The Rainwater Harvester Working Again - Kingspan Envireau to the Tip

Apologies for the tedious rants about the fiendishly expensive but for us useless Kingspan Envireau rainwater harvesting system.   I should have started worrying when the enormous great underground tank arrived on a low loader - from Northern Ireland I think.   You see these absurd things on the motorways from time to time.   Our Kingspan Envireau 1000 gallon tank arrived on a day when Restoration Man were filming.   Indeed, the arrival of the rainwater system that day was one of the reasons the film crew were there.

We supposed, wrongly, that Kingspan Envireau would appreciate the potential free advertising - if not for their precise system but for the concept of rainwater harvesting and its benefits.

The Kingspan driver's face drained of colour when he saw the film crew.   "No filming" he shouted.  "Health and safety!"   I still puzzle about this surprising twist to the day.    Needless to say the film crew, like true professionals, kept on filming.   If the tank blew up or something dramatically unhealthy or unsafe happened they were NOT going to miss it.   Health and Safety is right up there with Data Protection as a general purpose admonition intended to scare the pants off the vulnerable and naive.   Tiger Aspect's crew were of sterner stuff,   They were there to make a TV programme, not to be cowed by a delivery driver.

Unsurprisingly the Kingspan Envireau rainwater harvesting system did not appear in either of our Restoration Man episodes.   Kingspan Envireau did however get an honourable mention on Channel 4's website as one of our suppliers, more's the pity.   Our project appeared on the Kingspan Envireau website - and it is still there.   It would be good if they would remove it now that their fiendish system has given us so much trouble.

Here is what replaces it.   No menu buttons and digital displays.   Just an analogue dial showing the pressure in the system and a light that comes on when the pump is actually in action.

 click to enlarge

With limited plumbing skills I fitted it all myself.   I could have hidden it away but as it is in the utility room already full of machinery it does not matter that it is prominently on show.   Furthermore the dial is at eye level.

The white bulge at the back is a pressure vessel which ensures that the pump does not activate every time a toilet is flushed but waits until the system pressure (4 Bars) falls below a certain level.

If the thing fails to work I can just replace it myself for 1/4 of the price of a Kingspan Envireau engineer's visit.

I feel quietly chuffed at the result.

Did I mention that I dislike Kingspan Envireau by the way?