The smart header tank which we call the Rain Director® was introduced in October 2008 and has been a stunning success. Well we did have a bit of a head start because architects and plumbers were often saying to us “why don’t you bring out a rainwater system which fills a header tank and feeds the house by gravity?”.

Our MD Adrian Lester, a skilled engineer and product developer, invented a response which could quite well become the industry standard.

The Rain Director® incorporates a roof space header tank, electronic control panel and a pump submerged in the underground tank.  Because the pump does not run every time the loo is flushed the number of pump cycles and start-up power surges is greatly reduced, reducing electricity usage eight-fold.  It also assures continued supply during power cuts and avoids brackish water in appliances when you go on holiday.

The control panel is the size of an A4 notebook and good looking enough to have pride of place next to the central heating controls in a visible part of the house.

You can get full details at www.RainDirector.co.uk  

RainWaterHarvesting.co.uk have provided a 2700 litre Carat tank and our new Rain Director for Chris Mead and  Jay Hayter, who have taken on  the challenge of transforming their Victorian terraced house in South London into an Eco Home. The installation of the complete rain-water harvesting system is currently featuring in BBC’s “It’s Hard to be Green” series presented by the giant of a man Dick Strawbridge of Scrapheap Challenge fame. For a copy of the press release, click here

Here is an extract from Chris and Jay’s website: http://www.readysteadyeco.com/

 “RAINWATER HARVESTING

RainWaterHarvesting.co.uk and Architects datafile (a Parker Ellis magazine with a strong online presence) will be publishing in spring 2009 a survey of attitudes from the building industry, especially architects, towards eco-friendly features which home-owners and builders are specifying for their houses, developments, schools and other buildings.

There is still time for you to express your views and to be part of this interesting exercise. Your input will be treated confidentially and will be most helpful in establishing the results of the survey. 

The survey will take approximately 3 minutes of your time. See survey here

Almost half of all households in England and Wales are now located in areas of 'water stress', a new report (31/12/08) has warned.  

The issue of available water supply being unable to keep up with demand is now becoming increasingly prevalent across the UK, the Environment Agency has revealed. Indeed, according to data compiled by the government department, as many as 24 million Britons have less water available per person than households in Egypt and Morocco, with the problem particularly acute in the area stretching from Kent to Oxfordshire.

Furthermore, Trevor Bishop, head of water resource policy at the Environment Agency, has warned that the situation could become worse in the coming years. Central to the government's efforts will be encouraging Britons to reduce their water usage rates. The research carried out for the report also finding that the average person in the south-east of England now uses 170 litres a day, far exceeding the government's target of 130 litres.