HOW DOES IT WORK
The eaves store is like an old fashioned water tank where water was stored in a tank in your loft and it fed water into the house to be used for all purposes.
This water tank is designed to sit on the external walls of built structures where its load has been compensated for in the foundations if required, the eaves store can be any length to suit the building it is designed for, but the water collected here is only to flush toilets and not for consumption,
it also has a section to accommodate an inflow of water from the utilities water company if required to ensure supply in the event of drought.
The vertical store is a substitute rain water down pipe which is positioned under the outflow of the gutter in the normal way. The vertical store is usually 30 cm in diameter and 4 meters long ( see details on this site ), the store sits in the Ground Boot which secures the store to the ground and access to the overflow mains drain.
In operation the two patented products work in tandem to capture rain water from the roof and RECYCLE all used water from baths, basins, showers,
from the first floor and above.
This recycled water is often a continuous flow into the vertical store, so in heavy rain the flow from the eaves store overflow and the gutter will fill the vertical store, quite quickly. In this event the over flow system in the vertical store will discharge excess water into the main drainage system of the property.
The vertical store will pump stored water continuously on demand back into the eaves store, where it will be used to flush toilets. The solar powered pump is operated by internal float switch which will turn off when the water level is below the determined level. This cycle of water flow is governed by the flushing of toilets and its fail safe is the overflow into the mains drains.
The vertical store has a tap where cans can be filled for garden use and a connection from the pumped feed to supply a pressured flow to clean cars etc.
These products in operation will greatly reduce the need to fill toilet cisterns with purified drinking water, which will reduce the carbon foot print of water companies and save the user money.
The market for our water recycling system is the residential new build housing market which is currently in excess of 30,000 houses each year
guaranteed by Government Policy.
More Detail
The roof truss design is altered at the eaves to allow the gutter profile to catch all of the water from the roof without altering any of the roof tile formation.
The water simply runs into the gutter profile of the eaves store where three filters are employed to ensure that debris can not enter, there is a gutter guard that stops leaves and large elements, then there is the gutter brush which lays the full length of the gutter trough, It is a round sausage style brush which stops smaller debris, then the third filter is the angled back of the gutter profile which stops debris caught by the brush filter from entering. If over time there is any sand or grit build up this can be flushed out or removed from inside the roof, by removing the eaves store top lid access sections.
The water fills the water tank to its maximum and sits there until a toilet is flushed, this allows water to flow from the tank store, it is gravity fed to the toilet and controlled by the ball valve or similar in the toilet cistern which will stop and start the flow in the normal way.
At the end of the tank where the outflow to the toilet is positioned there is a small area of tank which has a small up-stand to create and retain about 8-10 litres of water. This water is from the utilities water supply which is controlled by ball valve. This feed of water is to guarantee that there will always be enough water to flush even if the eaves tank and the vertical tank (if fitted) are empty.
The Eaves store tank will fill to its maximum and flood over the barrier where the utilities section is formed ensuring that the flow utilities water does not trigger by ball valve control, as the valve will stay closed all the time there is enough rain or grey water in the store.
When the tank fills to its maximum the water will flow out of the overflow drain outlet which is at one end of the gutter profile as a normal gutter and overflow would be.
As the store is holding water and has an open edge, to stop the water from freezing in the tank, it is fitted with a solar powered 12v immersion heater and thermostat switch set at 2 degrees to stop the water from freezing. The tank is insulated inside the roof above its lid and inspection sections to insulate the roof and assist the temperature in the tank in severe weather.
As the water from the eaves overflows to the standard drain pipe it can enter the vertical water store and add substantially to the volume of water being retained to flush toilets.
As the water fills the vertical store it will rise and fill to a level near to the top of the wall mounted vessel, when full, the water will overflow out to the internal overflow and into the drainage system.
The Vertical store can be mains supplied and transformed to operate the self priming on demand 12v pump, float switch, thermo water heater and thermostatic switching. It can also be solar powered, where the same controls plus the lithium battery is constantly charged to supply power to the vertical store control housing unit which is integrated on to the unit.
The water from the vertical store is simply piped up to the open gutter lip of the eaves store in a small 20mm discreet pipe which just empties on demand until the vertical store is empty.
Grey water from baths, basins, washing machines etc. can be filtered and at the drain outlet before it enters the mains drain and can again be pumped to the eaves store using 20mm flexi pipe or discreet water pipe up into the eaves store again to flush toilets.
All of this water we have detailed here will eventually go back into the drainage system for re-use with the local water board.
......... a virtuous circle.