Category Archives: rainwater

Controller for Simple Rainwater Toilet Flush System

Posted on by

We continue to make a wide range of controllers for rainwater toilet flush systems. Pictured below is one of the simpler units for use in systems with just one float switch located near the top of a toilet cistern, with the supply coming from a water butt that has a pump with run dry protection or a well with a 100% consistent supply of water.Controller for rainwater pump to fill toilet cistern with one float switch

As the inside of a toilet cistern can have very turbulent water, this controller is built with automatic time delays. The float switch has to be detected to be down (after toilet flushing) continuously for two seconds before the pump will be turned on, and then the float switch has to be detected to be up continuously for two seconds before the pump will be turned off again (cistern refilled above the height of the float switch).

We also make controllers for systems with header tanks feeding multiple toilets, up to three float switches, with displays to show system status, and/or dataloggers to keep track of number of flushes and/or the volume of rainwater used etc. Some of these are detailed in our rainwater category.

If you require any kind of rainwater toilet flush pump controller, please email neil@reuk.co.uk with details of your planned system and requirements.

Controller for Multi-Pump Irrigation System Water Distribution

Posted on by

Pictured below is a diagram of an irrigation system comprising three water tanks located on three terraces. The lowest tank contains a bilge pump which will pump water up to the next terrace, and the tank on that terrace has a pump to send water up to the top tank.
Irrigation system diagram - multi tank, multi pump, multi terrace

The bilge pump has its own float switches and will, when powered, start pumping when its upper float switch detects water (full tank) and will stop when its lower float switch does not detect water (empty tank).

The two higher tanks have float switches so that their water level status can be monitored. Pictured below is the controller we built to manage the two pumps in order to best distribute the stored water across the three tanks while minimising overflow wastage. Ideally no tank should ever be completely empty, and no tank should be full and overflowing if the next higher tank is not full.

irrigation system pump controllerThis controller, built around an Arduino Pro Mini monitors the status of the float switches of the two upper tanks to decide when power should be supplied to a pump or pumps. If for example the middle tank is full, and the top tank is not, the Tank 2 pump will be run until either the middle tank is empty or the top tank is full. If the bottom tank is full, and Tank 2 is not, then the bilge pump will fill up Tank 2.

In order to prevent multi-switching (a pump being turned on and off rapidly and repeatedly) timers are built into this controller so that a pump will always overrun by 10 seconds when it is to be turned off. This will ensure that the state of the float switch which called for the pump to be turned off will be stable and unaffected by turbulence in tank.

If you need any type of pump controller, please email neil@reuk.co.uk with details of your requirements.

Rainwater Toilet Pump Controller with Display and Timer

Posted on by

Pictured below is another of our rainwater toilet pump controllers  which we recently built and supplied.rainwater toilet pump controller with display and timer

This particular unit will be used in a system configured as follows:
There is a large water butt with 2000 litre capacity (to which a further 1000 litre capacity will soon be added). There is a 210 litre header tank which gravity feeds the toilets in the property. The header tank has a float switch near the top to detect when it is full, and a float switch near the bottom to detect when it is nearly empty. The pump chosen can fill the header tank from empty in around 6 minutes, and the pump has its own float switch protection (so that it will not run dry if the water butt is empty). Finally there is a solenoid valve fitted to a mains water supply which when turned on, will fill the header tank.

header tank not full display rainwater toilet pump controllerThe controller has a display which is used to show the status of the header tank – full, not full, or empty – and also the status of the pump and solenoid valve.

solenoid valve on water butt empty display

Once an hour, the controller will turn on the pump if the upper float switch indicates that the header tank is not full. The pump will run until the upper float switch floats on a full tank OR for 8 minutes since if the pump runs that long, the water butt must be empty or there is a problem with the pump.

If at any time (except while the pump is running) the lower float switch indicates that the header tank is empty, the solenoid valve will open sending mains water into the header tank until the upper float switch indicates the tank is now full.
After another hour has passed, the controller will attempt to top up the tank with rainwater as normal, and will only top it up with mains water if the tank is empty.

If you need a rainwater toilet pump controller, email neil@reuk.co.uk with details of your requirements. Take a look at some of our previous controllers here: rainwater.

Rainwater Toilet Pump Controller with Display and Timer

Posted on by

Pictured below is a rainwater toilet pump controller which is different from those we usually make.

Rainwater toilet pump controller with display to show cumulative minutes that the pump has run.It is designed for a standard system which has two float switches in the header tank (one near the top and one near the bottom) as well as a float switch near the bottom of the water butt to prevent the pump running when there is no water to pump.

This particular controller also has a display which shows the status of the float switches and system status, and also has a built in timer which stores and displays the cumulative duration for which the pump has been running.

Display for rainwater toilet pump controller to show status and cumulative pump run time.With this timing information, and knowing the flow rate of the pump used, it is possible to easily calculate the volume of rainwater which has been supplied to the toilets and therefore how much mains water (and therefore money) has been saved with the system.

If you need any type of rainwater toilet system pump controller email neil@reuk.co.uk with details of your specific requirements.

Rainwater Toilet Flush Pump Controller with Overrun Protection

Posted on by

We make a wide selection of rainwater toilet flush pump controllers for domestic use, and pictured below is another of these.

