On Friday, April 20, 2012 6:46:06 AM UTC-4, Kelvin Kersey wrote:
Hi all. I live in a drought area and my (Victorian) house has a large
underground cistern for collecting rainwater. It is empty and has not
been used for many years (I suppose since mains water was installed)
and I'm wondering whether I could use it again by diverting drainpipes
or just the overflow from water butts. Does anyone know anything about
this sort of thing? I wouldn't like to make the ground soggy and have
the house tip into it. Am I being alarmist. Any advice appreciated.
Thanks

My father in law used to that he had 7000 gal cistern. I didnt think he would get enough water to make a difference but he could fill it in one afternoon rain. He collected water from about 4000 sq ft of roof surface(two buildings)At first he just used the water on his garden but once he found out how to treat it he used it for potable water too. The cistern should be sealed, my F I L used to build concrete swimming pools so he painted his with epoxy paint. You also need some drainage to protect from overfills. He piped his out to the garden. This started out to supplement his well but in the end was his main source of water for his home.