Anyone doing rainwater collection?
 

I wonder about it...I want to pick up a huge 55 gallon drum...it seems like you can get them for 5 bucks from various places...any one know where I should try?

Also seems good for the SVO users.

Just make sure you either have rights to it, or are discreet about it. :thumbup:

One site said they got them for 5 dollars each from pepsi...seems like enough of a steal to me already...

I'm thinking garden water for now...in the future I'd like to do something like this: https://ersson.sustainabilitylane.com/rainwatr.htm

You would definitely want to use plastic, I think. I like the idea a lot.

If you wanted to really jazz it up, a small 12v battery, a solar panel, and a small 12v bilge pump would be sweet. But maybe that technology steals the simple beauty of a rain barrel.

Not sure where you would put the barrel, but remember that when full it will weigh about 500 lbs.

That's a good idea. In Japan the Tokyo Metro (city hall or to the japanese Tocho) building's yard was inverted to catch rain water used for flushing toilets and watering plants.

That's pretty cool...I was thinking of suggesting it to you since you're so up with water conservation.

:thumbup:

yeah we do it to water our garden. its amazing how fast it fills up

Keep in mind what happens when water freezes - and what you roof may leach into the water. Also elevate the tank up to the gutter and you have gravity feed - no pump needed.

Ha haa. Somehow freezing never crossed my mind. :-) Good idea on the gravity feed.

I collected rain water off the office roof for a while - it has a rubber roof - and found that the water was really soft and great for washing hair - then I started feeling a little sick from it and stopped and went back to regular water. The water off the roof would be foamy for a while until it got washed clean from heavy rain. Who knows what was leaching into the runoff water from the rubber etc. but I did treat it with Iodine. It would also leave an oily film in the collection bucket - too many diesel trucks going by as well as polution in the air and the building oil fired heating system.

Most good collection systems will runoff the first few minutes of collection to get rid of all that junk (and also use a purification system and a runoff to prevent freezing). If I did this I would do it well, with a large tank and a purification system and early rain junk diverter.

But this is all a few years off.

There's actually too much water where I live in the northeast. Our water table has risen because of overdevelopment. We probably need a sewer system now.

If I lived in the desert, I'd plant trees, dig trenches, etc.

My aunt in Austria uses it for watering her plants. Works out nicely because water rates there are pretty high, I hear.

You can get plastc barrels from truck or bus washing places, such as a large city bus company, or a commercial truck wash along the interstate. Also, a bottling plant for coke or pepsi etc usually gets syrup in drums. Around here they are available for $5 each. We have a 500 gallon stainless steel bulk tank, from a defunct dairy farm, that we use to collect rainwater from the garage roof, also a 200 gallon brine (salt) tank from a commercial/industrial water softener. I also got a 1500 gallon poly tank from the local farm store when it was on sale (under $400) and am hooking up eavestrough on one of our outbuildings to feed into it. It is enough higher than the garden and orchard that we will have gravity feed to the plantings.

Also, check this out:https://www.geopathfinder.com/9566.html
Their system provides all the water they use at their place, avoiding the expense of drilling and operating a well.

they used rain collectors in Florida years ago. they look like over sized dog houses but hold water, they are capped to keep the mosquitoes from multiplying. mainly used for watering lawns/gardens washing cars.

Lawn Watering
 

I like this idea quite a lot -- the city had plans for them at the Home Show last year. We have really crappy grass that needs watering to survive (plus I don't plan on using fertilizer unless it's easy on the evirons). On top of that, there are some drainage issues in the back (pooling). Reducing the need to use treated water to dump on the lawn seems like a great idea.

I picture something like this: 55-gallon drum or 2 in the basement - Roof water and/or sump water could drain into the tank - design an overflow for safety - and rig up a pump/power supply, ideally solar. :thumbup:

-Rick

Sounds nice to me.

Drawing up Plans
 

This idea has really piqued my interest. Doing a quick Internet search noted several companies with mostly large, complex systems.

The concerns I have:

1) Design: For gravity collection from all 4 spout corners and aesthetics, the collection tanks should probably go in the basement.

