Containment systems for grey water

DoctorIknow · Post by **DoctorIknow** » Thu Aug 20, 2009 5:08 pm

I noticed Home Depot has a sale on 5 gallon paint buckets, $2.95 each, so my systems just got much cheaper, and they've worked out so well for me, maybe there is enough time for them to work for others.

What is done with the greywater after it's contained is not the concern of these systems, but even with the most efficient evaporation or storage for transport home systems, it is very nice to control when you mess with them and not have them control you, ie; showers that drain directly into evaporation ponds can become a nightmare during cloudy days or end of the week....

Shower kiddie pool with 14 gallon capacity storage:

Kitchen greywater filter and 4.5 gallon storage:

dragonfly Jafe · Post by **dragonfly Jafe** » Thu Aug 20, 2009 5:38 pm

this looks interesting...can you describe what is going on in more detail?

DrPeffer · Post by **DrPeffer** » Thu Aug 20, 2009 6:03 pm

Yeah...Huh?

DoctorIknow · Post by **DoctorIknow** » Thu Aug 20, 2009 6:30 pm

Here is the link to the complete set of photos, each of which have an explanation in the text at the bottom of the photo when seen individually in the album.

http://picasaweb.google.com/DoctorIKnow ... lonBuckets#

dragonfly Jafe · Post by **dragonfly Jafe** » Thu Aug 20, 2009 7:25 pm

....thanks...

so you have basically 20 gallons of filtered grey-water storage (from kitchen/shower/whatever)...and you use a sump pump to pump it from there into...what? And do you use 1 sump pump for all three secondary buckets, or one for each?

What size is your camp?

Have you used this before?

Very interesting - thanks for sharing!

DoctorIknow · Post by **DoctorIknow** » Thu Aug 20, 2009 7:48 pm

dragonfly Jafe wrote:....thanks...

so you have basically 20 gallons of filtered grey-water storage (from kitchen/shower/whatever)...and you use a sump pump to pump it from there into...what? And do you use 1 sump pump for all three secondary buckets, or one for each?

What size is your camp?

Have you used this before?

Very interesting - thanks for sharing!

I use one bilge pump. It's easy to scoot the paint bucket just a couple of inches away from the plywood to insert the pump intake hose. I've used both pictured below, but prefer the bigger plastic one as my intake hose can be 20' long and it can still suck from that distance. Search "hand bilge pumps" on amazon, or marine stores have them.

I've been working with both these setups for many BM's, and until this year, have pumped my containerized water into the evaporation pond when the conditions are optimum for evaporation. Unfortunately, this year I'm hauling my 70 gallons out of the playa because I'm sick becoming angry or keeping my eyes scanning for yahoos dumping anything (and everything) into my evap pond.