Nineveh Farm
Something We Want, In The Way That We Want
Peter Lowman’s passive house build at Nineveh Farm in North Yorkshire, and the rainwater harvesting and sewage treatment behind it.
Nineveh Farm follows Peter Lowman, who moved from London to North Yorkshire and is building a passive house on his farm. In this episode, Peter explains how he chose GRAF for rainwater harvesting and sewage treatment.
How Rainwater Harvesting & Sewage Treatment Transformed This Farmhouse Project
Peter Lowman · Passive house self-build, North Yorkshire
After more than 40 years in London, Peter Lowman bought Nineveh Farm, an early-1800s farmhouse in North Yorkshire, and set out to build a passive house. With a dry spell testing the garden and the farm’s old foul water arrangements needing replacing, Peter shortlisted suppliers, took his drainage engineer’s advice and chose GRAF. He talks through the sizing, the support from his GRAF contact Steve, and getting a 22,000 litre tank and a sewage treatment plant in the ground.
A chance to build it our way
Peter lived in London for more than 40 years before moving to North Yorkshire four years ago. Nineveh Farm came with an early-1800s farmhouse, an attached stone barn and two cow sheds built by the previous farmer. Having never built a house before, Peter saw the chance to build a passive house the way he wanted: timber framed and highly insulated, with an air source heat pump, mechanical ventilation with heat recovery, and plans for solar panels and a small wind turbine.
A drier Yorkshire than expected
For the first time in four years at the farm, Peter saw two to three months with very little water, and keeping the garden going meant carrying watering cans across the field. At a meeting with the local planning authority, biodiversity and sustainability were high on the agenda, and a rainwater harvesting tank promised “a lot of brownie points”. Meanwhile, the farm’s existing foul water arrangements wouldn’t pass muster with the Environment Agency.
From eight suppliers to one
Never having bought this kind of system before, Peter started with a Google search. He looked in some depth at about eight companies, narrowed them down to two for more detailed research, and talked it through with his drainage engineer. The engineer has no link with GRAF, but his recommendation was the GRAF system. Peter also compared costs, and found GRAF very competitive on pricing.
One contact, start to finish
Peter’s contact at GRAF was Steve Righton, who stayed with him through the whole process, so Peter never had to explain things to someone new. Steve explained simply what the rainwater harvesting tank and the sewage treatment plant would do, and GRAF did the sizing calculations: a 22,000 litre rainwater harvesting tank for the garden, and a sewage treatment plant that will cope with 15 people on site.
Big tanks, in the ground
On a website, the tanks looked fine. On site, they looked massive. Peter’s contractor brought in a very big digger, dug the hole and moved the tanks into place. Now the 22,000 litre tank is in the ground and Peter is very happy with it. When it rains in Yorkshire it should fill quickly, giving a plentiful supply of water for the garden. And the support from GRAF throughout has been, in Peter’s words, first class.
“I’d have no hesitation in recommending Graf. The support has been great. Graf were very competitive on pricing and when you add in the support that they’ve given us, I would say it’s very very good value for money. Steve has been my contact throughout the whole process. All along, GRAF have been there for us. if we had questions, there was always someone to talk to the support has been first class.”
Products highlighted in this story
“The reason for looking at a rain water harvesting tank was to provide ourselves with water for the garden. So we have a 22,000 litre tank which, when it does rain in Yorkshire that will fill up quite quickly. We should have a plentiful supply of water to water the garden with.”
“The arrangements for foul water at the moment are pretty primitive and certainly wouldn’t pass muster with the Environment Agency. So we started to look around for a solution and we decided on a sewage treatment plant. We have a sewage treatment plant that will cope with 15 people on site.”
Get expert advice
Planning a self-build with rainwater harvesting or off-mains drainage? Talk to our team about sizing the right systems for your project.
