[timberrr59]

Here in the dry hill country of Texas we are short of water. I built a rainwater collection system after attending a seminar and spending a lot of time at the library and on Internet learning how to make one work. Ours is great! It has a roof-wash subsystem and we can collect 3300 gallons from our garage and barn roofs. It is not exactly rocket science, but it does require some craftsmanship. The water is OUTSTANDING for making good shaving lather. No spots on the washed cars either. We are not using the water in the house of yet. Our water is for the landscaping and vegetable garden. In Texas all supplies and materials from the gutters to the spigots are sales tax-free. I shower with rainwater. Understand that in certain parts of the world, rainwater collection is mandated by law. Soon I fear this will happen here. I hate being ordered to do something. I am ahead of government edict thus far. Later I shall add more tanks and get off the municipal water system grid. Meanwhile, use some rainwater for shaving lather. I think you will like it. RRR

[CactusBob]

I've thought about doing that here in Az. What do you use to get the water from the barrels to where you want it? pumps, gravity

Bob

[Quick Orange]

Originally Posted by timberrr59

Here in the dry hill country of Texas we are short of water. I built a rainwater collection system after attending a seminar and spending a lot of time at the library and on Internet learning how to make one work. Ours is great! It has a roof-wash subsystem and we can collect 3300 gallons from our garage and barn roofs. It is not exactly rocket science, but it does require some craftsmanship. The water is OUTSTANDING for making good shaving lather. No spots on the washed cars either. We are not using the water in the house of yet. Our water is for the landscaping and vegetable garden. In Texas all supplies and materials from the gutters to the spigots are sales tax-free. I shower with rainwater. Understand that in certain parts of the world, rainwater collection is mandated by law. Soon I fear this will happen here. I hate being ordered to do something. I am ahead of government edict thus far. Later I shall add more tanks and get off the municipal water system grid. Meanwhile, use some rainwater for shaving lather. I think you will like it. RRR

Would you mind posting some pictures? This is quite interesting

[nun2sharp]

I intend on doing something very similar, dont know yet if I will use aboveground storage or the traditional cisterns.

[timberrr59]

Folks, I do not have a camera. Do check the Internet for general harvesting details. Texas rainwater collection.com has a good downloadable manual. Ideally with 1 inch of rain, a little over 600 gallons can be collected from a 1000 square foot roof. With cedar trees and winds, I get about 500 gallons/1000sqft.
Here is what I do for pressure: Gravity-we have three 1100-gallon black poly tanks bought at a Tractor Supply Store in Kerrville. They are about $600 each. Since this is hilly ground where we live, two of the tanks are on the ground at the source of collection. For enough pressure to make a second story shower work, I pump the collected water to a storage tank atop a hill behind our house. It is about 15 feet higher than the other two tanks. I use basement sump pumps to transfer the water up the hill. One of the pumps is only 1/6HP bought at Home Depot for about $70. All the piping is schedule 40 PVC. As the water comes off the roofs, it is screened at the gutter opening, then at the downspouts. At this point there are two 4" PVC standpipes which fill with roof wash water and it is not collected in the tanks. Collected water is filtered at the tank entry with a home-made Y strainer. Finally inside the tanks, I use a women's stocking support hose clamped to a 2" PVC 90 final pipe fitting. This last filter effectively collects any fines or mud in the water. In order to drink rainwater safely it is a good idea to filter once more with a 5 micron filter and then run it through a UV purifier, just in case of bacteria. The UV sterilizes the bacteria if present.
The improvement will be for me to buy a 12volt DC RV transfer pump and then power it with a Solar Photovoltaic collector. It will be slower transfer, but it will be GREEN! Whatever you use- keep all fittings sealed against mosquitoes. This is not a too-hard project. Next to donating blood (not from shaving!), collecting rainwater is something that I feel is noble in life. If you do rig up a system you will sleep much better knowing that you are part of a solution and NOT part of a problem!... RRR

[Quick Orange]

Wow, practically no need for a camera- your description is perfect! Are you by chance a writer?

That's really cool what you're doing. I've been through your neck of the woods before and I'm sure it's a necessary thing. No reason to go through a drought when it's falling off your roof! I bet your savings will be phenomenal too.

