Rainwater for Commercial Buildings
Tuesday, September 8th, 2009We are currently working on a mechanism for catching and filtering rain water for the warehouse at The Artist Village. We have a 12,000 sq ft flat roof to work with. Planning on installing a 350 gallon tote for collection. Right now we are designing a self-cleaning filtering system.
There is a single gutter that runs the west side of the building. The gutter has only one downspout (which is missing). The plan is to contruct a PVC downspout with an angled filter over the top. The pipe will hang a few inches from the buttom of the spout (some 8-10ft in the air). The force of the water hitting the angled filter should clean away any debris. While we will only get a small percentage of water to pass through a tight filter, considering the quantity of water ran over it during a 1in rainfall, it should be more then sufficient to collect a whole tote full.
The tank should be elevated to the highest point possible (approx 6 ft from bottom). This will allow for adequte pressure to feed any point in the building. There will be a overfill draining pipe.
A gravity feed will be used to supply 2 bathroom toilets and 2 water spickets, until a improved filtering system and powered pump are available. A pressure on demand pump will be used to force water through 1 micron filter, a charcoal filter, and a UV anti-microbial light.
At this point a hotwater tank will be installed and possibilty of a shower.
No one likes having to drive home from work all dirty. A shower would be awesome. -Marc
