Rain Water and Tanks

rainwater

Pollyanna, I am sorry but I am with you on this!

I have lived in Bali for over 7 years now and as they say. The average rainfall is 1.5 meters per year and Indonesians as well as Bule's he would rather watch it go down the drains, fill potholes on the road, flood rice fields etc etc. No body wantes to use it or store it because they all believe that rainwater is dirty! But everyone is happy to use the ground water for everything else. I havre 2 bores on my property. 1 is a well and the other is a bore which is approx bored 4 meters from a major stowmwater drain! So, you can imagine this bore( 49 mts deep). is always contaminated from the drain. I am originally from West QLD so we had to utilise either artisian bore water or collect rain water. Has anyone ever tasted the water from thr Great Artisian Basin? It is Hard water and comes out of the ground hot! being brought op on this. I have taken a liking to rain water.
I am in the middle now of installing several tanks here to catch the rainwater so it is not wasted. All you have to do is place some guttering on your house so you can catch it. FYI. A normal family will use approx 200 lts per day per person. more for washing tho. I have put a 520ltr tank on the roof of the laundry just to supply the washing machine. All I remind you to do is once you have it set up please remember to place about a cupful of Kero in the tanks after each heavy rain and the tanks are full. This stops mozzies breeding in your tanks so there is less chance of dengue fever around your house. You can get larger tanks at Mitre 10. 1100 ltr, 800 ltr 650ltr. 520 ltr and smaller.

I hope this help you decide which way to go.

Cheers
Dingo
 
Jesse said:
Rainwater sometimes cause colds when drank.
Also I really don't like using rainwater for shower as it's quite slimy to skin.
I rather treat underground water than use rainwater.
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Please tell me how rain water will cause a cold?
 
Black tanks

tom said:
On a related subject, does anyone think a black tank placed on a tower would be sufficient to heat water for warm showers. I have seen some plans for make shift solar heaters cut it seems alot simpler to do it this way. The place I would have it has consistent sunshine. I realize it probable wouldn't produce in the am hours. Tom
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Tom, If you get a roll of Black Poly pipe here and put that up on your roof with a cold inlet on one end the other endwill give you near on boiling water. Good luck.
 
dingo said:
Pollyanna, I am sorry but I am with you on this!

I have lived in Bali for over 7 years now and as they say. The average rainfall is 1.5 meters per year and Indonesians as well as Bule's he would rather watch it go down the drains, fill potholes on the road, flood rice fields etc etc. No body wantes to use it or store it because they all believe that rainwater is dirty! But everyone is happy to use the ground water for everything else. I havre 2 bores on my property. 1 is a well and the other is a bore which is approx bored 4 meters from a major stowmwater drain! So, you can imagine this bore( 49 mts deep). is always contaminated from the drain. I am originally from West QLD so we had to utilise either artisian bore water or collect rain water. Has anyone ever tasted the water from thr Great Artisian Basin? It is Hard water and comes out of the ground hot! being brought op on this. I have taken a liking to rain water.
I am in the middle now of installing several tanks here to catch the rainwater so it is not wasted. All you have to do is place some guttering on your house so you can catch it. FYI. A normal family will use approx 200 lts per day per person. more for washing tho. I have put a 520ltr tank on the roof of the laundry just to supply the washing machine. All I remind you to do is once you have it set up please remember to place about a cupful of Kero in the tanks after each heavy rain and the tanks are full. This stops mozzies breeding in your tanks so there is less chance of dengue fever around your house. You can get larger tanks at Mitre 10. 1100 ltr, 800 ltr 650ltr. 520 ltr and smaller.

I hope this help you decide which way to go.

Cheers
Dingo
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I agree also, water wastage in any country is ridiculus, especially when the average water is so NASTY. After doing some quick sums after a little research Bali has great opertunities to utilise rain water.
Average rainfall last year = 1785mm p/year
Collection with a 50sqm roof = 89250L p/year which breaks down to;
= 7437.50L p/month
= 1716.35L p/week
= 245.19L p/day

As you said the average family uses @200-300L per day for shower,toilet,cooking etc
PLUS a toploader washing machine @170L per use

OK fair enough these are just averages but surely a little guttering and a collection tank can make a difference.....????????:icon_rolleyes:
 
Dont forget the valve system to allow the first 20 minutes of rain to wash away bird poo, dirt and insects from the roof. After that you will need to have a UV lighting system to sterilize if before you use if if you want to drink it - forget the UV if its for the toilets/showers/garden.

Dingo I would be interested in hearing more of your hot water system - is it functioning here or just an idea?
 
Hello Dingo,

Like you we also are familiar with collecting rain water in Australia. We lived offshore and rain water was our only option. We are presently living in a homestay in Ubud while we build our house and the thing I'm looking forward to more than anything else in the new house iis having that wonderful rain water rather than the well water we presently are using.

