Gardens

Assuming an average household, under normal conditions, monthly use would be in the region 25,000 l of which 18,000 l can be re-cycled for re-use.

Grey water recycling can save up to 18,000 l of water & R300 per month – what is grey water?

Assuming a household of 4 persons and 1 domestic worker / gardener, under normal conditions, daily use would be in the region of:

Daily Monthly
2 baths depth of 150mm (2 people) 240* 7,200*
2 showers, 5 minutes each (2 people) 80* 2,400*
Toilet flushes 4 per person (5 people) 240 7,200*
Washbasin 2 per person @20 l (5 people) 200* 6,000*
Washing machine @ 5 loads per week (4 people) 65* 1,950*
Cooking & drinking (5 people) 20 600
Dishwashing (5 people) 20 600
General usage – washing floor, etc 25 750
Total usage 890 26,700
490 litres / day or 14,7kl / month over the current non-penalty consumption and you haven’t even thought of watering your garden

Converting this to a monetary cost, you will be charged 12 kl at normal rate and 14.7 kl at penalty rate, so total water bill is R203.50 – without watering your garden or filling your pool (both of which are currently prohibited).

Added to this, the normal garden tap discharges around 15 l / min (conservatively), so if you were to use a sprinkler system or hosepipe for 2 hours twice a week, you would be using around 16 kl per month at a cost of R11.92 / kl, = R190.00 per month.

By installing a Water wizard Grey Water System, you would recycle in the region of 600l / day or 18kl / month – nearly 20 hours of hosepipe time – all at no cost, so a R190 per month saving.

Most people don’t realize it, but your sewage charge is based on your water consumption, so added to this, at a sewage charge of R6.00 per kl of water consumed, by recycling  (reducing consumption) by 18kl, you save a further R108 per month, so total saving is R298.00 per month for a family of four.

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