Sand Filters for Greywater
Sand Filters For Greywater
Find out how to clean used bath and shower water so it can be used on the garden or stored
water | shoppingGreywater describes waste water which is a little bit dirty - for example, water which has been used in a bath or shower. Using a
diverter valve, or
syphon pump this water can be diverted from the waste pipe and used to water plants in the garden.
Filtering Greywater
Used bath and shower water can be used directly to water most plants without any problems at all. However, if this
greywater is to be stored - for example to enable evening watering - or if it is to be used to water
fruits and vegetables it should first be filtered.
When you take a bath, soap, shampoo, and other chemicals end up in the water together with your sweat, dead skin, hair, bacteria, and pathogens. If this cocktail is left in a waterbutt for a few hot summers days it will start to smell awful. Vegetables and other edible crops watered with the recycled water could be also be tainted.
Simple Domestic Greywater Filtering
A basic
greywater filtration system can be made at home by anyone with limited DIY skills.
Greywater is first passed through a coarse
mesh filter bag.
This removes any large particles such as lint and hair immediately. The
greywater is then passed through a much finer filter to remove as many of the small particles as possible.
Greywater Sand Filter
An example of a
sand filter system is shown above. Basically it is made up of a thin layer of gravel topped off with a much thicker layer of sand within a waterproof container (old plastic dustbin, water butt, or barrel/drum). Coarsly filtered water passes through the sand being finely filtered as it goes before emerging at the bottom. The deeper the layer of sand, the better the filtration. An
inline disk filter in the outlet pipe can be used to catch any last particles.
The filter described and illustrated in the paragraph above is a
fast sand filter. Water passes quickly through the filter and small particles are removed. The sand in the filter needs to be washed quite regularly to remove accumulated particles from between the grains of sand.
Slow Sand Filter
A
slow sand filter remove the tiniest particles from water - even smaller than the gap between the very fine grains of sand in the filter. A slow and constant flow of water through the filter described above leads to
biological activity as the top layer of sand traps micro-organisms (e.g. bacteria and viruses). These micro-organisms digest disease-causing
pathogens when they too get trapped in the sand. In time a
bio-film builds up on top of the sand through which few pathogens can cross.
For a
slow sand filter to work, the flow of water through it must be pretty much constant. A few hours without greywater and biological activity can cease as the biological layer become stagnant. Cleaning a slow sand filter is usually achieved by simple scraping off the top few centimeters of sand from the container.
Disinfecting Greywater
Water which has been filtered can be used to irrigate edible crops and can be stored a little bit longer than non-filtered water. For
greywater to be stored for more than a day it must be disinfected - typically with
chlorine or
iodine to kill any pathogens which remain in it. A couple of tablespoons of bleach per gallon of stored water will do the job and the chlorine from the
bleach will vaporise (evaporate away) in a couple of days.
This is not environmentally-friendly and definitely not good for the garden if chlorine concentrations build up, so greywater collected for garden irrigation should ideally be used immediately. Chlorine-treated greywater is best used for
toilet flushing.
Click here for more information on
disinfecting greywater.
Article Last Modified: 11:20, 26th May 2007
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