Rainwater toilet flush pump controllerThis particular controller is designed to be used where there is a very large amount of rainwater storage and a relatively small header tank. In this scenario, if the float switch which detects whether the header tank is full were ever to fail or get jammed with debris etc, 1000’s of litres of stored rainwater could be pumped out through the header tank overflow and lost.

In this controller, the user can programme in a maximum pump running time. If the pump ever runs for longer than that time, it will automatically be turned off, and will not turn on again until there has been manual intervention from the user (checking over everything and resetting the controller).

In standard operation, the controller simply checks the status of the header tank float switch located just below the tank overflow outlet, and shows this status with an LED indicator. Once every four hours, the controller tops up the header tank by turning on the pump and running it until the header tank is detected to to be full.

If you need any kind of pump controller, please contact neil@reuk.co.uk with details of your exact requirements.

Rainwater Toilet Flush Pump Controllers with LCD

Posted on by

We have been making a bespoke range of controllers for people who would like to use rainwater for their toilet flushes for around 6-7 years now. Here is an example of one of our early Rainwater Toilet Flush System Controllers with details of how such a system works.

rainwater pump controller with LCD display and empty water butt sleep functionPictured above is one of our more advanced systems which includes an LCD display to keep the user up to date with the status of the system and water levels in the water butt and header tank (which gravity feeds to the toilet cisterns in the home).

In this particular case, if the two float switches in the header tank are not in water, the tank is empty, and so the pump turns on to fill the tank. If there is sufficient water in the water butt to fill the tank, then the pump will stop when the tank is detected to be full. If however the water butt is empty (or becomes empty during pumping), then then controller sleeps for four hours to allow a rain shower to collect a good amount of rainwater (if it rains in the meantime) so that pumping later will fill the tank.

rainwater controller system normal LCD displayThe display constantly shows the status of the water butt (WB) – either OK or LOW (empty), and the status of the header tank (HT) – either EMPTY, OK, or FULL. The bottom line of the display shows whether the pump is running, the controller is sleeping, or everything is just ticking along as it should.

rainwater pump controller with mains water solenoid and LCD displayThe controller pictured above is a little more advanced. If the header tank is detected to be empty, then the pump will start as normal unless the water butt is also empty. If during pumping, the water butt becomes empty (or if it is already empty when the header tank is detected to be empty), a solenoid valve will close which will allow the flow of water up the rising main to enter the header tank to ensure that the toilets can always be flushed without any manual intervention.

rainwater controller with solenoid valve activatedThe display for this particular controller also shows the user when the solenoid valve is open so they know that you are using mains water due to a lack of stored rainwater in the water butt. There is no need for a four hour delay with this unit since every time the header tank empties and the water butt is either empty or becomes empty during pumping, the mains water supply will top up the header tank.

This controller is based around an Arduino Pro Mini microcontroller development board and uses standard horizontal float switches in the water butt and header tank to detect water levels.

If you need a rainwater toilet pump controller of any type, please email neil@reuk.co.uk with details of your specific requirements.

Rainwater Pump Controller – Anti-Interference Modifications

Posted on by

Pictured below is one of our rainwater toilet flush pump controller units which we have had to modify to overcome a problem with interference.

rainwater toilet pump controller programmed to cope with interference in long float switch cablesThe customer had a problem with the original unit we supplied due to the length of the cables running to the float switch in the header tank – more than 10 metres. This controller is designed to check the status of a float switch at the top of a header tank every two hours. If the header tank is found to not be full then the pump is turned on until it is full, pumping water from a water butt at ground level up to the header tank which gravity feeds the toilets.

The way we had programmed the original unit, the float switch had to remain high on the full water level continuously for one second before the pump would be switched off. Unfortunately during that one second of multiple measurements, at least one measurement was getting scrambled by interference resulting in the pump staying on continuously.

For the new modified unit, the controller tests the status of the float switch 10 times every half a second, and if more than seven of those readings are high, the controller will turn off the pump.

There are ways that we could have suppressed the interference problem with modifications to the hardware, but as we could not test the controller on site we chose a software method which we have found to work well previously – particularly in Eastern and Southern Europe where they seem to have more interference problems than here in the UK.

New Product – Rainwater Toilet Flush Pump Controller

Posted on by

This week we launched another new product – the REUK Rainwater Toilet Flush Pump Controller as pictured below.

REUK Rainwater Toilet Pump Flush Controller

We have been selling different rainwater toilet pump controllers now for seven years, so this new product pulls together all the experience and knowledge we have gained over all those years together with customer feedback from hundreds of users.

For simplicity, reliability, and cost, this device uses just one float switch mounted near the top of the header tank together with a mains powered pump with its own float switch protection.

Every thirty minutes the controller tests the status of the header tank float switch, and if the header tank is found to not be full then the pump is run until the header tank is full ready to gravity feed the toilet(s) in the home.

A button has been added to the controller to enable manual override of the thirty minute timer so that the pump can be force run until the header tank is full – particularly useful for system testing and topping up if required.

This device is not available yet in the REUK Shop. It is currently available for sale exclusively here for now: REUK Rainwater Toilet Pump Controller. We can also supply a suitable relay – ideally solid state, the float switch, and a 12V plug in power supply to complete full control system.

Contact neil@reuk.co.uk with details of your requirements for more information.