Rainwater harvesting

[Dinu]

Indeed, collecting rain water is quite simple. In my case, I need proper filters due to the large amount of dirt from heavy traffic just outside in the busy main road. That is why I have tried to keep the dirt particles to a minimum as it enters the main sand filter by putting two more stages in between. If I am at home I stand there and keep cleaning the sponge as it rains but the sponge will soon clog up if I am not at home. In the rainy season when it rains steadily and does not rush through the spout, much dirt will not be mixed. We have that first barrel which we call it as 'first flush' to allow dirty water that comes in first to get flushed [manually of course] - there is a floatball system inside. I keep cleaning the filters when it asks.

I have connected the outlet to the underground sump. We use the water for washing etc. but for drinking we get tap water from River Cauvery.

 

[Durgan]

My rainwater capacity is four 45 gallon barrels. I always use rainwater if it is available. At the present time it is very droughty and I have to use tap water since my barrels are empty.

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?XHGLB 8 April 2009 Downspout Rainwater
Pictures indicating a simple, practical method of utilizing downspout rainwater. Barrels cost 15 dollars and all parts are standard plumbing fittings. Any urban downspout system must address the overflow problem during rainfall. The large bung hole is a reasonable compromise for overflow. The height is such that a hose may be utilized for watering plants, but I usually use five gallon buckets on a two wheeled cart or simply a wheelbarrow full of water and disperse by a pail to the plants. The system is readily expandable by cascading more barrels in line. I have four barrels, two on each side of the house. the system is essentially closed, hence mosquitoes are not a problem.

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?ZVABL 16 April 2009 Downspout Water Connection.
Seasonal connections. The downspout water system was switched over to Summer mode by connecting the downspout to the storage barrels.

 

[rz3300]

Well I love to read or hear about people utilizing rain water to reuse it for their plants and other purposes. I think that the more of these environmentally and financially sound ideas that are out there the better off that we all are, and the fact of them making their way onto market and being popular is just up to us. I do not have an elaborate contraption like above but that would be ideal, so thanks for sharing that.

 

[Beverly]

First rain barrel still needing some finishing touches, but in use. In my area we do not suffer drought or water shortages, but i figure that is no reason not to have a rain barrel. Guadalajara is a large city 3 hours drive to the northeast and does experience water shortages and i see problems caused by drought as planetary problems and not regional ones. So here is my first effort (220 litres/58 gallons), for some reason i had thought it would make my garden ugly but i could not have been more wrong, I see it as beautiful and the water that comes out the spigot at the bottom as beautiful as well. Soon it will be surrounded (but certainly not hidden) by some rather large container plants. I really do have limited space but i am still thinking of the possibility for a 2nd barrel in a different location. I know it is such a small effort, but if everyone made even this small effort, it would make a difference. In addition, it is making me ridiculously happy because i know i am doing the right thing. I have been working on the top cover that would filter debris and keep mosquitoes out, so although it needs a little more work, it is mostly in tact. Early evening last night, i heard thunder and ran out to put the top in place. It rained for 2 hours about, a good healthy tropical rain. The top worked great, but this morning the barrel was full to the brim with 4 more months of rains to go for this season.

 

[abonnen]

We just moved and are really wanting to set up a rain water collection system. My man concern are how to keep the mosquito from evading the water. Most diy systems call for a mesh to keep them out. Does the mesh/wore really work on keeping mosquito out or are there other things I could do?

 

[marlingardener]

We use Mosquito Dunks, which look like little brown doughnuts and are readily available at big box stores, and most hardware stores. For a 55 gal. barrel we put 1/4 of a dunk in, and for the big 250 gal. cubes, a whole dunk. No problem with mosquitoes, and Texas is probably the mosquito capital of the world!
Since we use the primitive "dip and carry" system with buckets and watering cans, a mesh on top of the collection barrels wouldn't work for us. We just put dunks in about every two months (it doesn't rain a lot here during the summer, but other, wetter places might have to replenish the dunks more frequently).
One added advantage over town water is that there is no chlorine nor fluoride in rainwater. We use the rainwater collected to fill our chickens' waterers, use it on any edible plant--vegetable or herb--and if there is enough to go around, we water our flower beds with it, too. If Mother Nature gives it to you, it would be rude to not use it!

 

[MaryMary]

As soon as the weather got warm enough to ensure their survival through the night, my uncle put goldfish in his rain barrel. Which was just about the temperature mosquitoes need to breed. He didn't want to move them inside for the winter, so once it got cold, he just gave them to the neighboring children.

He did caution me that you have to make sure to have enough goldfish, apparently they don't know when to stop eating, and will eat 'til their stomachs blow up!!

