In the interests of household economy (eeeeeh, it's just like the
1950s, I'm going to buy shares in spam) we're going over to a water
meter for a 12-month trial run (house distinctly under-occupied). At
the moment the garden, and in particular various pots, planters and
baskets, are watered by a system of little tubes, with drippers in the
pots and sprinklers for the beds. This all makes it sound like
Versailles, in fact it's about 5 metres by 8, ignoring the patio and
its pots.

I've no idea what this will cost to run when we're paying for water by
the pint, but already my mind is turning to the idea of water butts,
which I guess is part of the point of water meters.

Unfortunately I shan't be able to fill watering cans from the butt and
water the garden that way due to a bone disease.* So, getting to the
point, would one of those water-butt pumps produce enough pressure to
power an irrigation system like this?

Cheers!

Martin

*Bone idle, boom boom

On Jul 22, 1:33*am, Martin Pentreath
wrote:
In the interests of household economy (eeeeeh, it's just like the
1950s, I'm going to buy shares in spam) we're going over to a water
meter for a 12-month trial run (house distinctly under-occupied). At
the moment the garden, and in particular various pots, planters and
baskets, are watered by a system of little tubes, with drippers in the
pots and sprinklers for the beds. This all makes it sound like
Versailles, in fact it's about 5 metres by 8, ignoring the patio and
its pots.

I've no idea what this will cost to run when we're paying for water by
the pint, but already my mind is turning to the idea of water butts,
which I guess is part of the point of water meters.

Unfortunately I shan't be able to fill watering cans from the butt and
water the garden that way due to a bone disease.* So, getting to the
point, would one of those water-butt pumps produce enough pressure to
power an irrigation system like this?

Cheers!

Martin

*Bone idle, boom boom

Bit like Versailles, gravity is your friend put the resovoir above
highest dripper.

Adam

"Adam Aglionby" wrote in message
...
On Jul 22, 1:33 am, Martin Pentreath
wrote:
In the interests of household economy (eeeeeh, it's just like the
1950s, I'm going to buy shares in spam) we're going over to a water
meter for a 12-month trial run (house distinctly under-occupied). At
the moment the garden, and in particular various pots, planters and
baskets, are watered by a system of little tubes, with drippers in the
pots and sprinklers for the beds. This all makes it sound like
Versailles, in fact it's about 5 metres by 8, ignoring the patio and
its pots.

I've no idea what this will cost to run when we're paying for water by
the pint, but already my mind is turning to the idea of water butts,
which I guess is part of the point of water meters.

Unfortunately I shan't be able to fill watering cans from the butt and
water the garden that way due to a bone disease.* So, getting to the
point, would one of those water-butt pumps produce enough pressure to
power an irrigation system like this?

Cheers!

Martin

*Bone idle, boom boom

Bit like Versailles, gravity is your friend put the resovoir above
highest dripper.

or even mount a black plastic tank high enough up to catch the good old
British rainfall from your eaves gutter witha subsidiary small ballvalve for
feed from the mains. You'd nee an overflow arrangement, natch, to get rid of
the excess to drain in very wet weather.

On Mon, 21 Jul 2008 17:33:55 -0700, Martin Pentreath wrote:

In the interests of household economy (eeeeeh, it's just like the 1950s,
I'm going to buy shares in spam) we're going over to a water meter for a
12-month trial run (house distinctly under-occupied). At the moment the
garden, and in particular various pots, planters and baskets, are
watered by a system of little tubes, with drippers in the pots and
sprinklers for the beds. This all makes it sound like Versailles, in
fact it's about 5 metres by 8, ignoring the patio and its pots.

I've no idea what this will cost to run when we're paying for water by
the pint, but already my mind is turning to the idea of water butts,
which I guess is part of the point of water meters.

Unfortunately I shan't be able to fill watering cans from the butt and
water the garden that way due to a bone disease.* So, getting to the
point, would one of those water-butt pumps produce enough pressure to
power an irrigation system like this?

Cheers!

Martin

*Bone idle, boom boom

===================================
I've read or heard somewhere that water meters can't be (legally) removed
once installed so a quick check with your water company would be
worthwhile to find out their regulations if you haven't already done so.

Cic.
--
===================================
Using Ubuntu Linux
Windows shown the door
===================================

Martin Pentreath wrote:
In the interests of household economy (eeeeeh, it's just like the
1950s, I'm going to buy shares in spam) we're going over to a water
meter for a 12-month trial run (house distinctly under-occupied). At
the moment the garden, and in particular various pots, planters and
baskets, are watered by a system of little tubes, with drippers in the
pots and sprinklers for the beds. This all makes it sound like
Versailles, in fact it's about 5 metres by 8, ignoring the patio and
its pots.

I've no idea what this will cost to run when we're paying for water by
the pint, but already my mind is turning to the idea of water butts,
which I guess is part of the point of water meters.

Unfortunately I shan't be able to fill watering cans from the butt and
water the garden that way due to a bone disease.* So, getting to the
point, would one of those water-butt pumps produce enough pressure to
power an irrigation system like this?

Dunno how many feet head of water and what flow rate do they claim?

