Rain Water Collection Systems

Talk to me about rain water collection systems. I've been doing some research, but would love some actual "I've done it" wisdom.

Initially, we were considering just a simple barrel beneath a gutter. But, now that I've started exploring, I see that there are some incredible systems out there. We'd love to set something up that would allow for some water storage for mainly watering our gardens (and saving some money), but also to keep the family watered in the case of an emergency. We are on city water, but in an area with plenty of rainfall. So, we would love to become a little more self-sufficient water-wise. While there are no laws against rain water collection in our area, there are CC&R's that require everything "look aesthetically pleasing." Yup... we're suburban peppers... for now.

Share with me any and everything you know!

I understand that you want people to reply with experience, but since no one has, I have an idea that I would like to share with you. Suppose you have a flat back yard. Some event has happened and you have no water, but you said you have plenty of rain. Dig a hole in the center of your back yard large enough for a five gallon bucket to fit into. Drape a large sheet of Visqueen over your back yard and put a hole in the center over the bucket. Add some small weights near the hole so the water collected from the visqueen can be collected into the bucket. Prop the outer edges of the visqueen up with whatever is available to make a shallow funnel toward the bucket at the center. Five gallons is not a huge amount of water, so you would have to actively go out in the rain and fill other containers with water ladeled out of the bucket. I would recommend that you fold up the visqueen in front of you when you go to collect water, so that you don't step on it and contaminate it. You could also slope the visqueen toward a corner and have your collection bucket there. Just depends on the terrain of your yard. I would think this water would be clean enough to drink with minimal filtering and treatment. If it is windy, you're not going to be able to achieve this method. Only preps for this system is a sheet of Visqueen and a clean five gallon bucket. Should be adequate volume for drinking water and cooking needs. You can store the Visqueen in the bucket until the day you need it, an it is a portable system that will work anywhere that it rains.

If your in an urban location with zoning restrictions try going with something that blends in like a pool in your back yard. Above ground pools are really cheap at the end of the season. You could rig up gutters to refill it fairly easily. You also get the added benefit of being able to enjoy your resivour during the summer months.

or just get a water butt and fix it to the bottom of the downpipe, even just on my new workshop shed a 40 gallon water butt will fill up overnight.

I watched a TV show in the UK by Kevin Mcloud with a rain water catchment system it was basically a line of 8 water butts connected in series catching the water from the whole house roof, it probably would not take much to increase the storage capacity with more butts for a crisis.

yep you just drill a hole in each and attach a length of piping, not difficult and not too time consuming.
we've just got one attached to every downpipe we have, water butts are easy to get around here, I just obtain the big blue barrels from industrial estates and farms, most people are happy to give them away as they have to pay to have them removed.
just remove the top with a jigsaw.

I have a fifty gallon plastic barrel that I have used for many years now to water my garden. The water that it catches off the roof smells really bad, though. I guess it is something leaching out of the asphalt shingles. I wouldn't drink it under any circumstances, and would have to be pretty desperate to bath with it. Sometimes, I wonder if I should be watering my garden with it, even though my shingles are over 25 years old. You wouldn't think any chemicals would remain in them.

LiveTrap said:

I have a fifty gallon plastic barrel that I have used for many years now to water my garden. The water that it catches off the roof smells really bad, though. I guess it is something leaching out of the asphalt shingles. I wouldn't drink it under any circumstances, and would have to be pretty desperate to bath with it. Sometimes, I wonder if I should be watering my garden with it, even though my shingles are over 25 years old. You wouldn't think any chemicals would remain in them.

Click to expand...

My take is all water for drinking should be filtered by a good quality filter, period.

rain water should be filtered even if it looks clean as you don't know what else is in it, although its okay for watering the garden.

Unglaubliche said:

CC&R's that require everything "look aesthetically pleasing."

Click to expand...

There are collection barrels that look like a tree stump now. fully plastic and the same thickness as a normal plastic drum. We built a 1000 liter plastic and steel tubing tank up and then let it get grown over with some kind of little vine with pretty white flowers. the wife wanted to pack it in peatmoss and plant all kinds of seeds in the peatmoss and just let it grow into a pile of flower covered dirt. Maybe it would work for you. GP

LiveTrap said:

you want people to reply with experience, but since no one has, I have an idea

Click to expand...

Get yourself a de-humidifier, get a good pollen filter, a 50 gallon drum clean enough to drink from, some wood and a small valve to use as a faucet. Take the water collector pan out of the humidifier and stick a long tube onto the place where the water comes from and hang it into the drum, cut rectangular slots in the barrel near the top and put wooden slats into the slots to put the humidifier onto. Drill a hole large enough for the valve/faucet and put in in the barrel about 1 inch from the bottom using rubber gaskets for waterproofing. Put the pollen filter in front of the humidifier to clean the air going into it. As the humidifier takes humidity from the air in the room, it condenses and becomes water which flows down the tube into the barrel. The barrel is set up higher on a table while it is still empty and light. As the valve is built into the bottom of the barrel, you can take water out just like from any other faucet. Fresh, clean and enough water to sustain you. Electricity for the humidifier from solar or generator. GP