Rainwater Collection, Storage and Supply System
Field of Invention
5 The present invention relates to a system to collect, by means of atmospheric pressure, store and supply of rainwater, for non-hygienic water usage in domestic and industrial.
Background to the Invention
10
The conventional rainwater collection system has gutter x mounted under the edge of a building's roof. At least one downpipe is connected to the gutter. At the other free end of the downpipe is a tank to store the rainwater. The rainwater 15 is taken out for usage by using a bucket or through a water tape.
In prior art GB2314367 and GB2286849, a water pump is used to supply and to store rainwater at higher level of the building 20 respectively. The water pump needs electricity to function, which cost money. The water pump might need maintenance, which cost money too. If the water pump fails, rainwater supply may ;• be cut off.
25 In prior art GB2344132, rainwater is collected from the roof and goes straight into water tanks installed right under the roof. Although no electric pump is required, this might be costly for an existing building. The building's roof needs to be modified to fit in the rainwater collector, whereby this
30 will cause the possibility of leakage problem to the roof and the gutter and the rainwater will directly leak into the building.
The present invention seeks to improve on previous systems. One of the objects of this invention is to reduce the cost of implementing a rainwater collection, storage and supply system by using the existing drainage system instead of modify the 5 existing roof. The rainwater collection, storage and supply system will connect all the existing downpipes to a new pipe, which is connected to a rainwater tank.
Another object of this invention is to collect, store and
10 supply rainwater without the use of water pump. This invention uses atmospheric pressure to transfer collected rainwater from
~; gutter down to a dirt collection chamber and up to a rainwater tank. Therefore, this invention will avoid additional cost of a water pump's electricity and maintenance bills.
15
Still another object of the invention is to provide an effective rainwater collection system to reduce the rainwater flow into the river so as to reduce the flood problem.
20 Summary Of The Invention
A rainwater collection, storage and supply system for j rainwater falling onto the roof of a building comprising of: rainwater collection means mounted on the said roof; rainwater
25 storage means for storing said rainwater collected from said rainwater collection means; connection means to connects said collection means and storage means; supply means to supply the collected rainwater from said rainwater storage means for usage; and characterised in that the system uses the
30 atmospheric pressure to transfer rainwater from said rainwater collection means to said storage means and to maintain the water level in said storage means.
Preferably said connection means comprises of: at least one downpipe connected to said gutter; at least one rainwater collection pipe connected to said rainwater storage means; and a dirt collection chamber for connecting said downpipe and said rainwater collection pipe together to form a generally U- shaped connection means.
Preferably said dirt collection chamber further comprises of: a detachable filter mounted in between of said rainwater collection pipe and said dirt collection chamber to filter out any dirt which is bigger than a predetermined size; and a detachable cover at the bottom open end of said dirt collection chamber for flashing out the dirt collected in said dirt collection chamber
Preferably said system further comprising of water supply backup means during long drought.
Brief Description of the Drawings
Figure 1 shows rainwater collection, storage and supply system.
Detailed Description of the Invention
The system to collect, store and supply of rainwater according to the present invention may be best understood with reference to the drawing and the accompanying detail description.
With reference now to the drawing, Figure 1 shows a rainwater collection, storage and supply system, generally designated 10, has a rainwater' collection means which is gutter (21) rigidly mounts under the edge of a building's roof (22). The
said gutter is connected with a connection means which comprises of at least one downpipe (23) ; at least one rainwater collection pipe (27) and a dirt collection chamber (24). The downpipe (23), rainwater collection pipe (27) and the dirt collection chamber collectively forming a generally U-shaped connection means. The downpipe (23) is connects to the gutter (21) at various locations of the roof (22) . The other end of the downpipe (23) is connects to said dirt collection chamber (24) . The bottom open end of the dirt collection chamber (24) is covers by a detachable cover (25) . A detachable filter (26) is positions at the top end of the dirt collection chamber (24). A rainwater collection pipe (27) is connects between the detachable filter (26) and a rainwater storage means (28) through a rainwater inlet (29) of the rainwater storage means (28), whereby the said top end of the rainwater collection pipe (27) is positions at a predetermine height, which is not higher than the bottom of the gutter (21) and same height with an overflow outlet (30) of the rainwater storage means (28). The connection of the downpipe (23), the rainwater collection pipe (27) and the detachable cover (25) to the dirt collection chamber (24) are preferably tight sealed to prevent leakage of the water through the connection.
When more than one rainwater storage means (28) is use for rainwater storage, each end of a connection pipe (31) is interconnects close to the bottom of the two adjacent rainwater storage means (28) . A main water inlet (32) is positioned at a predetermine height- (50) which is sufficient enough to supply water for non-hygienic uses, whereby said height is controlled by a water level controller (40) mounted at said main water inlet (32) . The main water inlet (32) is connects to a main water tank (33) by a main water supply pipe (34) . The main water supply pipe (34) is also extended down for other hygienic uses. Water supply outlet (35) is positions
close to the bottom of the rainwater storage means (28). A rainwater supply pipe (36) is connects between the water supply outlet (35) for non-hygienic uses.
The water level controller (40) will turn off the main water supply when the water has reaches a predetermine level (51) in the main water tank (33) . A clean water overflow outlet (38) is position slightly higher than a clean water inlet (42) to discharge any excess water in the main water tank (33) .
When rainwater falls onto the roof (22), the rainwater will flow onto the gutter (21) , which will channel the rainwater to at least one downpipe (23) . By means of atmospheric pressure, the rainwater will flow down through the downpipe (23) to the dirt collection chamber (24) and up to the rainwater collection pipe (27) . When there is water inside a generally U shaped pipe, naturally when the water inside the downpipe (23) gets higher, this will consequently raise up the water filled in the rainwater collection pipe (27) at the same time, whereby the water level at each end is always level. The detachable filter (26) is positions between the dirt collection chamber (24) and the rainwater collection pipe
(27) , which connects to the rainwater storage means (28) . The detachable filter (26) will filter out any dirt bigger than a predetermined size. Those filtered dirt will settle down in the dirt collection chamber (24) . The detachable cover (25) is positions at the bottom open end of the dirt collection chamber (24) . To remove the filtered dirt, the detachable cover (25) is removed from the dirt collection chamber (24) . Water inside the downpipe (23) and the rainwater collection pipe (27) will flash out the dirt through the open end of the dirt collection chamber (24) . Since the rainwater inlet (29) of the rainwater storage means
(28) is not higher than the bottom of the gutter (21), the
rainwater will flow into the rainwater storage means (28) . The rainwater overflow outlet (30) is level with the rainwater inlet (29) . When the rainwater level in the rainwater storage means (28) is higher than the rainwater inlet (29) , the rainwater will flow out of the rainwater storage means (28) through the overflow outlet (30) .
When the water in the rainwater storage means (28) used below the predetermine level (50) , automatically the water level controller will activated to enable the water from the main water tank (33) to supply to the rainwater storage means (28) and to maintain said water in the rainwater storage means (28) at the predetermine level (50) . During long drought, no additional water will be filled up when the rainwater level drops no lower than a predetermined level (50) in the rainwater storage means (28) . Once the rainwater level drops below the predetermined level (50) , only then, clean water from the main water tank (33) will fill up the rainwater storage means (28) to the predetermined level (50) in order to ensure a consistency supply of water for non-hygienic uses. The main water tank (33) is installed higher than the rainwater storage means (28) .
It is to be understood that the present invention may be embodied in other specific forms and is not limited to the sole embodiment described above. However modification and equivalents of the disclosed concepts such as those which readily occur to one skilled in the art are intended to be included within the scope of the claims which are appended thereto.