 

[Rosyrain]

You can try using a cistern, those are usually closed vessels and it would keep the bugs out. Normally there is a draining system that runs from the top of your roof to the vessel.

 

[BlueLotus]

I'm really considering harvesting water since we don't get enough water and the restrictions where I live are getting ridiculous. But I'm not sure that I get enough water to actually justify the expense. Though, I liked that you guys showed coverings to prevent mosquitos now that Zika has started to spread.

 

[marlingardener]

Buelotus, if you don't have guttering, the set-up expense for guttering, downspouts, and collection containers really doesn't justify the expense of water collection--yet. However, in the South and Southwest, we are rapidly approaching the time when "how much water costs" becomes "do we have water?". There is a smallish town in Texas that ran out of water a couple of years ago, and had to truck in water. In the Dallas area automatic water restrictions go into effect in the summer.
There are minor "water wars" between counties and towns that want to draw water from lakes, that are really just Corps of Engineers reservoirs. We took a boat trip in the hill country, and saw boat docks that were 12' out of the water. The trip was shorter because the river was too low to accommodate the boat.
When municipalities realize that water is not a commodity, but a resource, conservation, re-use, and water catchment will become much more important. Those of us who can harvest rainwater are on the cutting edge!

 

[Dinu]

I'm collecting rainwater since a few years. The installation costs are just negligible compared to the amount of the precious liquid downed by the clouds, over one or two seasons!! It's worth it. When we sit back and think, we do spend on things that aren't really needed at times and these can be cut down, if one has to cut down to invest on something that will last a long time - the rain collection system! It's not difficult at all - it's just the mindset. It's worth it when we look at the scenario where we are having untimely rains, in unpredictable amounts, a phenomenon noticed the world over. Every drop of rainwater saved for use is worth its value.
Water wars - yes, it is not new to our place - our river emerges in our state [Karnataka] and runs along the neighbouring state to join the Bay of Bengal. But the dam is in our state - close to our city in fact. So the neighbouring state always alleges that our state does not release water from the dam... there is high level politics involved in that. It's always an issue. This time, the monsoon was deficient in our area. As such, the dam, which was supposed to be near full by this time is dipping to the bottom at an alarming rate - the people are just unconcerned at this looming shortage while they waste water in large quantities and they look down upon the quality of rainwater which they are completely unaware of how clean it can be and how much they allow to flow into the gutters! Few like me have done installations to conserve whatever we can. I also recycle water as much as I can, to flush the toilet, wash etc.

 

[Nyge]

We just moved and are really wanting to set up a rain water collection system. My man concern are how to keep the mosquito from evading the water. Most diy systems call for a mesh to keep them out. Does the mesh/wore really work on keeping mosquito out or are there other things I could do?

Here in East Anglia UK I had a similar problem ... we have what are called toilet blues which are blocks added to cistern water and which dissolve in toilet water to colour it and also kill most germs. I use these in water tanks for storing well water and it keeps those mosquitos away. Alternatively you could try keeping fish in your tanks. Or again a squirt of washing up liquid every so often will lower the surface tension and the lava will drown.

 

[Nyge]

I'm collecting rainwater since a few years. The installation costs are just negligible compared to the amount of the precious liquid downed by the clouds, over one or two seasons!! It's worth it. When we sit back and think, we do spend on things that aren't really needed at times and these can be cut down, if one has to cut down to invest on something that will last a long time - the rain collection system! It's not difficult at all - it's just the mindset. It's worth it when we look at the scenario where we are having untimely rains, in unpredictable amounts, a phenomenon noticed the world over. Every drop of rainwater saved for use is worth its value.
Water wars - yes, it is not new to our place - our river emerges in our state [Karnataka] and runs along the neighbouring state to join the Bay of Bengal. But the dam is in our state - close to our city in fact. So the neighbouring state always alleges that our state does not release water from the dam... there is high level politics involved in that. It's always an issue. This time, the monsoon was deficient in our area. As such, the dam, which was supposed to be near full by this time is dipping to the bottom at an alarming rate - the people are just unconcerned at this looming shortage while they waste water in large quantities and they look down upon the quality of rainwater which they are completely unaware of how clean it can be and how much they allow to flow into the gutters! Few like me have done installations to conserve whatever we can. I also recycle water as much as I can, to flush the toilet, wash etc.

Hi I use to collect rainwater in 50 water butts interconnected but I found that just when you need it the most the tanks ran dry - so instead I dug a shallow well using an extended post boring tool and pumped up the water every hour since the flow was not that great.... but when you need the water it is there!