Building A Home

The western end of the porch area, showing the pump, filter and the automatic switch over to town water if the bladder is emptied. The rain water in the bladder is used to fill the toilet cisterns, and outside taps. Thus, it is important that there be a backup water supply should the bladder be emptied.

Robin, from Tanked Australia, working in the bladder area. The material on the ground is a protective sheet to safeguard the bladder from the rough edges of the hole.

The completed plumbing arrangements - completed as far as the bladder installation is concerned; the town water supply connection to, and the water supply to the house need to be made. The pipe on the far right is the outlet, which runs along the western wall of the family room, over the door at the southern end and on to the toilet cisterns. Visible in the distance is the first flush diverter. The rain water enters via the large diameter pipe coming in from the far end; there'll be another connection at this end too. The water is sucked fro the bladder, through the pump, the filter and into the switch over device.

The plastic cylinder in the ground is the first flush diverter. This is designed to stop the initial flow from the roof entering the bladder. The reason is that it will contain dust and leaves, stuff best kept out of the bladder.

The operating principle is quite simple. The roof water enters from the top right and flows to the lowest point, the T piece on the very far left. This feeds to the cylinder, which is just a storage device. At the far end, over the sump, is a small orifice. As the intial rain water comes in, it flows into the cylinder, filling it up (presuming the inflow rate is greater than the flow out). Once the tube fills, the water then starts flowing into the bladder via the second T piece, about mid image.

A close up of the drainage sump (pit). Apart from collecting ground water, it also receives the slow outflow from the first flow diverter, shown here on the lower left. (From time to time, the diverter needs to be cleaned out of the debris which accumulates.) The pipe at the top left is the feed into the bladder (when the diverter has filled), and the small pipe on the right is the feed to the pump for distribution. The feed-in pipe also has a water level sensor to stop the pump if the water level is too low.

There will be a pump to remove water from the sump, regardless of the source - surface water or diverter output. It empties into the storm water drains.

The bladder installed. The black hose on the top is a breather pipe, to allow air to escape as the bladder fills. Though at the moment I can't see why it is needed!

And Dave has been running pipes around too - these are the hot and cold pipes running to the kitchen (on the right), and back to the rest of the house (left). It appears that the water feed to the house comes in here (the pipe running down) and there will also be a town water tap, although its hard to see in the photo.

Plumbing And Bladder