[timberrr59]

I try to yarn about things that I believe in. I should get a camera and maybe produce something visual. I love to show this system off to anyone interested. There are many things that we need to know more about. I just told a basic outline with few exacting details; because, there are just about as many valves in this layout as are in a submarine! Each tank and pipeline can be isolated, cross-connected, or bypassed, depending on where from or where to the rainwater needs to go. One thing to be aware of-rain collection is OK from just about all types of roofing with the exception of WOOD SHINGLES! They sometimes have pretty toxic preservatives in them. Older metal roofs with lead solder seams and flashings could be bad over time also. Rainwater hoarding in the form of cisterns goes back many thousands of years (Megido in Bible times). Something old, something new, we can all use any help we can get. Thanks for the interest. RRR P.S. Please pray for Hill Country rain.

[biminyrd]

sounds amazing. I don't hardly have the room, but I do have 6 rain barrels. 2 locations. save lots of water for watering the plants/garden. Made them from parts at Lowes and barrels found at a local distributor of alcohol based food flavoring.
aaron

[timberrr59]

Good job for collecting the water. I have used some of that plastic screen repair screening material to seal off where connections are exposed to mosquitoes. They love to get into the stored rainwater! It doesn't take much to keep them out. I can make some really good lather with that soft water. I just use some Williams and sometimes some Old Spice mug soaps. Later I plan to experiment with some of these high-class soaps that I read about in the Forums. Keep up the collecting. Think about this: IT IS ILLEGAL TO COLLECT RAINWATER IN COLORADO! It has something to do with eastern Colorado water rights about possible diminishing the water in rivers and streams. According to what I learned at the Cibilo Nature Center Rainwater Harvesting Seminar, only about 4% of rainwater ever makes it to streams and rivers because of soaking into the ground, evaporation, vegetation, etc. The state of Colorado has "ownership" of the rain!!! After learning that, I never listen to my John Denver records ever again!... RRR

[TULIP]

Great post. I've been thinking of doing something like this for a long time, albeit something simpler. How many inches of rainfall do you get per year? Any links to good sites is appreciated.

[timberrr59]

Kerr County, TX gets about 30 inches per year. This year has been very dry. Since I built our rainwater harvesting system in April it has only rained about 2 inches total. 2007 was a very wet year. Texas Weather-it is moody! RRR

[junkinduck]

I would like to see pics as well. We don't really have a water issue in Ohio nor is the rural water system that expensive I just find these things interesting. I am by no means green crazy however I am not wastefull I am as I type puting a geothermal heating system in my new house. I am always looking for ways to conserve.
Don

[artilleryo]

I'm in the process of buying a new house and harvesting rainwater is one of the things I considered.

I was in the sizing portion of the procedure and calculated that I'd need about 22,000 gallons of storage to catch all the rain that falls on my roof alone.

For the geeks in the audience, here is the calculation:

(feet of rain per year)*(square feet of roof area)*(run off coefficient)*7.48

The run off coefficient is where you take into account things like evaporation, infiltration into the soil, etc. For things like concrete, shingles, etc. it's usually about 0.95 because you never get all of it.

The 7.48 converts this from cubic feet into gallons. (7.48 gallons per cubic foot).

The system is still just a rough design in my head. The intent for this will be so my wife can water her garden in the summer, we can water the grass, things like that. Plus, it'll give an emergency back up supply.

[timberrr59]

You are in step. If for no other reason, the QUALITY of the water is so much better for plants. Another of unique qualities of rainwater is the fact that since it has no minerals in it, it is like a solvent. It will clean out old piping and plumbing. Mineral deposits over the years usually build up inside the pipes. Rainwater will flush them out. The downside is that trace amounts of copper, minerals, etc will leach into the water. The other "downside" is that it will rust metal faster than city water. Rainwater is acidic (acid rain in the extreme in some areas). Whenever I use rainwater for shaving lather, I am extra attentive to oiling the blade after the shave. Overall, harvesting rainwater is a noble hobby. It will become more popular in the near future. Every where I live during my "golden years" will include some form of rainwater harvesting. This is truly WIN-WIN. Good Stewardship. RRR

[gblacksmith]

Way to go Timberr! Any more good websites on the topic? I live in CA and we are looking at draconian measures here in the People's Republic.

Would you advise using the existing gutter system and collecting it underground, or piping it in from the gutter to an above ground cistern?