I used a cheap £20 "solar powered" pump from Bull Electrical. I can't
tell if they still sell them - their website is a total mess. They
advertise in the various amateur electronics magazines.

http://www.bullnet.co.uk/shops/test/solar.htm

The orange submersible one - just requires matching the diameter of the
hose, a circlip or two and a stocking over the entrance to stop mozzie
larvae clogging the drip line.

http://www.nezumi.demon.co.uk/garden/water/fountain.htm

Obviously you need a 12v battery to power it too.

Regards,
Martin Brown
** Posted from http://www.teranews.com **

On 2008-07-22 01:33:55 +0100, Martin Pentreath
said:

[snip]

Unfortunately I shan't be able to fill watering cans from the butt and
water the garden that way due to a bone disease.* So, getting to the
point, would one of those water-butt pumps produce enough pressure to
power an irrigation system like this?

A water butt pump like this one at £35 -
http://www.tooled-up.com/Product.asp?PID=141331 - will certainly do
what you want but it needs electricity of course.

If your butt is high enough, so to speak, and the pipework isn't too
long, gravity will work too - but you might have to be prepared to
raise your butt higher on bricks. Hozelock do a gravity watering kit if
you need to buy new components - see
http://www.greenfingers.com/supersto...&pf_id=LS2797D.

And

just to state the obvious, none of these systems will keep your plants
alive if the butt is dry... although a full water butt should last for
at least a fortnight if a drip system is connected.

On 22 Jul, 12:30, Stan The Man wrote:

A water butt pump like this one at £35 -http://www.tooled-up.com/Product.asp?PID=141331- will certainly do
what you want but it needs electricity of course.

Thanks for the suggestions, this pump looks ideal. This is still a
project in gestation, but to automate it I'm reckoning on sticking one
of these timers on the outside wall
http://www.screwfix.com/prods/72670/...l-Timer-Socket
powered from a RCD-protected spur off the living room ring circuit.
All getting rather expensive, but I guess the reduced bills will pay
for it in time, and I can feel nice and smug about using rainwater.

I seem to recall that to be strictly in compliance with the latest
regs the socket should have its own supply back to the meter, plus a
Part P building regs approval, but this would require major upheaval
plus a new consumer unit, so I think I shall turn a blind eye to that.

I can't use gravity because the garden slopes slightly upwards away
from the house where the downpipe is. Mounting something up at eaves
level doesn't sound very feasible for my setup.

As for being stuck with a water meter, we get 12 months to try it out
- if it works out cheaper paying bills the old way we can revert
(although the water meter will stay on the pipework ready for the next
incumbent).

Cheers!

Martin

On Tue, 22 Jul 2008 06:39:51 -0700 (PDT), Martin Pentreath
wrote:

On 22 Jul, 12:30, Stan The Man wrote:

A water butt pump like this one at £35 -http://www.tooled-up.com/Product.asp?PID=141331- will certainly do
what you want but it needs electricity of course.

Thanks for the suggestions, this pump looks ideal. This is still a
project in gestation, but to automate it I'm reckoning on sticking one
of these timers on the outside wall
http://www.screwfix.com/prods/72670/...l-Timer-Socket
powered from a RCD-protected spur off the living room ring circuit.
All getting rather expensive, but I guess the reduced bills will pay
for it in time, and I can feel nice and smug about using rainwater.

I seem to recall that to be strictly in compliance with the latest
regs the socket should have its own supply back to the meter, plus a
Part P building regs approval, but this would require major upheaval
plus a new consumer unit, so I think I shall turn a blind eye to that.

I can't use gravity because the garden slopes slightly upwards away
from the house where the downpipe is. Mounting something up at eaves
level doesn't sound very feasible for my setup.

As for being stuck with a water meter, we get 12 months to try it out
- if it works out cheaper paying bills the old way we can revert
(although the water meter will stay on the pipework ready for the next
incumbent).

Cheers!

Martin
What about pumping the water from a butt near the house to a higher
(bigger?) one at the top of the garden, then gravity feed to the
drippers from there. Need some sort of float switch on the top butt,
but only low voltage wiring so easily done. That way you have two
butts to collect the rain water in. The butt near the house could be a
lot smaller, and also have an "emergency feed" from the cold water
supply if you wanted belt and braces.

David

On 2008-07-22 14:39:51 +0100, Martin Pentreath
said:

On 22 Jul, 12:30, Stan The Man wrote:

A water butt pump like this one at £35 -http://www.tooled-up.com/Produc
t.asp?PID=141331- will certainly do
what you want but it needs electricity of course.

Thanks for the suggestions, this pump looks ideal. This is still a
project in gestation, but to automate it I'm reckoning on sticking one
of these timers on the outside wall
http://www.screwfix.com/prods/72670/...K-Masterseal-I
P56/Masterseal-Digital-Timer-Socket
powered from a RCD-protected spur off the living room ring circuit.
All getting rather expensive, but I guess the reduced bills will pay
for it in time, and I can feel nice and smug about using rainwater.

That will do the trick but you can get the same result for a lot less
with a cheap mechanical socket timer like this one -
http://www.thesitebox.com/Product/15...cal-timer.aspx
- if you can run the pump cable indoors to an existing power point. No
regulations to worry about either...