# Water Butt Savings



## Fireball411

A couple of questions 

For those that have swapped to water butts for washing and rinsing,how much have you been saving on your water bills?

Usually I wash one car every week,would two 200ltr butts be ok,and would a nilfisk Titan run off a butt or would I need a pump?

Thanks all


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## Andyblue

Interestingly - we were thinking about looking at a water meter last week, to try to work out if it'll save some money - one thing that concerned me was washing cars.. 

Interested in peoples thoughts :thumb:


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## fatdazza

Andyblue said:


> Interestingly - we were thinking about looking at a water meter last week, to try to work out if it'll save some money - one thing that concerned me was washing cars..
> 
> Interested in peoples thoughts :thumb:


Average water use is about 120 litres per person per day. So a house of four might use around 3000 litres per week. Washing a car could use maybe two twenty litre buckets (wash and rinse) 20 litres foam and pressure wash, then 10 litres for final rinse. I dont think the savings will add up to a huge amount. The benefit of rainwater is being able to rinse and not dry.


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## Andyblue

fatdazza said:


> Average water use is about 120 litres per person per day. So a house of four might use around 3000 litres per week. Washing a car could use maybe two twenty litre buckets (wash and rinse) 20 litres foam and pressure wash, then 10 litres for final rinse. I dont think the savings will add up to a huge amount. The benefit of rainwater is being able to rinse and not dry.


Cheers mate - good thoughts.

Liking the idea of the rainwater suggestion :thumb:


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## fatdazza

Andyblue said:


> Interestingly - we were thinking about looking at a water meter last week, to try to work out if it'll save some money - one thing that concerned me was washing cars..
> 
> Interested in peoples thoughts :thumb:


Fyi Anglian water allow you to have a meter fitted then you have the ability to switch back to unmetered charges (must switchback within 2 years)


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## Jack R

I’ve got two water butts set up so one filters into the other and I only use mine for the final rinse on my cars, even by using it sparingly it’s run low during summer as for the cost saving it doesn’t bother me as I don’t have a meter.


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## Scottland

I'm considering do this soon, not on a water meter but feels less wasteful and will also mean I can have it plumbed in all the time rather than dragging a hose out to connect up to the pressure washer.

Just need to decide on the size, I've seen a few people use 2/3 butt's in series, but I can pick up a 1000ltr IBC tank for next to nothing but is bit of an eye sore!


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## Jack R

Scottland said:


> I'm considering do this soon, not on a water meter but feels less wasteful and will also mean I can have it plumbed in all the time rather than dragging a hose out to connect up to the pressure washer.
> 
> Just need to decide on the size, I've seen a few people use 2/3 butt's in series, but I can pick up a 1000ltr IBC tank for next to nothing but is bit of an eye sore!


If I could I'd have an IBC tank and run off it for a full wash but I don't have room on the drive and the wife wouldn't approve of it.


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## Fireball411

we are on a water meter and are quite restricted for space to,id love a 1000lt tank as they are faily cheep but only have space tp two 200 ltr drum type containers

just wanted to know those on meters and have swapped roughly how much was saved

I need to know if it worth spending £60 for the water butts plus maybe extra for a pump to


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## fatdazza

Fireball411 said:


> we are on a water meter and are quite restricted for space to,id love a 1000lt tank as they are faily cheep but only have space tp two 200 ltr drum type containers
> 
> just wanted to know those on meters and have swapped roughly how much was saved
> 
> I need to know if it worth spending £60 for the water butts plus maybe extra for a pump to


If you are Yorkshire water they charge you £1.37 for 1000 litres of water and a sewerage charge of £1.64 (they assume 95% of the water through your meter goes back to the sewer.

So 1000 litres of water for £3.

I think you would be going some to use 100 litres of water in a wash, but even if you did, it would only cost 30p a wash.


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## micksea

we live in Yorkshire and had a meter fitted about 7-8 years ago,our water rates went from £750 a year to £250 a year,not sure what they are now but im sure they have gone up.Since I got into detailing our two vehicles over the last year or so I"ve become aware of how much water im using.I got a 100 litre water butt kit from wickes for £20 and bought an IBC for £30.the IBC is inside my garage as it would be an eye sore outside,its the kind in a metal cage so I made a plywood top for it and filled the top with stuff that was on the floor,no space lost in effect.Washing a car ie.rinse whole car,clean and rinse wheels,wash car and rinse took about 120 litres from the IBC.when I sorted my set up it barely rained for three weeks but now we have had rain for three days running and ive got 500 litres of water in my tank and its great,my wife has noted my new obsession with going in the garage to see how much water ive got.....and on and on the obsessional behaviour goes


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## Scottland

Jack R said:


> If I could I'd have an IBC tank and run off it for a full wash but I don't have room on the drive and the wife wouldn't approve of it.





