rainwater catchment

[lardy1]

This is not your usual GJ topic. Nothing about cars, heavy equipment, ratchets or wrenches. This is to show how I built a water collection system to provide free water to my greenhouse.

The entire system (excluding the wood deck it sits on) was built for around a hundred fifty dollars. The drums were free. The downspout diverter works well. It's an Oatey product that I think I paid fifteen dollars for. The bulkhead fittings, unions, etc were bought.

There is no overflow. When water in the system rises up the vent pipe to the level of the diverter, it automatically directs it down the downspout.

 

[larry4406]

Nice setup.

The Oatey Rainwater device is a pretty clever piece.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003E1RJVU/?tag=atomicindus08-20

Post details of your greenhouse somewhere please (Free parking?)

 

[PhantomEB]

Every time I add on a rain barrel here, I give myself a silent giggle. One step away from paying the city to water our lawn and gardens. Will have a 40 gallon barrel in the back corner of the garage to boot.

 

[lardy1]

How do you get the water from the barrels to the greenhouse?
Do you have a collector for the greenhouse roof?

There is a spigot at the end of the lower manifold where I attach a hose that runs to the greenhouse. There is no other collector.


This really isn't about saving piles of money. I have my own well. But it saves wear and tear on the pump and bladder tank. The greatest advantage is that the greenhouse is 150' from the nearest outdoor spigot and the catchment is 20'. That's a lot of hose I don't have to deal with running through my side yard all summer, moving it every time I mow, etc.

 

[lardy1]

The building I'm capturing is my shop. A 30X40 pole barn. From where I was standing taking the pictures the greenhouse is behind me. From the system spigot to the greenhouse is only about 9 ft. from the greenhouse.

 

[BukitCase]

"Did the guy building the double 55 gallon rain drum rack from 2x2's ever come back to gj?"

curious about that too; if we knew his REAL name, mighta seen it in the obit columns ... Steve

 

[tarbellb]

"Did the guy building the double 55 gallon rain drum rack from 2x2's ever come back to gj?"

curious about that too; if we knew his REAL name, mighta seen it in the obit columns ... Steve

The 1st thing I thought about as well !

Nice simple system OP, you should find the thread we are talking about. You will get a kick out of it.

 

[steaks&anvils]

this one?

https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=395559

 

[lardy1]

The greenhouse is just a 10 X 20 Shelter Logic fabric greenhouse. This isn't a big operation. Just a couple dozen plants.


I read most of the thread you folks referred to. It was hard to mentally capture the guys vision without photos. But I was a carpenter and a builder for many year and the idea of supporting two full drums of water on a 2 X 2 structure doesn't sound like a very good idea.

 

[BukitCase]

Lardy, it got even better; those 2x2's were half-lapped in the center IIRC - scared me just to THINK about doing something that half-assed, much less not wanting to hear even the gentlest suggestions. If his were a Yugo, yours is at least a BMW... Steve

 

[budget76]

There is no overflow. When water in the system rises up the vent pipe to the level of the diverter, it automatically directs it down the downspout.

i'd been assuming, but never confirmed this.

probably going to setup a single barrel shortly for the same reason - on a well, but for watering the grass/flowers I wouldn't mind saving the extra strain on the pump, especially when i've already got to use it to bring up the pool level every now and then during the summer. Figuring the 10ft elevation drop should give me enough pressure

 

[lardy1]

i'd been assuming, but never confirmed this.

probably going to setup a single barrel shortly for the same reason - on a well, but for watering the grass/flowers I wouldn't mind saving the extra strain on the pump, especially when i've already got to use it to bring up the pool level every now and then during the summer. Figuring the 10ft elevation drop should give me enough pressure[/QUOTE


I am no engineer at all. But I thought that if the vent was higher than the diverter, it would have nowhere to go but down the downspout. My thinking was correct. When the system is full it never runs out the vent.

Mine doesn't produce much pressure. But if you can get ten feet of rise you should get more than mine at about four feet.

 

[dcg9381]

Nice system. I've been using condensate from my split systems to feed some plants - they seem to love the water.

Our building is 100% the source of our drinking water (rain water) collection. I've got a larger scale system that what you've got, but a total of 3 tanks and 15,000 gallon capacity. We got 1.2" of rain two days ago and it captured about 2,200 gallons of water.

I've never built anything like this before and so far it's been pretty successful. Water quality from rain water is much better than what's coming out of the ground here...

 

[Bert_]

I think it's kind of cool. I have dinked around and made the cistern next to my house useable. Patched a few cracks, dug up the inlet and ran one downspout into it. Even put new leather cups in the pump.

I think it holds about 2500 gallons. Works good to water a garden. Would never pay to install it new. Water is pretty cheap.