| REUK Shop | REUK Blog | Directory | About Us  |  | RSS Web Feed for Renewable Energy UK 

Connecting Water Butts



Connecting Water Butts

Find out how to connect two or more water butts to multiply available water storage capacity

water
  Printer Friendly Version Print Article     

A water butt is a vital component of any small to medium size rainwater or greywater harvesting system. While larger systems utilise 1,000+ litre underground water storage tanks and require professional installation, a water butt can be set up by anyone very easily in conjunction with a suitable rainwater diverter or greywater diverter.

Empty water butts of around 200 litres capacity can easily be handled by one person, they are very affordable, and they are very easy to find (new, used, and recycled), but 200 litres is the equivalent of just three average UK baths. To increase this water storage capacity while retaining the ease and flexibility of using a relatively small and lightweight storage vessel, multiple water butts can be connected together in a chain.

Connecting Water Butts Together


Two water butts connected together to double water storage capacity

Typically the connection between two water butts is made between the high water marks of each butt as pictured above. This is because the bottom of each water butt is likely to accumulate debris (leaves etc) over time which would block the connecting tube if it were connecting the bases of the water butts.

Note that a tap is needed for each water butt in the chain.

How to connect water butts together

Connected in this manner (as illustrated above), when the first water butt (Butt 1) in the chain is full, water will start to flow into the second water butt (Butt 2). It is essential that the water outlet from Butt 1 is below the height of the rainwater/greywater input (arriving from the diverter), and that it is also a couple of centimeters above the water input hole of Butt 2.

Further water butts can be added to the chain in exactly the same way. Five 200 litre water butts connected in this way would give around 1,000 litres of water storage capacity for far less than the cost of one 1,000 litre water storage tank.

The majority of any debris washed down from the roof will accumulate in Butt 1 and so the water in Butt 2 will be cleaner and more suitable for use in a porous pipe irrigation system. A filter placed between Butt 1 and Butt 2 will clean up the water without any increased risk of a water butt overflowing. (If the filter does get blocked then any overflow from Butt 1 will be automatically diverted down the drain. However, if a filter between the downpipe and Butt 1 got blocked, either Butt 1 or the guttering could overflow.)

The Physical Connection Between Water Butts

The connection between the water butts can be made very cheaply with a length of old hosepipe which is then glued and silicon sealed into place. However, this is not very reliable and could start to leak. A better alternative is to purchase a dedicated Water Butt Connection Kit such as the one pictured below.

Water Butt Connection Kit

These water butt connection kits include a 1-2 metre length of very flexible hose, and all the fixtures and fittings necessary to make a secure watertight connection to each water butt - plastic bolts and rubber washers.

These kits cost from £10-15, but you could probably put one together for a bit less purchasing the individual parts from a local plumbing trade shop.

Another alternative is to purchase a couple of water butt hosepipe connectors such as those pictured below from Hozelock for under £10, fit them to the water butts, and then connect them via a length of standard hosepipe.

Water butt fittings - connect a hosepipe to a water butt




Article Last Modified: 16:09, 1st Jun 2007

Comment on this Article

If you have any comments on this article, please email them to neil@reuk.co.uk.

I connected two water butts at the bottom by replacing the taps with 22mm tank connnectors and linking together. The advantage of linking at the bottom is that water can be taken from both butts with one tap. Linking at the top requires two taps, one for each butt to kake use of the water!

Steven
May 19th 2012


I have just read this article. I thought it was worth emailing you to point out an error in your article.

It is not necessary to have the inlet to Butt 2 below the outlet from Butt 1. In fact, it could be above it if you wanted. It is just necessary to make sure that the inlet to Butt 2 is below the brim of Butt 1. Ultimately the water will find the same level across all connected containers. I am guessing that you might have thought that water cannot flow uphill. It doesn't really flow uphill; it just fills up from the bottom simultaneously with the water filling up Butt 1.

Take a look at this: Water Seeks its Own Level.