We aren't going to use above-ground tanks. We will have a large underground concrete tank. We'll have a screened "man hole cover" to keep out the mozzies and critters. We'll also have leaf screens and first-flush diverters. In Australia we didn't use any sort of filtration except for a charcoal drip filter for kitchen drinking water and, really, I don't think that was even necessary.

For anyone interested in collecting rain water the leaf screens and first flush diverters are sold by Solar Power Indonesia but because we are so familiar with what is needed my husband will buy pvc pipe and connections to make our own screens and diverters.

This is one of those areas where we can make a positive difference in Bali along with things like using plastic no more than necessary but I'm just selfishly looking forward to that lovely soft, clean rain water.

dingo said:
Pollyanna, I am sorry but I am with you on this!

I have lived in Bali for over 7 years now and as they say. The average rainfall is 1.5 meters per year and Indonesians as well as Bule's he would rather watch it go down the drains, fill potholes on the road, flood rice fields etc etc. No body wantes to use it or store it because they all believe that rainwater is dirty! But everyone is happy to use the ground water for everything else. I havre 2 bores on my property. 1 is a well and the other is a bore which is approx bored 4 meters from a major stowmwater drain! So, you can imagine this bore( 49 mts deep). is always contaminated from the drain. I am originally from West QLD so we had to utilise either artisian bore water or collect rain water. Has anyone ever tasted the water from thr Great Artisian Basin? It is Hard water and comes out of the ground hot! being brought op on this. I have taken a liking to rain water.
I am in the middle now of installing several tanks here to catch the rainwater so it is not wasted. All you have to do is place some guttering on your house so you can catch it. FYI. A normal family will use approx 200 lts per day per person. more for washing tho. I have put a 520ltr tank on the roof of the laundry just to supply the washing machine. All I remind you to do is once you have it set up please remember to place about a cupful of Kero in the tanks after each heavy rain and the tanks are full. This stops mozzies breeding in your tanks so there is less chance of dengue fever around your house. You can get larger tanks at Mitre 10. 1100 ltr, 800 ltr 650ltr. 520 ltr and smaller.

I hope this help you decide which way to go.

Cheers
Dingo
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pollyanna said:
Hello Scout,
I checked with our builder today to see what we did. Ours is just as Mr Fixit described, straight pipe with holes drilled into it. First we put down a layer of rock, then a layer of sand, then the holey pipe, and then black hairy palm over that, then more rock, and then backfilled.
We had the same problem you're having with trying to find the irrigation pipe and couldn't find it anywhere.
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Have been researching the net about irrigation pipes, and if there were local suppliers. I have found a company in Java that has just what I (and maybe others) need, the price is competitive and also less complicated than importing from Australia, which in the beginning was my option.

My research also involves underwater tank systems, not the concrete type, but using geotech fabrics with coils of irrigation piping, wont to into the details here, but if anyone is interested please PM me, and I can send you the links. I am looking into the viability of setting up a "water harvesting" business here. IMHO everyone needs to go down this track, especially hotels etc . :icon_mrgreen:
 
scout said:
... My research also involves underwater tank systems, not the concrete type, but using geotech fabrics with coils of irrigation piping, wont to into the details here, but if anyone is interested please PM me, and I can send you the links. I am looking into the viability of setting up a "water harvesting" business here. IMHO everyone needs to go down this track, especially hotels etc . :icon_mrgreen:
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Hi Scout, are you talking about a new system of holding collected water? If so I would be really interested in learning about it. As you know, we are currently planning a concrete holding tank but if there is a better way I'd love to know about it.
Your idea of setting up a water harvesting business in Bali sounds excellent. That is an area where you could have a huge positive impact on this island.
 
I read all the above with interest. Like others, I was brought up in rural Australia depending on rain-water. We only had three 1,000 gallon tanks - about 14,000 litres - but I am sure our daily use was less than 200 litre a day. Rain water is quite clean, does not need any special filtering or sterilisation as there is nothing there to be killed. If dust and stuff washes in, it then settles to a sludge at the bottom, and the tank needs cleaning maybe once in 5-10 years.

If you want to be independent of town or well water, then the challenge is to store enough for the dry season. If you had a concrete storage tank that was say 3 x 3 x 2 metre giving a 18,000 litre capacity, and if you use the 200 litre usage per day figure then it can last 90 days between heavy rainfalls. Probably OK for an average dry season, but would be a bit short for a real El Nino year in North Bali.

I know one person who has a storage under the house - she says in earth tremors you feel the sloshing.

Anyhow, I think a few 1,000 litre tanks will not be enough.
 
ronb said:
I read all the above with interest. Like others, I was brought up in rural Australia depending on rain-water. We only had three 1,000 gallon tanks - about 14,000 litres - but I am sure our daily use was less than 200 litre a day. Rain water is quite clean, does not need any special filtering or sterilisation as there is nothing there to be killed. If dust and stuff washes in, it then settles to a sludge at the bottom, and the tank needs cleaning maybe once in 5-10 years.

