Collecting Chiller run off water

[DjPorkchop]

I saw a guy in a video collecting his water from his wort chiller and using it to fill his wash machine with to save on the water bill. Hmmm Does any of you do that? Is it worth it? The back door to my house is at a bi level. Down for basement, 5 steps to get up stairs with a quick turn to the left to wash machine. Is it worth that much effort to save 2 or 3 $? Im not sure how much water I burn up on a standard 3 gallon chill or 5 if I do a full volume boil.

Thoughts? I'm just htinking those first few initial 5 gallon buckets of water going up stairs? Meh ... not so safe in my book. What say ye?

[DjPorkchop]

Ahhhh please mods move this to the right place. I didn't realize I was still in equipment and not techniques. So sorry.

[brewnewb]

I don't go thru that much trouble but I do refill my laundry tub with it. I use the runoff to rinse off my chiller when I'm done. My runoff goes right into the tub so all I do is plug the tub drain after 5 minutes or so.

[RickBeer]

Depends on your water cost. I have a well, mine costs the electricity to pump it out of the ground. Pull your water bill and divide the water charge by the number of gallons (in thousands). Do the same for the sewer bill as most pay a charge for every gallon coming in that might go out. Cost may also be listed on your water company's website.

In Florida, a relative pays $3.93 per thousand gallons for water and $0.67 per thousand gallons for sewer. That translates to $.0046 per gallon used. Assuming 7 gallons per minute (determine flow rate using 5 gallon bucket and time to fill), and 30 min cooling time, 210 gallon would cost $0.97.

In Michigan, a relative pays $4.43 per thousand gallons for water and nothing for sewer per gallon (first 6,667 gallons per month are free), so cost would be $0.93.

Keep in mind that if you use a regular garden hose, the water should not be used for drinking as most garden hoses leach lead.

[Whamolagan]

I collect my chiller water. I use 2 rain collection barrels and reuse the water week to week and just add some ice to the incoming water barrel. And then I refill my rubbermaid shoe boxes with the warm water and refreeze that for the next batch. I was going through 35-45 gallons of water that I was just throwing away in the yard. Now I waste about 1 quart. I live in the drought stricken area we know as SoCal, so I feel it is worth t.

[bpgreen]

I collect my chiller water. I use 2 rain collection barrels and reuse the water week to week and just add some ice to the incoming water barrel. And then I refill my rubbermaid shoe boxes with the warm water and refreeze that for the next batch. I was going through 35-45 gallons of water that I was just throwing away in the yard. Now I waste about 1 quart. I live in the drought stricken area we know as SoCal, so I feel it is worth t.

Sometimes, it's not just about saving money, but conserving a scarce resource. That's a big reason Australian brewers have come up with so many innovative brewing techniques. I try not to use a lot of water in my brewing, even though my water usage is almost always below the monthly minimum so using less water doesn't save me any money.

[Whamolagan]

I also use the PBW that I have in kegs to clean the equipment and then put it back in the kegs when everything is cleaned up. The only real waste water I use is rinse water that I in turn water the plum trees. And you are right BP, it is not a money thing as much as everytime I drive by our lake and see that it is at 35% capacity. It gets me thinking. Also we are trying to gear up for our brewery and the city we want to open up in wants to see some water reclamation solutions. I figure I better get in the practice.

[MadBrewer]

I usually use the waste water from my immersion chiller to rinse out the mashtun and other equipment from the day. I never measured how much water gets wasted in the 20 or so mins it takes to chill down to pitching temps but I would imagine upwards of 5 gals easily.

[RickBeer]

With a well and septic, I recycle eventually...

[Whamolagan]

I usually use the waste water from my immersion chiller to rinse out the mashtun and other equipment from the day. I never measured how much water gets wasted in the 20 or so mins it takes to chill down to pitching temps but I would imagine upwards of 5 gals easily.

you might want to measure it some time, I was shocked when I measured mine.

[DjPorkchop]

The reason I bring this up is exactly as has been stated. Not only money, but saving water. Here I don't have the option of storing in barrels outside the house. That will get my panties in a bunch with the city real quick. They don't allow 5 gallon buckets under down spouts either. Mosquito abatement I guess. And at the risk of my knees blowing out on me carrying hot water up the bi level, Man I'm just not sure but boy do I hate to waste that water.

So safe to say I can at least fill a 5 gallon bucket or two and use it for equipment clean up. It is clean water anyhow. I appreciate all the replies.

[mashani]

Just a thought:

You might be able to potentially adapt a long garden or trailer hose to the output side of your chiller and run that down your stairs and into whatever thing you want to put the water into. That way you don't have to fill buckets upstairs and haul them down. You would have to measure to know for sure, but depending on what kind of chiller you have, it's flow rate, your water temps... you could be using anywhere from 30 to 60 gallons of water or more to chill (or half that for a smaller 2 gallon batch). Sometimes I actually no-chill (I stick my brew pot in the oven with a tight fitting lid that I put on at the end of the boil so it gets sanitized by steam and just leave it there overnight, then pour into fermenter in the AM) because in the summer my chiller uses so much water. I use the oven because it's somewhat sterile environment in there compared to my bretty house.

Anyways, that's what I'd do. I don't use 5 gallon+ fermenters for the same reason, I brew upstairs, but they have to go into the basement to ferment, and I've got messed up hands. So I don't want to haul that much around and trip and spill it. That would suck. I'm happy splitting between a couple of small fermenters that are easier for me to move.

[DjPorkchop]

Hi Mashani

I brew upstairs and have to ferment downstairs as well. I have boys that are capable of hauling for me when needs be. I got major bad hands as well. Good old uncle arthritis.

My Chiller is a full 50' I believe of 3/8 copper.... I think. It is a BIG OL' honking chiller. Literally.... Our very own Kneace would know more. He built it for me years back. I can usually drop the temp from boiling to pitchable in 15 minutes or so. The chiller is so big that I don't really have to dip it up and down. It easily covers a 5 gallon batch.

I have figured out what to do with the water. I will be storing it downstairs as some have mentioned. I have begun growing hot and super hot peppers as well as some vegetables in my basement via hydroponic setup. So a lot of that water will go to my plants. If I can figure out a way to get a hose hooked up to the end of the discharge on the chiller, I will run hose and fill wash machine too. I jsut cant see 100 or more gallons of water going to waste.

[Beer-lord]

I collected 15 gallons of warm water when chilling today and filled my pot to soak in PBW. 5 gallon buckets are heavy, I can only imagine trying to go up and down stairs with it. In fact, I wouldn't.

[Whamolagan]

I have started saving my PBW in 5 gallon buckets and reusing that in the cleanup of the Braumiester and the plate chille, then after that I put it right back in the buckets for next time. I hardly am wasting any water at all, except when I start drinking my beer, then all the trees in the yard get a good watering