What is Rainwater Harvesting

Put simply, rainwater harvesting is simply the technique of collecting filtered water that falls on to the roof of a building, and storing it ready for re-use.

With water prices rising and the continually increasing demand for water consumption, more and more businesses are realising the benefits of harvesting rainwater. There is also a growing desire and consumer demand for companies to operate more sustainably and to reduce their impact upon our environment.

Rainwater harvesting offers not only a solution to reducing demands on water supplies, but can also give significant financial benefits, in some cases saving £1000’s year on year. With many new commercial buildings being constructed to meet the requirements of BREEAM, rainwater harvesting is becoming increasingly commonplace and is now a well tried and tested technology.

Rainwater harvesting systems for commercial and industrial buildings are generally bigger, more sophisticated versions of those used for domestic situations.

Most components will be larger, in particular tanks and filter units, and sized to suit the supply and demand of water required. Commercial installations will often involve additional features for ease of control and to ensure uninterrupted supply, and can include features such as UV disinfection, automatic backwashing, or monitoring display units.

Harvested water can be put to many commercial uses and buildings with a high demand for non-potable water can see immediate savings benefits, giving a quick return on investment. With a wide range of products on-hand and our considerable expertise in harvesting rainwater, we can supply solutions to meet all requirements.

Schools are particularly suitable due to large roof areas and high number of occupants.

It is important to understand the difference between the options when choosing a system for your project.

A ‘direct’ system, as its name suggests, collects and sends water directly to the points of use. It includes a backup connection from the mains cold water supply fed into the harvesting tank. The tank will receive a partial low-level refill from the mains supply as and when required. The important thing to bear in mind here is that the supply of water is dependent entirely upon the electric pumps, so if there should be a power failure it will not be possible to use the appliances connected to the system.

An indirect system differs in that it includes a second (invariably smaller) tank located within the building. This acts as a break tank which accepts the backup connection from the mains water supply. If used at high level as a header tank (indirect gravity system), then even when there is no power available for the pumps, the system will continue to run uninterrupted.

The outlet from this tank can be boosted if a greater pressure is required, or if it cannot be located sufficiently high enough within the building for gravity use. A booster set can consist of one or more pumps and will be sized according to requirements (boosted gravity system)