BASIC and is cheap ($4 AUD) and I can't program in C to save myself.
There are 3 float sensor switches used in the project. Two of these float sensor switches detect high and low water levels of the tank. The third sensor detects when the water filter needs a clean.
The controller also drives 3 LED's that are mounted on a remote indicator panel in the laundry that indicates pump running, filter clean required & fault condition.
The transformer I used in the project has a 24VAC tap that I was going to use to power some water solenoids. Any voltage from 12VAC to 18VAC can power the circuit. The voltage regulator doesn't get hot as the PIC only draws a few milliamps. I also use a resistor to reduce the unregulated voltage to the pump relay which may need to be altered depending on the relay voltage.
There are 3 float sensor switches used in the project. Two of these float sensor switches detect high and low water levels of the tank. The third sensor detects when the water filter needs a clean.
The controller also drives 3 LED's that are mounted on a remote indicator panel in the laundry that indicates pump running, filter clean required & fault condition.
The transformer I used in the project has a 24VAC tap that I was going to use to power some water solenoids. Any voltage from 12VAC to 18VAC can power the circuit. The voltage regulator doesn't get hot as the PIC only draws a few milliamps. I also use a resistor to reduce the unregulated voltage to the pump relay which may need to be altered depending on the relay voltage.
water.sch218 KB
Visit Our Store »
Go Pro Today »
http://www.growingpower.org/aquaponics.htm
for those interested in grey-water systems, check out Art Ludwig's 'laundry to landscape' system. It's similar to slemke's but uses the washing machine pump to directly deliver the water to the mulch-beds, bypassing the need for a sump/bilge pump. I believe Art also uses a fairly large bore pipe to avoid lint blockages.
Here's the link... http://www.oasisdesign.net/greywater/laundry/index.php
Now if you put some sponge rox in your filter as directed at ausis sponge rox page you would be helping the environment greatly.
Reducing heavy metal bioaccumulation we understand is a big phrase to digest however it is described simply as follows: Heavy metal bioaccumulation such as in large fish they build up toxic levels of mercury which we all know is poisonous, our sponge rox help in reducing heavy metal bioaccumulation by trapping these poisons FOREVER...
http://www.cadsoft.de/download.htm
I use the feeware version that limits the size of the PCB to 8cm x 10cm and only 2 layers.
Easy solutions..?
Laundry detergents generally contain things that gardens don't like in big quantities, such as salt and phosphorous, so best just to buy detergents that are formulated specifically for grey water systems. Here in Aus, there are an increasing number of brands that produce such a product, and it would appear the market is growing. If your supermarket doesn't stock these, maybe you could buy online. So detergent worries could be easily sorted when you buy. Hand soap or shower products (shampoos etc) are a little more tricky, so be cautious about using your shower/hand basin water too.
Pumps are used in the boating industry a lot, especially water-level-triggered bilge pumps. They're almost always 12V so should be easy to hook up to a common, or garden variety, mains transformer. Now unfortunately, as soon as you attach the word "boat" to any product, you can almost double the price, so you'll have to shop around, but there are loads of different models and capacities available. Why not Google it?
Web references:
There is a gardening programme that has been airing in Aus for years. They publish "fact sheets" about all sorts of things:
http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/stories/s1366316.htm
Check out these guys too:
http://www.sgaonline.org.au/info_greywater.html
Heck! Why not just Google "grey water"...?
https://www.surpluscenter.com/water.asp?UID=2009042320224437&catname=water
]