General Information
This might be usefull for people in the suburbs with water tanks. You can swap between tank water and mains water for your toilet. Easily installed by the handy-person.
I installed an extra toilet inlet valve so now the toilet has two, one for mains water and one for tank water. When you want to use the tank water you just turn the mains tap off at the normal tap behind the toilet. Water pressure is provided by a 12v "pressure pump" or it can also be provided by gravity only. The pump stops when the valve closes. 12volt power is provided by the same 120AH battery that runs the fridge (charged by 85watt solar panel). I just used irrigation poly pipe and fittings. I had to glue some of the joints so they wouldn't leak with the pressure. I wouldn't trust the pipes or fittings not to burst but they will be ok, just have to check them every now and then. To set this up with proper mains pressure pipe and fittings will cost a lot more, so i'll see how it goes and maybe one day i'll make it a bit more heavy duty.
Update: the 12v pump stopped working, so i removed it from the system and the toilet is now only gravity fed from the tank. When the tank level becomes lower than the toilet cistern you can just turn the Mains water tap back on.
This photo shows the two valves. The one with the blue fitting is the added extra. A lot of the new cisterns come with holes already in the base. These are made there incase you have to swap the valve to the other side to suit your pipework.
I installed an extra toilet inlet valve so now the toilet has two, one for mains water and one for tank water. When you want to use the tank water you just turn the mains tap off at the normal tap behind the toilet. Water pressure is provided by a 12v "pressure pump" or it can also be provided by gravity only. The pump stops when the valve closes. 12volt power is provided by the same 120AH battery that runs the fridge (charged by 85watt solar panel). I just used irrigation poly pipe and fittings. I had to glue some of the joints so they wouldn't leak with the pressure. I wouldn't trust the pipes or fittings not to burst but they will be ok, just have to check them every now and then. To set this up with proper mains pressure pipe and fittings will cost a lot more, so i'll see how it goes and maybe one day i'll make it a bit more heavy duty.
Update: the 12v pump stopped working, so i removed it from the system and the toilet is now only gravity fed from the tank. When the tank level becomes lower than the toilet cistern you can just turn the Mains water tap back on.
This photo shows the two valves. The one with the blue fitting is the added extra. A lot of the new cisterns come with holes already in the base. These are made there incase you have to swap the valve to the other side to suit your pipework.
