Rainwater harvesting

[BettySpaghetti]

DP has been looking into rainwater harvesting and how feasible and efficient it would be for us. It seems quite costly -underground collection system and pump is around £3000. There are cheaper options (above ground etc) but underground makes more sense.

Has anyone any experience? Know of any cheaper suppliers etc

TIA

My grandad just had a big barrel with guttering leading into it..what's it for? He used his to water plants on his allotment. Don't know about using it to flush loo's sorry..

my dad has a a barrell, too, w/a gutter and a mosquito screen over it, just the standard stuff they use on windows in the US to keep bugs out.

but like MT's dad, he only uses it for watering in the garden and to wash his car.

we use a water butt, we are looking into getting a few more. It's cheap
You can get rainwater collecter roof tanks that go in your loft that supply to cold water supply, for toilets and showers too btw...

With this system you save the rainwater in a big underground tank and it is filtered and pumped to your loo and washing machine.

We have a standard water butt by the garage for garden use but this system would collect water from the house roof.

I filled a washing up bowl from a waterbutt today and used the water to flush the loo (we have a loo that never works right). It's a lot cheaper than spending £3000.

We've been trying to work out how to do something similar, and have very reluctantly decided it's just too expensive.
I think a cubic metre of water costs about £1 (not sure where I got that figure from). We couldn't store more than 6 cubic metres, and can't work out how we'd save more than 30 cubic metres/year of mains water (ie payback time: 100 years).
We were also told that unless you clear your drains out regularly (and we can't without scaffolding!!) the loos will start to smell of rotting vegetation. And you need a double system of pipes, with all the mucking around inside that involves.
So we've decided to stick with mains for all inside stuff and get two enormous waterbutts for the garden - the orange juice containers.