Graywater.org

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The vision for this site

Written by Art Ludwig • Friday, 27 February 2009 01:55

Greywater is household washwater from laundry, shower, etc., It is commonly reused for on site irrigation/ treatment in the landscape. [Note: Both spellings are used interchangeably on this website: graywater and greywater .]

Greywater systems are both rapidly evolving and more context-specific than any other green building technology.

Thus, greywater standards are the ultimate test case for the transition from static, proscriptive codes for one-size fits all solutions, to evolving performance codes for tightly integrated, site-specific ecological systems.

Entities that have chosen greywater standards as the key entry point into green regulation include the US Green Building Council and the City of Santa Barbara (greywater code compliance packages); and Oregon ReCode (new state law).

California's new greywater standard has the potential to become the new, de-facto world model greywater code.

The point of this site is to facilitate efficient collaboration on the part of Government and other stakeholders in the effort to do a really stellar job on new greywater standards.

The main components of this site are:

CA-standard listserv
for broadcasting e mail amongst California greywater law stakeholders...this has been very successful and active. It includes people who signed up at the CA stakeholder meetings, and several local lists which merged into it, from Sonoma, Santa Cruz, and the Bay Area.

Reference Library

Including:

Data and calculations
Studies
History
Links

Articles

By contributing editors

Forums
Including:

Greywater Science
Greywater policy
HCD-Stakeholder dialog
California Greywater Standard Stakeholder Consensus Language

(The listserv has virtually all the activity and the forums almost none, but there's a few useful things in there and the archive is easier to search)
The general public can post comments on most pages.

We are currently evaluating options for a webmaster to maintain the site long term, locations for hosting, etc.

Various people are contributing generously to this project. If you'd like to help out with content, time or money, please contact Oasis Design.

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new graywater system for concrete slab homes
written by kevin, July 26, 2010

Hi Everyone,

This post is regarding a very important overlooked issue regarding a simple graywater system for home owners to use at homes with concrete slab foundations. I designed a system that works and works well for this type of situation... The system uses a 12 volt pump designed for shower / bath water. The pump is located outside of the home and works on any home that has a bathroom with an exterior wall access. I have set this system up two ways, the first was to run 1/3 pvc piping through the window in the shower and down to the shower pan flooring. Attached to the PVC is a quick release coupler and a stainless steel braided hose connected to a strainer device that keeps hair and debris from being drawn out into the distribution lines for irrigation. The strainer will get the water down to 1/8 of an inch or 98% of the water from the shower.

Simply use a rubber drain cover to block the shower drain.
Turn the shower on
There is a switch located in or on the wall to turn the pump on from the shower area , push the switch and turn on the pump as soon as you start the shower.
The water is drawn up the pvc out the window or drill a hole in the wall about 4" above the shower floor.
The water is pumped out and directed to a branched drain or a collection tank.
If using a tank, Which I do, I have a submersible pump in the tank connected to 3/4 " PVC.
When the float switch on the pump is ctivated It pumps the shower water up and out, passing through a filter and the passes into q 3/4" poly line about 100 ft long.
Attached to the 3/4" poly line I am using a graywater dripperline called Irrigray. The flow rates are 2 gal. per hour and spaced 12" apart. I have 150 ft of irrigray under 2" of mulch and it is sub irrigating three planting areas of our home.

More on the system... The pump is connected to a battery and I am using a small 5 watt solar trickle charger to maintain the battery. I have aired the switch to the battery and the pump to turn it on or off by demand.
The homes plumbing is not altered in any way! I use a 4" rubber drain cover I bought from Home depot for $3.00

We have two adults and two teenagers showering daily and we reuse anywhere from 100 -150 gallons of greywater per day! just from showers.
a do it yourselfer can set this system op in a few hours and spend about $1200 - $1500 for a ready to go graywater system for a concrete slab home. Before this design it has been near impossible and would cost tens of thousands of dollars to try this.

Each family of four could expect to conserve and reuse about 36 - 40,000 gallons per year.
It is estimated that 70% of the homes in CA are on a concrete slab foundation. This will expand a huge resource that has been overlooked.

Please get back with questions and comments.

Sincerely,

kevin

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