Rainwater Harvesting

Designed & Constructed in Compliance with BS 8515:2009

Traditionally, rainwater harvesting has been practiced in arid and semi-arid areas as part of everyday life, to provide drinking water, domestic water, water for livestock, small irrigation and a way to replenish ground water levels.

In Western Europe, water is fast becoming a valuable commodity.With our growing population and the changing climate, our water resources are under increasing pressure. Vast quantities of water are wasted every day, most of it literally flushed down the toilet.

The average household uses approximately 150 litres of water/person/day, only 75 litres (50%) is required to be sterile. The remainder is grey or non-potable water usage, for which unsterilised water is adequate. These figures can be improved upon and with a little care and some simple water conservation techniques, it is often possible to reduce daily consumption to 100 - 120 litres/person.

Commercial water charges are levied on all businesses in the country by the Local Authorities. Large savings can be made by installing a rainwater harvesting system.

Carlow Precast design & manufacture a range of rainwater harvesting systems for the domestic & commercial markets.

The RAINstar system is supplied to the end user as a plug & play package. It is placed in its final position using the delivery vehicle crane by our fully trained operators, precommissioned and ready to go with no hidden costs.

How it Works

Rainwater harvesting is the ability to capture grey/nonpotable water at the point where it falls and substitute it for mains water, in non-potable applications. The RAINstar collects the run-off from the roof area, via the sealed gutters. The flow is then passed through a series of filters. The first is the leaf filter, which removes leaves, twigs and other lightdebris. The water flows down into the underground concrete storage tank, through a calmed inlet.

Water is then pumped, via a pressure switch & buffer vessel, to a header tank. This is then gravity fed into separate pipework for non-potable applications - toilets, washing machines, outside tap.

Enroute to the header tank, the harvested rainwater passes through two further filters - the final filter removing the fine sediment, down to 5 microns. In times of heavy rainfall, the RAINstar system is designed to overflow to storm drain via a trapped overflow syphon. If the tank runs empty, the system automatically switches over to the mains water supply. It's that simple.

Contact us:

Contact us for technical advice or assistance in sizing an
appropriate system for a domestic or commercial
application.

For a detailed assessment/specification, the following
information should be available to our technical sales
team.

Domestic:

Proposed water usage:- non-potable, bathing etc. Available roof area m2 for collection. Estimated No. of occupants. Site location

Commercial:

Proposed water usage:- Car Wash, Washdown, Irrigation etc Normal Volume of water usage. Available roof area m2 for collection. Estimated number of staff and working hours. Site location.

Using the above information and combining it with the recommended run-off rate formulae, we will be able to
customise the storage tank and size it correctly. This will ensure that it is specific to your usage and not just an oversized tank.