Anyone doing rainwater collection?

[Bill in Houston]

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.

[skewbe]

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.

[Bill in Houston]

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...

[Flatland2D]

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.

[ffvben]

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

[Hockey4mnhs]

Originally Posted by Flatland2D

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.

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

[Flatland2D]

Originally Posted by Hockey4mnhs

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.