2 x 110mm soil waste pipes.
1 x 40mm waste pipe.
Some 15mm copper or speed fix pipe.
2 reed proximity switches.
Originally I was going to use a 12 volt pump running from a solar
panel. But the pump I had wasnt powerful enough to pump the water up
to my loft so I had to use an old central heating pump I have from my
old central heating.
To
start with I laid out the 2 soil pipes and drilled a hole in the side
of both of them at one end so I could fit the 40mm fittings and join
the 2 pipes together. And glued in place the 2 40mm fittings.
You will need to make sure there is lots of adhesive on them and they
are well sealed because there is quite a lot of pressure in the bottom
of the pipes.
Then I drilled another 40mm hole in the top of one of the pipes so I could fit an overflow pipe.
Next I glued the screw on inspection end cap in the end of one of the tubes.
While the adhesive was drying I made up the cut off switch mechanism.
Making the cut off switch mechanism in the collector tubes.
The
cut off switch in the bottom pipe is basically a magnet on a pivoting
arm. A bull cock. And a reed switch on the outside of the tube.
When the water level rises the ball cock pulls on the arm which moves the magnet against the side of the tube.
When the water level drops the arm drops back down and moves the arm away from the side of the pipe.
This I bolted to an end cap to be fitted in the bottom of one of the collection tubes.
With a 15mm fitting to supply water to the pump.
Preparing the storage tank.
The storage tank will have one 15mm pipe from the pump one 15mm pipe supplying water to the toilet.
An over flow pipe. And a bull cock with a magnet attached.
And a reed switch which will cut of the power to the pump when the water level rises.
Fitting the pipes on the wall
When
all the tubes had dried I fitted the blanking end caps. One of them is
the one with the magnet arm and bull cock fitted to it.
I bolted the two tubes together on the wall with a small peace of 40mm tube between them.
Then I fitted the over flow and the waste pipe from the bath to the top.
Making sure I had already installed the foam filter in the top of the
pipe this is just held in place by chicken wire bent over the top of
the pipe.
Plumbing the system
I
attached a 15mm copper pipe to the bottom of one of the collection
tubes and plumbed it inside to a one way valve to keep the water in the
pipe when the pump is off.
which is connected to the central heating pump.
Then I ran some 15mm pipe up through the house to the top of the tank in the loft.
Then I attached the overflow pipe to the top of the tank and a 15mm pipe from the bottom of the storage tank to the toilet.
Making the control box
The
control box is basically 2 relays. The relay wired to the collection
tubes switch is wired as normally open. The relay for the tank in the
loft tank switch is wired normally closed.
So when the water level in the collection tubes drops to low the ball
cock drop causing the arm to move away from the side of the tube.
switching of the relay isolating the power to the pump.
The relay in the loft is off until the water level get towards the top
of the tank. Then the magnet activates the switch causing the relay to
switch on which will turn off the pump.
When the tanks are half full the circuit will switch on the pump and
pump the water from the collection tube to the storage tank until ether
the collection tubes empty or the storage tank is full.
Wiring the control circuit and pump.
I ran some bell wire from the reed switches to the control box which I mounted on the wall next to the pump.
Then I wired the pump up to the control box.
As shown.
Testing
To test the system I ran the bath and allowed the water to go down the plug hole and to start filing up the collection tubes.
I checked the tube for leeks if I found any I had to empty the water
and apply more adhesive to the pipes to try and seal the leeks.
When the adhesive had dried I ran the test again to find any more leeks.
When I was satisfied there were no leeks I was able to test the rest of the system.
I switched on the pump and made sure there was no air in the system.
And that the pump was powerful enough to pump the water to the tank in
the loft. And checked that the loft tank was not leaking.
Then it was just a matter of waiting for the pump to pump enough water
in to the loft tank so that the water level in the collection tubes
droped enough to activate the switch and turn the pump off. At the same
time I manually checked the switch on the storage tank would switch off
the power to the pump when the water level rose to high.
When I was happy the switches were switching the pump on and off correctly.
And the pipes were not leaking and the overflow pipes were working correctly.
I put the lid on the loft tank.
And went and had a shower and allowed the water to fill the collection
pipes, the pump switched on and the loft tank started to fill.
Then I just flushed the toilet to make sure it would fill up and there were no leeks.
And that was it.