Grant
www.grantsforge.com

[timberrr59]

To get things flowing I would use existing gutters and collect the rainwater above ground in Black Poly storage tanks. Do the simplest things to start. There are always things to change and add later. Use common sense and take a long look at the layout of your buildings and property. Do consider the covenents and restrictions of the neighborhood. There are companies that make beautiful WOODEN storage tanks. Very classy those. There are many, many good sites on the Internet. Google in rainwater harvesting and you will bring up some very interesting things. Australia has outstanding sites. They there are taking the lead in assuring that there will be plenty of water in the future. Good on Them! It is an honor to be able to motivate interests regarding helping this thirsty and sometimes greedy planet. Check around your area for working rainwater systems, we have The Cibolo Nature Center in Boerne, TX for seminars. The Cibolo Nature Center has its own rainwater collection system in operation working every day. It is good to be able to walk around and see one in use. Rainwater actually tastes different. Try some and get started on your system. Thanks for considering, RRR

[heelerau]

Originally Posted by timberrr59

Good job for collecting the water. I have used some of that plastic screen repair screening material to seal off where connections are exposed to mosquitoes. They love to get into the stored rainwater! It doesn't take much to keep them out. I can make some really good lather with that soft water. I just use some Williams and sometimes some Old Spice mug soaps. Later I plan to experiment with some of these high-class soaps that I read about in the Forums. Keep up the collecting. Think about this: IT IS ILLEGAL TO COLLECT RAINWATER IN COLORADO! It has something to do with eastern Colorado water rights about possible diminishing the water in rivers and streams. According to what I learned at the Cibilo Nature Center Rainwater Harvesting Seminar, only about 4% of rainwater ever makes it to streams and rivers because of soaking into the ground, evaporation, vegetation, etc. The state of Colorado has "ownership" of the rain!!! After learning that, I never listen to my John Denver records ever again!... RRR

G'day all,
my partner and I have a small hobby farm 40 minutes due east of Perth, Western Australia. We are completely reliant on rain water and a small low draw bore and small dam with a mill on it. The bore and dam supply the stock and garden water, we have a couple of acres of garden, a mixture of both Australian natives and exotics, also building up a pretty large veggie garden. Nearly all our roofs have tanks off them, and the tanks can all be pumped to the main house tank. All up we have 38,000 gallons of water, we only need 14 inches of rain to fill all our tanks. Out average rainfall has dropped from about 40 odd inches in the 50's to about 28 to 35 inches at the present time. So we are slowly drying out. At the end of our summer we generally have about 8,000 gallons left in the 20,000 gal house tank, and about 6,000 gals in the other rain water tanks. Another 20,000 gallon tank would be installed in the future, as we will still get the odd wetter year like we are having now. Back in the seventies I think councils in the city discouraged rainwater tanks because of mosquitos, also the trend to much smaller house blocks, so city people cannot have veggie gardens or chooks like they did a few years ago. I guess we have spent about $25,000 in tanks pumps mill etc over the years, but it is nice not to be beholden to the govt for water. They have forced licensing of private bores recently if they are for commercial use, and there is talk of doing the same for rainwater, there will be considerable outrage from us country folk when the bring that in.
We use rainwater for all house hold functions.

Kind regards

Gordon

[timberrr59]

The collection tank and roof wash manifold. Rainwater collects in the standpipes, and at the tees it then goes to the tank. There are floats in the standpipes which seat when full and prevent co-mingling of dirty roof wash water with water to be collected in the 1100 gallon tank. This roof wash costs about 25 gallons which I usually send to the gardens or to the grass in the yard. We have two collection systems and one storage-only tank up on the hill. Basement sump pumps are used to send the collected water to the storage tank. It provides enough head pressure for a second story bathroom. Valves are everywhere. I shower and enjoy my shaving out here in the summer time. I am proud to answer any questions about rainwater harvesting. It is a noble thing to do. I believe.

[netsurfr]

Originally Posted by nun2sharp

I intend on doing something very similar, dont know yet if I will use aboveground storage or the traditional cisterns.

+1 When I build my next home, I intend to do this also.

[zenshaver]

I have one 55 gallon rain barrel. I suppose I could take some of the water from there and see how it is for shaving. It may have some bugs in it though.Maybe they will help with the lather.