Recycled water irrigation system?

[Steve]

Are your customers water conscious enough to want to convert some of their plumbing to divert shower water to water their lawn? Is this something that might take off if offered? Share a bath, save a lawn - Why not divert shower water to the lawn, instead of sending it to the sewer? Plants don't mind a little soap and, well, skin cells. And the savings aren't hard to imagine when you consider that even with all those low-flow fixtures installed, the potable water you lavish on shrubs draws significantly on your fresh-water supply. So does that clean water you tap for flushing, which in some states can be substituted with the effluent from your sink.

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Wow, Steve... that's a very interesting thought. Here's my question... something that I really don't know about irrigation systems... do they run on the pressure of water coming from the line, or can one run on gravity? ...or via a seperate pumping system? If one could run from the pump or gravity, why not use rainwater, too? Just from what you said, my wheels are turning... can you imagine the amount of water the entire world would save if EVERYONE used the sink water -> toilet water concept? ...wow...

[Steve]

I don't know exactly if they run on pressure or on gravity.

You bring up good points. Why not set up barrels to collect rain water too!

That would be fascinating if this could all be pulled together to irrigate properties.

It would really allow you to carve out a niche!

Would any of this matter to your customer base?

I don't know... it would be interesting to find out, though... I'm going to look into irrigation installs and repairs for Spring 2009... I'm also going to try to figure out a way to encorporate all of this together.

[Steve]

This is a quote from the article.

"The easiest gray-water source is a washing machine. Its pump is already pulling water out, discharging it into an accessible standpipe that you can extend outside the house."

Such a system would appear to me to be a fairly easy install compared to the other projects they are talking about and this indeed would be pumped out by the washing machine.

It's quite a fascinating idea. I would think the costs to retro-fit this would be relatively low.