Our design aim was to harvest all water needed for washing, have the option to be off grid for all water and to recycle grey water for food growing.
The roof was specifically designed to get as much rain water harvesting going as possible. Rain is pre filtered through a vortex filter, a very clever and simple stainless steel design from our partners Wisy in Germany. Rainwater is collected, filtered and stored in Wisy underground tanks giving us a 10,000 litre storage capacity. All super strong kit from pioneers in rainwater collection.
Grey water (from washing) is filtered into reedbeds and used on the gardens, while no black water is generated from our dry toilet. Mains drinking water is also plumbed into the kitchen and bathroom in a third faucet, so we always have the choice of drinking from mains. We have a dual water system, which gives us the ability to simply switch the whole house over to mains and back again to just rainwater back.
Water free toilet
This ensures no water pollution is created by the Groundhouse and lets us return nutrients to the land. Our Separret toilet separates urine, which enters the grey water system, from solids, which are kept dry and odour free until the collecting chamber needs emptying. Solids are composted and later returned to the garden.
