Success Rains Down on Greenwood Forest Park
In June 2007, GreenWood Forest Park in Snowdonia unveiled its newest Environmentally aware project by using an unlimited British resource; Rain water.
A Rainwater Harvesting System, designed by ‘Harvest your Rain’, was devised and installed by Martin Hollingham and Peter Mortlock, who both live locally and each have experience in Water Harvesting Projects in developing countries.
The system at GreenWood is not necessarily a new idea. The collection of rainwater for every day use has been around for thousands of years. Archaeologists have discovered that Roman Villas collected their rainwater from paved courtyards to serve their individual needs; and indeed in North Wales, slate tanks were used before mains water supply was available.
Unlike courtyards and tanks, GreenWoods Rain Harvesting System uses the immense slate roof area that covers the Medieval style Great Hall on the Park, as well as the corrugated roof of the adjacent Puzzle Barn to collect the rain and store it in three separate nearby holding tanks. After being filtered, this water then supplies approximately 20% of the water used to flush the W.C’s on site, which is both financially and environmentally beneficial and we can now report that in the last 7 months the tanks collected approx 60 cubic meters of rain water.
GreenWood continually monitors their utility usage and is always seeking new ideas to minimise.