freediver
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www.ozpolitic.com
Posts: 51164
At my desk.
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Here is what I installed:
1 PVC T style diverter. This has an inbuilt tap so you can divert the water down the regular downpipe, into the bypass, or block the drain. I put it in one location where I could not run a long pipe and had to divert the water overhead instead. When it rains heavily, a large volume of water comes out. I have tried to shape the end of the pipe so it spreads the water a bit, but it needs work. So far there has been no erosion, and only minimal hole digging where the water hits the ground. There is a gentle slope away from the house at this location. As far as I can tell all the water soaks into the ground. I have had a wander round in heavy rain and could not see any overland flows. You have to cut out the existing PVC elbow and replace it with the T piece, using plumbers glue. I thought the tap bit was necessary so it could be turned off if it got too much water, but I have not needed to yet. There is a 15 degree bend to get the water flowing downhill. This is not glued in, to allow the outflow to be turned to some extent so that I can direct the water onto different locations. I could also use 23 or 45 degree bends to spread it wider, but the water tends to spread out a bit anyway when it hits the ground.
3 poly pipe diverters. Each consists of a PVC snap-on T, a PVC end cap and a tank adapter to convert to 19mm poly pipe. I had to do a custom mod to get the tank adapter onto the end cap because there is no standard converter from 90mm PVC to 19mm poly pipe at Bunnings. I cut the tank adapter short where there was limited head room. To attach the tank adapter, I cut out a hole just big enough and the tank adapter clamps on with rubber washer seals. Where the T snaps on to the PVC pipe I drilled a series of 10mm holes to drain the water from the downpipe into the snap-on T (and filter out chunky bits). All 3 of these diverters go into a common hose that I can drain anywhere on the lawn. Two of them also have an extra overflow for heavy rain (including the one pictured). This design has the advantage of limiting the flow rate, because of the capacity of the 19mm poly pipe and the garden hose I use. It is all gravity fed and set up so the water goes into the hose first, then the poly pipe overflow (and onto the ground) if it backs up and the rest goes down the regular downpipe in really heavy rain. There are inline valves (taps) at the three top locations and also on the hose adapter. Being able to move the hose is also a big advantage over the other design. Another advantage is the minimal work done to the downpipe. I could remove it all, plug the 10mm holes and there would be little visual impact. I also did not need any plumbers glue. Zip ties were enough, and the end cap is not even glued onto the T piece. The poly overflows can be turned over a wide angle to direct the overflows to different locations.
I have installed a tank with a pump before. Overall I am happy with this alternative. It is much cheaper and easier to set up. Unless you get droughts where there is no rain at all for months, this would probably be good enough. The ground can be a very effective water storage, and the more biomass in it, the more it can soak up. When I installed the tank, I did a lot of work to connect all the PVC downpipes to it. This alternative makes it easier to take advantage of downpipes where it would be difficult to run long pipes to a tank.
Since I have installed this, the lawn has greened up, thanks to a few showers, and I am gradually regreening all the dead patches of lawn.
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