South West Water reports early gains from smart, rainwater collection trial

South West Water, Stantec and stormwater management firm, SDS, have enlisted residents of North Devon seaside village, Combe Martin, in a trial of a smart, rainwater collection system.

The pilot project collects rain from the roofs of multiple houses and uses SDS’s intelligent, solar-powered controls to reduce the amount of surface water entering the water company’s combined wastewater network during heavy rain.

SDS has reported that results from the trial after six months showed that 35 smart water tanks installed in Combe Martin residents’ gardens stored a total of 122,000 litres of water for reuse. According to SDS It would have taken seven times as many average-sized water butts without smart controls, to store the same amount of water.

Each smart water tank is controlled by a solar-powered computer which receives weather forecast data and predicts how much rain will fall. It then releases any stored water to free up capacity to accept the rainfall. During rainfall, the tanks gather the water running off the properties’ roofs, to stem the flow into the combined wastewater network.