Ian and his waterwise home

Sunday, 15 March 2009

Today was a huge water day for me. I had almost-nonstop contact with water, which was making me LOVE Brissie a lot. This blog entry is dedicated to Ian White and his waterwise home in Bundamba, Queensland, about 1 hour southwest of Brisbane.

9:53am read the clock on the GPS Wil lent us for our stay as we rolled passed a wooden sign with "La Boite" written on it. Ian greeted us where we parked, before the semi-wet zone in his garden. His waterwise home, a white Queenslander painfully restored to meet modern standards written for pre-fab suburban home features, stands proud against the backdrop of flat, fertile bank of the Brenner River.














"Over the last rainy season, from October to January, we were flooded up to the height of telephone poles. We had to kayak to and haul our groceries back from the store," he explained. I'm excited to meet someone in Australia as psyched about water as I am. Ian has just completed his PhD dissertation on the household experience with rainwater harvesting in Southeast Queensland, one of the fastest growing regions population-wise in Australia. I have been enjoying reading his masterpiece and here I pass along crunchy tidbits in this and future blog entries.

Despite the subtropical climate that Brisbane enjoys, SE Queensland is undergoing a drought period (since 2001!) and with catchment reservoirs located in the somewhat drier, more inland areas, rainwater harvesting has been adopted at pretty high levels. While less than 8% of SE Queensland households had adopted rainwater harvesting in 2004, by 2008 almost 40% did.

Ian took me on a tour of the water system in his house. Only the kitchen sink tap is connected to the town’s water supply. Water to the other taps (showers, sink, toilets, washing machine, hot water heater, and even a jacuzzi) is pumped from his 4,000-gallon (15,000-liter) rainwater tank, fitted with a 100-micron filter. The pump operates at variable speeds to provide constant water pressure, automatically sensing if higher pressure is needed, for example when more than one tap are turned on in the house. The pump is fitted with an additional 25-micron filter.

Water then flows into a water meter that measures the amount of rainwater actually drawn from the tank. Another device called the Rainsaver allows you to switch between rainwater and mains water, either manually at any time, or automatically when a float in the tank reaches a predesignated low level. Currently, the rainwater tank supplies 90% of the household's water, and surprise! the tank still regularly overflows during heavy rain and Ian is planning to install an additional 5,300-gallon tank. All wastewater is treated on site (because the house is on the 100-year floodplain and cannot get municipal sewage service) and the treated water is used for irrigating the garden. Voila, a closed loop system.

Step 1: Collect rainwater (from the hydrological cycle).
Step 2: Use rainwater.
Step 3: Treat used water.
Step 4: Return treated water to the hydrological cycle.
Step 5: Repeat Step 1.

Thanks, Ian, for showing me your waterwise home!