2) Source: The downspouts -- there are a few types to modulate collection: a design that hooks a hose/tube to the spout to reroute overflow back down the spout or just a rubber boot on the rectangular end with a reducer.

3) Distribution-Fill: I suppose flexible piping could run around the house and into a drilled and silicone-sealed hole in the side of the house. Following the floor joists for support and then into the tank(s) would work -- I'm looking for easy install here.

4) Overflow: It either rains a lot or a little. Since the sump may work less, it seems like a reasonable place for an overflow drain. I can see the system being used more than to let the supply get too high and flow-over.

5) Distribution-Output: a water pump to a lawn/garden/flower water system or hose with scheduled timer. At first, an electric system would be tried to see if the whole thing works -- then upgrade to solar with batts (it might make a good backup for the sump too).

6) Optional Power: Solar panels with batts. It might make a good power supply for the sump, or a backup. There's plenty of sunlight on the SW corner of the house, where the sump and planned tank location is.

BTW, how much water does a home A/C system traditionally extract?

Does anyone have a system, or can recommend any part of the design? The same for supplies -- where to get the goods? I've gotta make the house more efficient: it's embarrassing.

-Rick

St. Louis PBS TV is running a show where they are building a straw house. Last week the host visited Tank Town in Texas to get info on water harvesting.
https://rainwater.org/rainwater_stories.html

I know aesthetics can be a make-or-break kind of thing, but I would not be excited about routing my rainwater down into my basement... Maybe a horse trough could be camouflaged with a bench or something like that.

Let's see, 1 " of rain, 1440 sq ft of roof, that makes 120 cu ft of water, times like 7-something gals per cu ft gives over 800 gallons of water. Wow. That would last me a long time.

I've been chewing on this one for a few months now too. Some things I'd like to see in my system:

1. I have a lot of dirt space under a raised deck (5 feet hi), that would be a good place for some tankage. Routing the existing gutters to that location would be asthetically acceptable.

2. System would need to be screen isolated to keep mosquitos out.

3. Needs an overflow gutter on the tanks.

4. slow gravity feed to lawn/garden from bottom of tank on demand.

5. Tank should handle freezing, this is just for outside use and serious emergencies.

6. Tank should ideally be large enough to not overflow.

7. cheap :) A box with a liner would be fine, other waterproof and solid ideas would be good.

your space would be big enough to get a gaylord box, which is a standard shipping container. there are a variety of liners available too. May even be some meant for liquids, but i expect that those might get pricey. Anyway, I think a gaylord box is about 1 cubic yard, maybe more. just a random thought...

I just moved into a house out in the country that's entirely on rain water. In fact, that guy from Tank Town was the guy who installed it. The wells out here produce really hard water so rain is preferred. We just got out of a drought that lasted a few years so that is good. More rain than we need now.

We've got two 10,000 gallon fiberglass tanks that gravity feed the house (they are up a hill, house down in a valley). Water pressure isn't too high, but it's useable. There's a smaller collection tank down from the house with sand filter, that pumps to the tanks up hill. Then there's a series on filters before coming inside.

Just wanted to let you guys know about that. It's entirely possible to run your whole house off rainwater, even if you live in a low precipitation climate.

I watched a show on the gold rush, back in the day their was a factory that separated the gold from the earth, it ran on hydro power. the water would run down this mountain and into the side of this factory, the pressure was high from all the water running down hill, it turned a waterwheel that in-turn moved all the belts than ran all the machines in the factory. I think they said the pressure was 250psi, they ran the water for the show, it was shooting out of the small hole like a normal fire hose spray concentrated on the cups on the wheel. lots of pressure from gravity, and amazing that they had this over 100yrs ago

How long could 10k of water last you? i know we went threw 28k gallons this month.

Quite a while I think. I probably only use a couple gallons a day taking a shower (lower than normal water pressure helps reduce useage, too). I go to the bathroom outside exclusively, unless it's a #2. Other than that, I maybe drink gallon a day (if even) and another gallon washing hands/brushing teeth. So that's about it.

We don't have our own washer/dryer yet, but we're looking into low water models so we don't waste too much. Dishwasher only gets run when it's full.