Selecting a rainwater tank
Rainwater tanks are available in a large variety of shapes, materials and sizes. Choosing the best water tank for your situation will help you to preserve one of our most precious resources and reduce your water bill.
What can I use a rainwater tank for?
In order to get good use out of a rainwater tank and maximise their value we strongly recommend that the tank be connected for indoor usage. In this way you can use the tank all year round and particularly during the winter months when outdoor use is at a minimum.
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Garden watering Garden use varies from less than 25% to more than 50% of total household water use in Victoria and NSW. Tank water for the garden will mostly be used in the summer when rainfall is low, so it needs to be large enough to store the water in advance. A 4,000 - 5,000 litre (L) tank is recommended for garden watering. Where space is an issue, you may wish to consider a different style of tank or installing two smaller tanks. |
Toilet flushing
A toilet can use up to 12L per flush so installing a tank to toilet system can lead to major water savings. An average person uses 30L of water in the toilet per day or 210L per week.
We recommend a system with an automatic diversion directly from mains water if the rainwater tank is empty. We do not recommend a trickle top up system as this legally changes the whole tank to mains water which means it cannot be used on the garden during water restrictions.
In the Laundry
You can save a large amount of water by connecting your washing machine to your tank.
Washing machines can use up to 150L of water per load and most households do 5-6 loads of washing per week. A four star front loading washing machine only uses 47L per load.