Fireball411 said:


> we are on a water meter and are quite restricted for space to,id love a 1000lt tank as they are faily cheep but only have space tp two 200 ltr drum type containers
> 
> just wanted to know those on meters and have swapped roughly how much was saved
> 
> I need to know if it worth spending £60 for the water butts plus maybe extra for a pump to


Fortunately I do have the space for an IBC, but if 2 200ltr butts were sufficient then I might go that route as otherwise it would mean trying to disguise the IBC!



micksea said:


> we live in Yorkshire and had a meter fitted about 7-8 years ago,our water rates went from £750 a year to £250 a year,not sure what they are now but im sure they have gone up.Since I got into detailing our two vehicles over the last year or so I"ve become aware of how much water im using.I got a 100 litre water butt kit from wickes for £20 and bought an IBC for £30.the IBC is inside my garage as it would be an eye sore outside,its the kind in a metal cage so I made a plywood top for it and filled the top with stuff that was on the floor,no space lost in effect.Washing a car ie.rinse whole car,clean and rinse wheels,wash car and rinse took about 120 litres from the IBC.when I sorted my set up it barely rained for three weeks but now we have had rain for three days running and ive got 500 litres of water in my tank and its great,my wife has noted my new obsession with going in the garage to see how much water ive got.....and on and on the obsessional behaviour goes


See this is why I'd like a large tank like an IBC, if we have no rain for a few weeks at least I'd get a few car washes out of a full tank. Do you have a filter or anything coming out of the IBC?


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## Fireball411

fatdazza said:


> If you are Yorkshire water they charge you £1.37 for 1000 litres of water and a sewerage charge of £1.64 (they assume 95% of the water through your meter goes back to the sewer.
> 
> So 1000 litres of water for £3.
> 
> I think you would be going some to use 100 litres of water in a wash, but even if you did, it would only cost 30p a wash.


im with seven trent as im south doncaster,ive found how much is charged and its £1.43 per cubic meter(1000lts)

not much of a saving,must be our lass in shower putting the bills up and the kids in the bath!!:lol:


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## Fireball411

Thanks for all the help

quite a big outlay for little saving

only thing i can think as a positive would be saving water in droughts and not needing to dry afterwards


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## fatdazza

Fireball411 said:


> im with seven trent as im south doncaster,ive found how much is charged and its £1.43 per cubic meter(1000lts)
> 
> not much of a saving,must be our lass in shower putting the bills up and the kids in the bath!!:lol:


Also be aware that Severn Trent assume that all the water that goes thorough your meter is returned to the sewer. They charge £1.04 per cubic metre for sewerage.

So 1000 litres will cost you £2.47:thumb:


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## micksea

ive put a filter between the water butt and the IBC plus my power washer has a filter on the inlet fitting.When I got the IBC I thouroughly power washed it out,sprayed the inside with apc,left it for fifteen minutes then power washed it out again so its pretty much spotless inside.For anyone who doesn"t know,you can get IBC"s in 600 or 1000 litre varients and they have a screw on opening at the top which is about 9 inches diameter so you can get your arm in with the power washer gun to clean it.They also have a 60mm outlet at the bottom which you can get various fittings for on the auction site.I can"t remember the size of the IBC off the top of my head but if you search for new ones on google the sellers list the sizes.New ones are about £110 but loads of people sell them for £20 or £30 and some give them away if you can collect them.I"m probably preaching to the choir but thought I"d add some info in the thread.


I"ve just sprayed my T5 transporter with BH autofoam then power washed it off,giving the wheels and arches a generous squirt and its took about 50 litres from the IBC.


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## micksea

just had a quick look online and the 600 litre IBC on a metal pallet/cage is 104cm high,120cm long and 80cm wide.The 1000 litre is 117cm high,120cm long and 100cm wide.


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## Mcpx

Scottland said:


> I'm considering do this soon, not on a water meter but feels less wasteful and will also mean I can have it plumbed in all the time rather than dragging a hose out to connect up to the pressure washer.
> 
> Just need to decide on the size, I've seen a few people use 2/3 butt's in series, but I can pick up a 1000ltr IBC tank for next to nothing but is bit of an eye sore!


The multiple water butts in series are so that the water is filtered by the time it reaches the last butt, ready for use. Think about where that water comes from, it is what falls on your roof, collecting all the dust and debris on there as it does, runs into your gutters and down pipe, more collected muck, then into the water butt. The main benefit of using rain water is that it does not contain the minerals found in processed tap water which stay on the car surface when the water evaporates, leaving water spots, so you don't have to worry about drying the car. Using unfiltered collected rain water could potentially add fine grit and particles to your paintwork that could easily ruin the surface.

If you draw from that butt the water will be pretty mucky, but if you add a second butt, fed from an overflow near to the top of the first, any heavy sediment or particles should have fallen to the bottom of the first butt, giving you cleaner water. Adding a third container improves things even further and you could easily set up a drain from the second or third butt to a larger container to be stored until needed.

