Grey Water Systems reduce water use by 30%

A pilot project to test whether reusing grey water is feasible began about a year ago. Fourteen homes have reuse systems installed,and the city Guelph -  Canada,would like another 16 homeowners to sign on.

Ben Polley is convinced.

The home builder installed a grey water system last year in the Manitoba Street heritage home he and wife Jen Woodside were renovating.

“Since we’ve installed it we have required zero city water for toilet flushing,” Polley said.

“Grey water” is used water leaving sinks,bathtubs and washing machines. Such water is collected,disinfected and stored in tanks,and then used instead of clean water to flush toilets.

“Most people would agree we don’t need potable water for toilet flushing,” Galliher said,adding reusing grey water can reduce water consumption by 30 per cent,and save homeowners accordingly on their water bill.

The funding will be used to support field testing,which will be done largely by University of Guelph engineering students. Researchers will monitor water quality and survey homeowners to track their satisfaction with the systems,as well as completing cost analyses and examining potential energy savings.

The city’s goal,depending on the study results,would be to install 200 residential grey water reuse systems by 2019.

Polley said he has been “intentionally negligent” with the system at his house to simulate the worst-case scenario of not performing regular maintenance on the system,which mostly involves cleaning out the filter.

He said when the system is not maintained,effluent is simply bypassed into the regular wastewater system “so it’s sort of foolproof. The worst case is you simply don’t realize the benefit from having it.”

Polley said there are a lot of eyes on Guelph to see if the program works,and rightly so.

“This could decrease home water use by 30 per cent if they are mandated to be installed in new homes and retrofitted into existing homes,” Polley said. “There’s no reason we shouldn’t all be using grey water.”