rainwater harvesting to flush lavatory

[freith]

I have been trying to find a cheap way to use the rainwater in my rainwater butt to flush the downstairs toilet - all the sites I find need an underground storage tank as large as a domestic oil tank, I want one that pumps water up into a tank in the loft above the bathroom and then releases water into the cistern of the lavatory

[JudgeJ]

Perhaps I'm missing something here but aren't the water companies supposed to do this sort of thing (collect and distribute water) for us in return for the vast sums we pay them?

[kwicky]

It seems to be a waste of energy to collect rain water underground and then pump it up into the loft. I would have thought all that was required would be to divert water from the gutter into the loft space and into a tank. You would need a diverter when full. Is this being too simplistic?

[wastetech]

The problem is that it would not take very long on a rainy day to fill the loft tank, if it was the size allowed for the load bearing weight of the loft timbers. It would not hold enough water to be of any real use.
If you were to install a tank large enough to be of any use, then you would need to adapt the loft timbers to accept the weight of the tank which would probably be in the region of 1000 litres and weight 1000kg for a 2 week supply.
http://www.oasis-rainharvesting.co.uk