Hi

With only 22 liters of water, this was my attempt to wash and then winter wax our Octy 4x4 today. Why ?? well its not unusual in our neck of the woods to be without electric for several hours, and this morning was no exception. Also we do not have mains water supply , but instead we have a 8,000 liter rain water reservoir beneath the house, and that folks requires a electric pump. So with a nice 22 deg sunny October day in which to try a environmental car clean, I set about rinsing down in small sections first using a plastic bottle of valuable fresh water. Then of course the soapy warmer water heated by gas cooker, followed by even more rinsing using the plastic bottle, by squeezing it sending the water out more in a spray fashion. Then the polish, we use a damp cloth, and job done. All 22 liters used up, and of course now the house electric is back on !! but never mind anybody interested in trying there luck at under 22 liters be my guest. Did have shock from a neighbor who says she does her small Kia with 15 liters so there is room for those who get caught in hose pipe bans or electric failures.

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Octy 2, 1.9 TDI PD Ambiente 4x4 Combi and Nissan Sunny 2.0 DLX, Company Octy 1.9 TDI Tour Combi.

Fix up a rain barrel near the parking place so you have water to hand, with all the rain we are having at the moment it wont take long to fill.

JML do a hose with brush attachment that is gravity fed so you use only 1 bucket to wash

Selkin.co.uk: WashMatik Cleaning System

Edited 22 October, 200817 yr by skippy41

We have a 5ltr bucket and when i am too lazy to put the Karcher on i use 1x5ltr to wash/wax and 1x5 rinse.I also store rain water for garden and car with 600 ltr tank.

If you have a shed put some guttering around it so all the rain water runs into the barrel

I agree just half of our 6x8 greenhouse roof yields a constant 40 gallon water supply, but that is here in wet old England.

I am in the process of installing a 1000 litre water tank to take the run off from my 16x10 feet work shed, but I think that roof would yield at least three times that amount.

If you live in an area of low rainfall then an Atmospheric Water Generator would give you a constant supply of fresh water and if you have a lot of sunlight it could be powered by a solar panel.

Hi

Well thank you all for the ideas on water saving, but we do have some what of a expertise in that direction. All our village and surrounding areas either run their total house water supplies off their roofs as we do, or have a large collector made of concrete that serves a whole village. This method was used in Gibraltar when I was working there in 1984, until a desalination plant was built I believe. Our water is total rain water, roof onto copper gutters, then into a 8,000 lt concrete tank beneath our house. The pump used is called a hydrofor pump, which runs of mains electric that runs the system completely round the house as a normal house would be. I have a manual pump to take the odd few liters out, so I tried the 22 liter wash, but can see that many of you can do 2 cars with that much water, but never mind it was the idea that counted. On rare occasions we can call a water truck to come and top us up, but that has not happened for over 2 years with us, and we use a dishwasher , shower etc, but then we were yachts people for over 20years and are used to conservation.

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Octy 2, 1.9 TDI PD Ambiente 4x4 Combi and Nissan Sunny 2.0 DLX, Company Octy 1.9 TDI Tour Combi.

How do you clean the water ? I take it it's you only use it for the WC and heating/washing ?

Hi Auroan

No we use it for everything, dishes, cooking showers etc, however we do boil it for drinking. We buy mineral water sometimes, or should I say it is left over from trips we may have done in the car. We had it tested by a guy wanting to sell us water filters, but he said our water was far better than the city drinking water and much better than any well water in our area because that gets contaminated by the farmers pesticides. However I do stress that we boil every drop we decide to drink, and the water from our tank is crystal clear as we have a mesh filter in the line, and one on the suction pump.

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Octy 2, 1.9 TDI PD Ambiente 4x4 Combi and Nissan Sunny 2.0 DLX, Company Octy 1.9 TDI Tour Combi.

It is a pity that you do not live a little closer to N Wales .

We pour the stuff down drains all the time and it still comes down in torrents , daily !