RAPID PLAS - Life At Its Best
Is it difficult to maintain the system and keep water fresh?
Rainwater has always been a dependable source of domestic water supply in rural and regional Australia and rainwater from a tank can be perfectly safe to drink. It is however important to set-up your system properly as a poorly designed and maintained system can introduce the potential for chemical, physical and microbial contamination, particularly after rain events that follow long dry spells.
Good design and maintenance will ensure freshness
The good news is that in most cases roof catchments, guttering, piping, and rainwater tanks are relatively simple systems, and by building the appropriate defences and implementing a sensible maintenance programme, you can ensure the freshness of the rainwater in your tank.
The keys to fresh water are as follows:
• Minimise debris entering the tank
• Keep out unwanted visitors
• Drain water from pipes to eliminate anaerobic fermentation
• Periodically clean out the water tank
• Keep your filters clean
Most of these measures can be addressed when you build your rainwater harvesting system and typically only require periodic inspection to ensure they are still effective. The key maintenance tasks are as follows:
Inspecting your gutters
While gutter guards and first-flush diverters are effective at keeping debris and contaminants out of your water tank, it is good practice to periodically inspect your gutters to ensure the gutter guard is in good condition and water is draining freely.
Ensuring your defences are intact
Your water tank should have a fine mesh strainer on top of the tank that will catch dust, seeds, and organic matter. It should also have a tight-fitting dust cover that prevents wind-blown contaminants entering the tank, but also prevents sunlight entering the water tank and inhibits algae growth and serves as a physical barrier to mosquitoes that lay their eggs in still water.
Your tank is also fitted with an overflow, and a pipe is typically connected to the overflow that directs water a few metres away from the tank. It is important that the discharge-end of the overflow pipe is fitted with an overflow screen that is a barrier to small animals such as frogs and insects.
You should periodically remove the dust cover and clean the mesh strainer, and check that the mesh strainer and overflow screen are in good condition.
Cleaning a water tank
Despite your best efforts, over time, sediment and organic matter will accumulate in the bottom of your tank, and if this builds up for too long it can affect water quality. While tank cleaning specialists recommend an annual tank clean, most homeowners would say every 3 to 5 years is fine.
If you do wish to clean your tanks, a tank cleaning specialist is a good option, and they will typically use a high-performance vacuum pump to remove any sludge and sediment from the bottom without the need to empty your tank. You can our course clean tanks yourself, but this will involve draining them and refilling afterwards.
Replacing your filters
If you are reliant on rainwater for drinking, you will probably have a dual filter system between the pump and your house. Filters allows fluid to pass through but retain any solid particles, and they have a ‘micron-rating’ which is the size at which particles are retained by the filter. A micron is a thousandth of a millimetre, and a 5-micron filter will stop particles of five microns or larger from passing through the media. In a domestic filter, you may have, for example, a 10-micron prefilter and a 1-micron fine filter.
It is a good practice to regularly change out the filter cartridges on your system. Some filters can be cleaned and re-used while others are single use only. Most homeowners would change filters every six to twelve months, depending on how dirty the water is and how much water is being filtered by the system.
If you follow these simple steps and take reasonable care, you can rely upon your rainwater harvesting system to deliver safe, clean, and fresh water that your family can enjoy for many years.