I've looked into IBC's several times and if you are thinking about getting one remember that although they can be picked up relatively cheaply, you need to consider transport because most places charge through the nose for such a large item, a mate with a van is mate for life. The other thing to consider is that if the tank is going to be outside exposed to sunlight it will start to grow algae and the water will discolour and feel slimy, not good for washing a car. You can get black tanks which don't let the light in or you can cover the tank somehow, if it's going to live in a garage its not such a problem.


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## kingswood

yorshire water head of communication was on the radio the other day talking about hose pipe bans in summer.

the average outside use for water is 1% so hose pipe bands dont help. assume the use of water butss wld save 1% of your bill!


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## HairyMonster

kingswood said:


> yorshire water head of communication was on the radio the other day talking about hose pipe bans in summer.
> 
> the average outside use for water is 1% so hose pipe bands dont help. assume the use of water butss wld save 1% of your bill!


Using rain water has reduced my metered water bill from £45 pcm to £27 pcm
a bit more than 1% .


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## micksea

LIVE UPDATE it"s rained on and off here for the last four days and I"ve now got about 590 litres in my IBC (I hope you are all more interested in this news than my wife appears to be)


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## Chris Donaldson

HairyMonster said:


> Using rain water has reduced my metered water bill from £45 pcm to £27 pcm
> a bit more than 1% .


That's either a lot of cars or the wife and kids have been getting the hose treatment instead of a nice warm shower!


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## Fireball411

micksea said:


> LIVE UPDATE it"s rained on and off here for the last four days and I"ve now got about 590 litres in my IBC (I hope you are all more interested in this news than my wife appears to be)


Do you usually get that blank look I get as well from the mrs when I'm telling her stuff like that???:lol::lol::lol:


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## micksea

sarcasm is her usual response 

EDIT....610 litres now


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## HairyMonster

Chris Donaldson said:


> That's either a lot of cars or the wife and kids have been getting the hose treatment instead of a nice warm shower!


:lol: 2 Cars once a week plus garden/plants, cleaning driveway etc, it all mounts up:thumb:

Also careful with toilet flushing,

If it's Yellow let it mellow, 
If it's Brown flush it down:lol:


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## micksea

at the rate im collecting water it would be great to figure out how to plumb my IBC into my toilet cistern,this would cut water bills massively I reckon


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## Fireball411

micksea said:


> at the rate im collecting water it would be great to figure out how to plumb my IBC into my toilet cistern,this would cut water bills massively I reckon


How do you filter the water out?

i have quite a garage that i dont put a car in,am tempted to use one just a storage,transfer water from a water butt in the back garden into a ibc in the garage and run the pressure washer off that


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## spyk3d

micksea said:


> at the rate im collecting water it would be great to figure out how to plumb my IBC into my toilet cistern,this would cut water bills massively I reckon


You probably need some sort of inline pump to push the water into the Cistern.
If you were going that route you'd probably want to plumb in the washing machine as well.

I imagine you would need something like this water pump.


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## micksea

Fireball411 said:


> How do you filter the water out?
> 
> i have quite a garage that i dont put a car in,am tempted to use one just a storage,transfer water from a water butt in the back garden into a ibc in the garage and run the pressure washer off that


the water butt takes most of the debri from the water then it overflows through a hosepipe passing through a 50 micron filter and into the IBC then the PW has a filter on the inlet feed.my set up is as you describe.


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## Scottland

Just trying to find a space for my IBC, how long of a hose could I get away with for the PW to draw from? 5m too much?


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## Fireball411

Scottland said:


> Just trying to find a space for my IBC, how long of a hose could I get away with for the PW to draw from? 5m too much?


I think it all depends on your pressure washer itself how much of a flow it needs per minute


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## micksea

If your PW is reasonably low down then the water will naturally flow into it and if your PW is designed to suck fro a bucket (direct hoses,karcher K4?) then it should be ok with any length hose.


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## bigup

I fitted a water butt but never used it.

Do you just open the top and put the hose pipe in and use via pressure washer? I have a Kranzle K7 arriving so will give it a try 

Any advantages of using rainwater?


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## Fireball411

bigup said:


> I fitted a water butt but never used it.
> 
> Do you just open the top and put the hose pipe in and use via pressure washer? I have a Kranzle K7 arriving so will give it a try
> 
> Any advantages of using rainwater?


Advantages are that it saves you money if you have a water meter,you dont have to dry just rinse as you dont get waterspots with rain water and it saves water in droughts


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## Scottland

micksea said:


> If your PW is reasonably low down then the water will naturally flow into it and if your PW is designed to suck fro a bucket (direct hoses,karcher K4?) then it should be ok with any length hose.


It's a direct hoses one, so should draw ok. I can get an IDC for £15 local to me, so it's worth a punt I guess.


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