A community rainwater harvesting system which is reusing water for multiple homes

Community Rainwater Harvesting Systems

Community Rainwater Harvesting collects and recycles rainwater from the roof area of multiple homes within a housing development to provide a secondary sustainable supply of water to each home for non-potable use.

The communal approach to rainwater harvesting is widely regarded by the water industry as the preferred solution for effective rainwater management on new housing developments. Community systems offer improved water efficiency and better flood risk management.

Community Rainwater Harvesting can be combined with the necessary on-site attenuation capacity to count towards 100% of storm water storage requirements.

Find out more about community rainwater harvesting below.

12-month Warranty

Stormsaver Community Rainwater Harvesting Systems come with a 12-month Warranty.

How Community Rainwater Harvesting Works

Our combined rainwater harvesting and attenuation system works similar to our other rainwater harvesting systems.

Rainwater runoff is collected from the roof area of each home within the development. Rainwater is then channelled through roof drainage points and into a separate network of pipes. The separation of pipework prevents the reclaimed rainwater from entering the traditional drainage system.

Reclaimed rainwater is then transported to a main rainwater storage tank which is sized according to your bespoke site requirements. Prior to entry, the reclaimed rainwater is filtered through a pre-tank mesh filter arrangement. This filter helps to prevent large debris and leaves from entering the storage tank.

An inlet calmer prevents fine sediment on the base of the tank from being disturbed. When a demand for non-potable water is detected by the advanced control panel, the rainwater is then channelled through a floating suction filter. Not only is this designed to extract water from the cleanest part of the tank, but it also prevents finer particles from reaching usage points.

Reclaimed rainwater can then be distributed to non-potable usage points via a booster set.

A separate tank arrangement acts as the stormwater attenuation tank and collects water runoff from other surfaces. Whilst these two tanks are connected, reclaimed water is not mixed due to stormwater run off containing much more contaminants than rainwater which is collected from roofs.

When the Stormsaver Active Attenuation System detects an incoming storm, the control panel ensures 100% of attenuation capacity (using both tanks) is available to collect all stormwater runoff.

More information on Community Rainwater Harvesting

The benefits of the communal approach

Reduce mains water demand across all homes within a development and protect the community from the risk of localised flooding.
Takes advantage of commercial grade quality components rather than cheaper, less-robust domestic products which may not last the test of time.
One central rainwater harvesting system to maintain rather than many individual home systems reducing maintenance costs.
Removes the responsibility of maintenance from the homeowner who will not have sufficient knowledge to maintain a rainwater harvesting system.
Offers centralised monitoring of water savings and storage levels within the system for the incumbent water company and local authority helping to facilitate improved planning for water supplies during droughts and better flood risk management.
There is less scope for error during the installation process.
Prevents future homeowners from switching their individual home system off due to a lack of understanding; therefore, the system would be of no benefit to the homeowner or the community.
Creates more space for the developer to build more homes or community facilities within the development over using traditional balancing ponds or swales.
Connects up to attenuation with smart weather monitoring technology with Active Attenuation from StormHarvester.
Improved regulation for local authorities to ensure illegal mains water bypasses are not installed on the rainwater harvesting system which contradicts WRAS air gap requirements.

The need for communal rainwater harvesting

Water is one of our most precious resources. Rainwater harvesting can help protect water supplies for critical activities like drinking and sanitation.

Only approximately 25% of the total water consumed in UK homes is used for drinking, sanitation and food preparation. The remaining 75% is used for non-potable activities. Yet homes are still being constructed with single drinking water supplies which unnecessarily wastes high-quality drinking water for activities like toilet flushing.

Communal rainwater harvesting provides a secondary, more sustainable point of supply to each home. rainwater harvesting also offers better flood controls for local authorities and water companies as the volume of stormwater entering the combined sewer network is decreased dramatically. This reduces the risk of infamous combined sewer overflows polluting our rivers and seas.

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We are here to help answer your questions about Community Rainwater Harvesting.