If you want to be independent of town or well water, then the challenge is to store enough for the dry season. If you had a concrete storage tank that was say 3 x 3 x 2 metre giving a 18,000 litre capacity, and if you use the 200 litre usage per day figure then it can last 90 days between heavy rainfalls. Probably OK for an average dry season, but would be a bit short for a real El Nino year in North Bali.

I know one person who has a storage under the house - she says in earth tremors you feel the sloshing.

Anyhow, I think a few 1,000 litre tanks will not be enough.
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Hi all. First post here, enjoying all the info and insight. Like Ron, I also grew up in rural Australia with rainwater tanks.
We had a 10,000 gallon concrete in-ground water tank at a house we built around ten years ago. We went through a solid 12 month drought several years ago and didn't run out of water even though it was our only water source.
We had the "first flush" system, and the outlet was around 250mm up from the base which prevented contaminates that settle in the tank from entering the pipes.
Water quality was brilliant!

We're currently building here in Bali.
Just completed a bore down to 62m at a cost of 10.8 juta, and the water is beautiful. Certainly good for everything but drinking.
My 2 cents is, go deep with a bore, and install a smaller rainwater tank which feeds to the kitchen for cooking and drinking.
Regarding the black polypipe solar hot water idea, I discovered this exact system at a temporary caravan I was living in whilst building, really only because I was too busy to bury the 100m long pipe! The water was so hot that we had to wait until an hour after the sun went down before we could use the water for bathing.
 
Hi Santa and welcome to the forum. Have a question on your well depth that since you won't drink it anyway why did you go so deep? The cost was cheap but nevertheless if you have water at 3 - 5 meters that is good enough for showers and toilet what's the point of going any deeper - did you want it warmed already?:icon_evil: not mad just devilish

Again welcome
Markit
 
stainless steel water tanks

I believe someone mentioned stainless steel water tanks and their availability here on the island?

Was in the big building supply center in Gianyar (on the road between Ubud and the east, north Gianyar) and saw that they have them there in different sizes 850, 1350 and 1500 litres. The big one was going for 3.7 juta.

Markit
 
Yeah I thought so too but that was the price on the tag on the tank. And then I realized I was making the same mistake that you probably are in thinking that when they said "stainless steel" they meant stainless steel instead of the probable truth which would most likely be "used tin roofing beaten into shape in southern china an covered with a thin layer of chrome to look like stainless steel.

In other words just like my window fittings that were a mixture of very expensive and less expensive "stainless steel" - end result? All rusting after only 5 months:icon_rolleyes: and I don't even live on the beach...
 
Water Tank

We are building a in ground water tank to hold about 30,000Ltr, on top of that we are building a Bali hut with bbq ect the out door living area.:icon_razz:
As for the hotels using tanks & cutting elect use, I don't think the bosses in jakarta really give a sh....t:icon_evil:
If you are a local & very rich it sounds good to say my bill for water/electic cost x amount.
It's like saying my car/house is bigger than yours.
I was talking to a friend about his new car, he told me it was for his son (12yrs old)
He's driver will take son to school & back, they we also installing a 20 juta sound system in it.:icon_e_sad:
 
Best material for a water tank?

I have seen that the tank can be made of plastic, stainless steel or concrete. Does anyone have any opinion about what material is the best? Advantages/disadvantages?
 
ThomasJohansson said:
I have seen that the tank can be made of plastic, stainless steel or concrete. Does anyone have any opinion about what material is the best? Advantages/disadvantages?
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We couldn't come even close to the size we wanted in plastic or steel. Our in-ground tank is concrete, waterproofed on the outside and a waterproof potable coating is going on the inside. It is being constructed by pool builders.
So, to answer your question, in our case the advantage of steel reinforced concrete is the holding capacity. Being in-ground the water won't be as hot.
 
pollyanna said:
We couldn't come even close to the size we wanted in plastic or steel. Our in-ground tank is concrete, waterproofed on the outside and a waterproof potable coating is going on the inside. It is being constructed by pool builders.
So, to answer your question, in our case the advantage of steel reinforced concrete is the holding capacity. Being in-ground the water won't be as hot.
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Thanks Pollyanna, Actually we plan to have the tank ca 1000 liter and put it on the top of our house, so we can get pressure by gravidity. In case of el failure (we will probably drill a well).
 
Hello Pollyanna,

I know this is a really old topic (2010) but i just came across it as i am also looking at harvesting rainwater for my house.

Is your system running well? Will be great if you can share with us more.

Thanks,

Philip (Ubud)
 
Philip108 said:
Hello Pollyanna,

I know this is a really old topic (2010) but i just came across it as i am also looking at harvesting rainwater for my house.

Is your system running well? Will be great if you can share with us more.

Thanks,

Philip (Ubud)
Click to expand...

Our system works beautifully and we love the quality of our water. It has been tested and is as pure as Aqua bottled water. Our rainwater system has a first flush diverter. The water is collected in an underground tank. Before entering the house it goes through a large filter and also through a uv sterilizer.
 
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