Collecting rainwater from yer gutters...

Anyone do this, in barrels? Simple enough, in principle.... Just wondering about tricks, logistics, using gravity vs. pumps to redistribute the water, how you use it (lawn only, or bring inside the house), etc. I have 10 downspouts, and could conceivably remove my water meter altogether, w/ a system like this.

'Course, if I did install it, and disconnected my water meter, you can bet NY would have the longest goddamm drought in recorded history. Like the snow we're gonna get.... cuz my snow blower is broken....
Reply to
Proctologically Violated©®
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I could probably do that if I had a gutter system (don't currently)..

If you do go down that path make sure you setup that big $$ water purification system to clean the crap that might be in your roof water. Don't just assume you can start drinking it straight off.. It should be fine for watering the plants, lawn, washing your dishes (I guess), taking showers with and whatnot, but I wouldn't drink it without some sort of cleaning/filtering.

Reply to
Rick F.

In this country(Australia) it is starting to become quite normal practice for suburban houses to have anything up to 10,000 ltre (2000 gal)? rainwater tanks.I have two 5000 litre tanks. It is mostly used for gardening but some systems are connected up to flush toilets or was clothes. Few use them for drinking water althought it can be done safely. Many rural properties rely entirely on tankwater.

Most systems include a diverter valve to send the first flush from the roof to waste so that the tank does not get contaminated with leaves, dust , bird droppings etc. You may also want to think about a fine mesh covering on the tank to keep out mosquitos etc. , you don't want to become the neighbourhood mosquito rangler.

Unless you are very lucky with your site layout you will probably need some sort of pump to distribute the water. Often you can get away with something cheap because you don't really need a lot of pressure.

The metric system makes it easy to work out the collection rates -

1mm of rain over 1 sq meter of roof delivers 1 litre of water. A quick and not very good mental conversion would guesstimate 1/10th inch over 10sq feet should produce about 1/2 gallon. You' beter check that for yourself.

Google on" rainwater tanks australia" there is lots of good information.

Reply to
Avery

probably cheaper and easier to drill a well.

rainwater has so many conaminents from heavy metals from pollution bird drpping etc etc.

used for toilet flushing water lawn car washing and with a minimal filter for clotrhes washing.

drinking requires too much work and often water companies have a minimum blling. so conserving a lot mayt not save a lot

Reply to
hallerb

Isn't that why people keep fish in their rain-barrels?

Reply to
Goedjn

If you had fish in your rain tank you would need to plant some greenery to control the fish waste. Then some snails to control the greenery,frogs to control the snails and then perhaps some reptiles to control the frogs. Hey, what do you know! We just invented the good old fashioned swimming hole!

Reply to
Avery

:Anyone do this, in barrels? :Simple enough, in principle.... :Just wondering about tricks, logistics, using gravity vs. pumps to :redistribute the water, how you use it (lawn only, or bring inside the :house), etc. :I have 10 downspouts, and could conceivably remove my water meter :altogether, w/ a system like this. : :'Course, if I did install it, and disconnected my water meter, you can bet :NY would have the longest goddamm drought in recorded history. :Like the snow we're gonna get.... cuz my snow blower is broken....

I just last night watched a program I recorded (I think 10/21) off a PBS station, Ask This Old House and they helped a woman install such a system.

She had a large tree in her front yard that was drinking up most of the water she'd apply to her garden and wondered if they could save her water usage somehow. They got a rain barrel, which was sold by a guy who salvages them. It has a spigot at the bottom. It was quite large. They put it up on 3 big blocks that were leveled. They bought and installed a special diverter that connects to the downspout. This senses when the barrel is full and any more water is diverted to the usual place, away from the foundation. It does this entirely low-tech - the water backs up to the level of diversion when the barrel is full. It's entirely simple and would be cheap. Of course, you could use multiple barrels or a large tank if you wanted. They showed a system that filters out particles from the runoff. I don't think you want to consider drinking water that runs off your roof, certainly not without some kind of sophisticated filtering system.

They had a trickle watering system connected to the barrel to irrigate the woman's garden.

Dan

Reply to
Dan_Musicant

Depends on where you are.

Texas actively promotes rainwater collection as the PRIMARY water source for residential customers, and tells us that purity is second only to RO filtered water so long as we let the roof wash off before collecting and so long as we use a PAINTED steel roof, or non-Terne coated stainless steel roof, or a GalvAlume roof. Clay or concrete tile are also acceptable roofs. Composition shingles are banned.

Reply to
Robert Gammon

The USDA used to recommend, as your "sophisticated" filtering system, that you use a pipe in excess of 10' long, packed with sand.

That is, after all, more or less what the planet uses to filter your well water.

Reply to
Goedjn

I saw that show. It was one of the more assinine things they have done. A trickle water system attached to an unfiltered roof water supply is the height of stupidity.

Reply to
mike

The PO of my house installed two large cisterns, of several hundred gallons each, one in front of the house and one behind. I've been here about a month and a half and they were empty when I moved in. I think the one in front is full; I need to check tomorrow AM.

That said I wouldn't use cistern water for much but flushing toilets (if you can make that work) and watering plants.

nate

Reply to
Nate Nagel

"Proctologically Violated©®" wrote in message news:v5M4h.24$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe12.lga...

google harvest rainwater and you'll have about a half million hits to research

all drinking water starts out as rainwater

much of the 3rd world drinks rainwater

rainwater doesn't have minerals in it like water filtered by the earth

catchment systems usually entail metal, wood, or plastic roofs

Reply to
nowforsale

One way to solve the pump problem is to catch/store the water right at the gutter--gravity will do most of the rest, ito distribution. But there is no free lunch: How do you support hundreds, mebbe thousands of gallons of water considerably overhead?? One could also do what they do in NYC for roof-top wood water tanks (ostensibly for fires), and just pump the water overhead to a sep. storage tank, higher up, and let gravity take care of the rest later. I also wonder how electric costs of pumping, to use the water, compare w/ the costs of municipal water.

Reply to
Proctologically Violated©®

"Proctologically Violated©®" wrote in message news:v5M4h.24$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe12.lga...

I have one half of my roof rigged to refill the fish pond. I use a gate valve made for an RV holding tank to divert the water to the pond or the lawn depending on whether the pond needs water or not.

I doubt that roof runoff is fit to drink anymore. A holding tank for yard use would be cool.

Colbyt

Reply to
Colbyt

In article , Nate Nagel wrote: ...

Suppose he means:

replace "com" with (or by) "fly"

?
Reply to
David Combs

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