Household Utilities: Greywater:
Newton House Greywater.
Water conserving strategies in the Newton house will include recycling
of greywater into the house for use in the laundry.
Recycled greywater is graded into 4 levels that define how it may be
used in the house: -
Toilet flushing.
Laundry.
Human contact. (sinks and bathroom)
Drinking.
It is envisaged that data collected from Queenland
University of Technology and Gold
Coast City Council monitoring
of the Newton House will show that health standards are met to enable
recycled greywater to be reused in the laundry. Waterpac,
the designers of the water treatment system have previously shown that
the treated greywater meets drinking water standard.
The water management design has divided the greywater and possible
contaminants into two different recycling systems depending on the source:
1. Kitchen greywater will contain contaminants such as grease
and food particles from food preparation and dish washing. Because of
the amount of contaminants in the system it is considered that the cost
and amount of treatment required to clean the greywater to a standard
for re-use in the house outweighs the benefits derived from it. Greywater
from the kitchen will pass through a grease trap and filter before traveling
via underground pipe to the vegetable garden. It will be used for subsoil
irrigation. Inspection holes at intervals along the length of the pipe
will allow easy access for maintenance when required. The grease trap
and filter will require periodic inspection and maintenance.
2. Bathroom and Laundry Greywater will contain contaminants such
as body grease, dirt, pathogens and soap powders. These will be more
diluted than those from the kitchen, but the greywater will be pass
through the following treatment processes:
a. Slow Sand Filtration - fine natural sand free of clay and
organic materials. The bulk of the material will be graded between
0.85mm and 0.15mm. The bed depth is 600mm. A loading rate of 60 litres
per m3 per day has been used in the project design and the tank will
be constructed with concrete. Temporary Storage Tank Made from PVC
will ensure minimal bacterial buildup and allow capacity of 5,000
litres.
b. A low dose of chlorine will limit any bacterial activity
until the level of storage activates the flow past the UV lamp.
c. A float switch operation ensures that the UV lamp only uses energy
when necessary.
d. A UV treatment chamber that permits water to flows past
a disinfecting UV lamp. This stage is essential if greywater is to
be considered for reuse in the laundry and bathroom.
e. A Deveney Tank with a
capacity of 23000 litres will store water until reused.
f. Overflow will go into the subsoil irrigation system in times
of low reuse.
