Grey Water

We got the nice people at Hey! Tanks LA to come and fit a grey water system to our house. The idea being that we have a ridiculously high water bill (higher than our gas and electricity bill), and that we have a lot of water that we throw down the drain (get it? Down the drain? Hahaha), so instead of throwing it away, we'll put it into the garden and turn it into avocados and guavas and oranges and bananas. (Well, sort of indirectly).

You have to be a teeny bit careful with grey water - not all plants like it, as it tends to be a bit salty - handily fruit trees like it a lot. You don't want to spray it around, it should stay under the ground, which means that you can't use it to water grass - because you can't spread it out that wide (well, without some more specialized stuff).

Another slight complication is that you don't always want your grey water to go into the yard - if you've put a load of bleach into the washing machine, for example, or if you've washed the dog in insecticidal shampoo it might be better having those nice people at the Hyperion treatment plant. So you put in a valve, so you can send the water down the regular drain.

The first stage was doing the plumbing under the house, which I attempt to show in these rather unclear photos. (It was dark, which made focusing a challenge). The first picture shows the valve, which is where all the pipes meet. The pipe goes out into the yard to the left when the valve is on, and to the right do the regular drain when the valve is off (it's currently off, 'cos they haven't do the outside part yet). It's not obvious, but the steel pipe at the bottom that appears to go into the valve has actually been cut, so it's not attached.

The second photo is from slightly further back - you can see how the original steel pipe in the foreground (which comes from the downstairs bath and shower) has been cut, and now heads to the valve, and back again. At the back is the pipe that comes from the washing machine, and I forget where the pipe is that comes from the upstairs bathroom. But it's somewhere near there.

The water from the kitchen joins onto the main pipe later - kitchen water (sink and dishwasher) tends to be a bit more unpleasant than other water, so it's not a good idea to use in the yard (or garden - I keep forgetting which word I prefer).