Andrew
April 4th 2012


Related REUK Categories

water
© 2006-2013 REUK - All Rights Reserved
Page Last Updated on 17th June 2013 at 08:42:30pm

Recent
Blog Posts


1.Bricking a Beaglebone Black

2.Project of the Day – 12V High Power Regulator with LT1084CP-12

3.Raspberry Pi Temperature Datalogger with DS18B20 Sensor

4.New Raspberry Pi Category on REUK.co.uk Website

5.Special Offer of the Day – 20W PV Solar Panel £25.99

6.Reducing Reflectivity of PV Solar Panels to Increase Efficiency

7.Low Voltage Disconnect with Display and Datalogger

8.Saudi Solar Power Boom About to Begin

9.Compressed Air for Storage of Renewable Energy

10.Offer of the Day – 80W Monocrystalline Solar Panel £71.98


Latest
Articles


Solar Powered Raspberry Pi
Power your Raspberry Pi permanently from a PV solar panel
raspberry pi
20:42, 17th Jun 2013

Beaglebone Black Credit Card Sized Computer
Find out about the Beaglebone Black - tiny, low cost, low power use computer
raspberry pi
15:46, 14th Jun 2013

Power over Ethernet
Find out how to power your networked microcontroller projects directly via the ethernet cable
electronics
17:04, 13th Jun 2013

Raspberry Pi Temperature Logger with Xively
Make a Raspberry Pi temperature data logger accessible online with Xively
raspberry pi
20:44, 12th Jun 2013

DS18B20 Temperature Sensor with Raspberry Pi
Measure temperatures with a 1-wire DS18B20 sensor and Raspberry Pi
raspberry pi
20:37, 12th Jun 2013

Simple Raspberry Pi Relay Control over the Internet
Take your first steps in Raspberry Pi home automation - controlling a relay
raspberry pi
15:57, 6th Jun 2013

Raspberry Pi Flashing LED with GPIO and Python
Find out how to set up Raspberry Pi to flash an external LED using GPIO
raspberry pi
15:57, 6th Jun 2013

Connecting to Raspberry Pi from PC via SSH
Find out how to operate a Raspberry Pi directly from a Windows PC using SSH
raspberry pi
13:08, 5th Jun 2013



REUK Shop

Popular Items


REUK SUPER LDR DUSK DAWN RELAY CONTROLLER
Multi-function light detector triggered light/dark dawn/dusk relay controller
£19.95 each.
Complete Circuits



KARASOULI SCC 20 CHARGE CONTROLLER
20A rated wind turbine charge controller and dump load controller with blocking diode and heatsink
£43.95 each.
Renewable Energy System Parts



2013 SOLAR PUMP CONTROLLER WITH RELAY
New solar water heating pump controller with fitted 10A relay
£25.99 each.
Complete Circuits



REUK SUPER POULTRY LIGHTING CONTROLLER
Control up to 8 Watts of LED spotlights to stimulate egg production in birds
£29.99 each.
Complete Circuits



REUK SUPER TIMER 2
User programmable 12VDC powered 16A rated repeating relay timer. 1 second to 99 hours ON and OFF times
£23.99 each.
Complete Circuits



300 WATT POWER INVERTER
Convert 12V DC battery power into 230 AC to power portable televisions, computers, video recorders etc. 300 Watt power rating - peak power 600 Watts
£29.99 each.
Renewable Energy System Parts



CONVERTED PROGRAMMABLE DIGITAL TIMER RELAY
Mains powered programmable timer converted to low voltage with relay board
£21.99 each.
Renewable Energy System Parts



12 VOLT REGULATOR
Supply a fixed 12.0 Volt DC to your devices (up to 0.7 Amp output)
£4.79 each.
Complete Circuits



MR16 CERAMIC BULB HOLDER
Bulb holder for 12 Volt LED spotlight bulbs
£1.39 each.
Energy Efficient Lighting