After a break from the 'eco' aspects of the project, this week we completed the installation of the rainwater harvesting tank. It stores 3000 litres of water and measures 2.5m x 2.5m, sitting in a hole 1m deep:
The rainwater harvesting system we're going to use is from rainwaterharvesting.co.uk - they sell a complete system, in kit form. Because the tank is shared with the fire sprinkler system, I thought it would be a good idea to get it on-site ASAP, if possible. So I've been thinking about how to achieve this, given the road closure going on with the United Utilities works.
I'm very eager to ensure that we have good communication, and good relationships with the neighbours...
Rainwater harvesting seems like an obvious thing to do to me - capturing the rain that is inevitably going to fall on top of our buildings seems like a even more of a no-brainer than capturing the sunshine that reaches our roofs.
It would have been a good idea to have started this blog right at the very beginning of this project. But, since that didn't happen, getting the funding through to be able to start the building work in earnest seemed like a good milestone at which to pick up instead.
I had a meeting on-site with the main contractor today. They want to get the scaffold up, and start work on the roof and repointing the front wall (with possible brickwork cleaning).
The other meeting I had today was with someone from the sprinkler company. Now I totally agree that installing sprinklers seems like a bizarre place to start with an eco-house! I'll write a separate article explaining the thinking - but first the meeting...
