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You’re concerned about the water you use. You’ve gotten the high efficiency washer, installed low flow showerheads and have the water saving drill down pat. Since water is our planet’s most valuable resource, it’s important that if you’re trying to go green in your home, you take strides to use as little clean water as you can. Not only should you use as little clean water as you can, but you should use your greywater, too. Greywater is water that has been used in your washing machine, showers, dishwasher and sink and is clean enough to use for another purpose. Toilet water is blackwater and should only go into your septic or sewer system, but the rest of the water used in your home can and should be reused.
This where a good, solid greywater system can come in handy for your home. The way most greywater systems are used is by piping all of your greywater, or washer, shower and other water out to a storage basin or barrel in your yard. This is a great way to water flowers, bushes, trees and lawn without having to increase your water bill, or use fresh water.
If you’re not familiar with greywater systems, you can find tips and plans online that will suit all kinds of needs and the changes are actually pretty straight forward. If you’re handy and know a little about plumbing, you can do it yourself, or you can hire a professional who knows how to work on this kind of thing. You can either do your whole home or you can focus on the areas in your home that use the most water and work with those. It’s easiest and cost the least if the areas you’re focusing on are in the same area of the home, but you can do just about anything with a greywater system.
For the outside of your home, you’re going to need a large storage basin, or barrel to hold your greywater until you’re ready to use it. Since you’re going to be using this water on your yard, you might want to consider using more eco friendly laundry detergents, soaps that are more biodegradable and dishwashing detergent that won’t kill your plants. Also, if you are a gardener and like to grow produce, you should not use your greywater, unless, you add a second storage barrel with a filter in it. Connect your second barrel to the first and have a charcoal filter in between them. You’ll want to clean the filter every week or two and you can get water testing supplies any place you buy pool supplies to make sure your greywater will be clean enough to use on your garden and fruit trees as well as on your flowers and lawn.
You might be thinking that a greywater system sounds good, but where would you store the barrels? Some people who have outside access to their crawl spaces buy wider, lower standing barrels to hold their greywater, while others store their greywater barrels under decks or on the side of the house and put a small fence around it, or block it off with plants. Your greywater system doesn’t need to be obtrusive, but it will be effective. While you’re looking at your beautiful lawn and saving money at the same time, you’ll be glad you gave a greywater system a try.
