Rainwater Collection ideas

[dirtybrownracing]

I happen to live in a marine desert. The tiny amount of water I could collect will not justify the expense of construction of a facility.

Surprisingly enough its not that high...

$300 - 1550 gallon tank from facebook marketplace
$70 - 35' of gutters
$60 - 4" foamcore pipe and fittings
$30 - new lid for tank
$40 - 4" gaskets and holesaw to drill into tank
$160 - jet pump from Harbor Freight
$50 - 1" pvc pipe and fittings

so for a total of $710 I got it all going. Could have left the pump off if using just to irrigate but would have rather had added power to pump it wherever I needed.

 

[nadogail]

OK, but my 2400 square foot 2 story house shares a 3500 square foot lot with a detached two car garage.

 

[dcg9381]

Hey guys, my new shop is going up next week and i've recently been intrigued by rainwater collection as an alternative to a $6,000 well being drilled for water

Has anybody on here rigged up any basic systems for maybe just irrigation and water supply just to maybe have running water to flush a toilet and wash your hands?

Here a well is $20-$25k. I've owned more than one and because all the water here has high TDS and is really hard, it's difficult water to deal with.

When I decided to build a house, I went GJ style and built a live-in shop first. Part of that shop design was supplying the water infrastructure for the residence. We decided to do water collection - and ran the math on what we need in terms of roof area and storage for our water use. There are spreadsheets that can help.

We currently store 15,000 gallons of water in 3 tanks. The tanks are interconnected on 2" valves and water seeks "level" so we can balance water across all 3 tanks as well as keep a reserve. We can direct the pump to pull from any specific tank by cutting off the other two.

I've had a lab look at the water and it's vastly better than what we pull out of the ground here. We don't need softeners.

What do you need for this to be a viable water source?

• First flush filters (these are simple mechanical devices that "drops" the first gallons of water when it starts to rain)
• Sediment filters (pre pump and post pump)
• We use UV to make the water safe to drink. IE - kill anything that might be living in the water

The best place to get the "cleanest" water is in the center of the tank. We use a 2" inlet hose (spa hose) with a filter that is sunk just under a float in one tank.

What have the problems been:

• Any exposed pipe can have freeze issues. Our system took damage under a rare heavy snow. I should have opened the flush filters 100% and drained any exposed pipe. Note, I'm in the south and we don't get long week or more freezes.
• In a downpour, you need huge pipe capacity. 4" pipe won't do it from 2 gutters.
• PVC may not be the right material long term (UV exposure)
• We can have droughts. This is our only water source short of begging from the neighbors. 15k gallons is the right math for droughts, but it's too tight for me. But I've added another 2 tanks and will collecting water off the residence. 25,000 gallons total.

 

[Bretny]

For just washing hands and a toilet I would be suprised if you used a 55gal drum every 2 weeks.

 

[JieselDeep]

I work in catchment in Hawaii. Over here, we don't have freezing weather to worry about, but what we install primarily are corrugated steel tanks with a vinyl liner, similar to what you'd have for an above ground pool.

Originally, I'm from Nebraska and the corrugated steel tanks we use here for catchment, would be called grain bins there. If course, we wouldn't put liners in them for grain.

Our house is completely off-grid, solar-powered, catchment for water. We have a 28,000 gallon tank, 24 ft diameter, 8 ft tall. Slight bull to the bottom on the inside, with sand underneath to protect the liner and a slight broom at the edges going up the wall about 6 in on the inside before you put the liner in. If you need advice on how to build one, it'd be happy to share. Not really all that difficult, but there are a few tricks that make it a lot easier. We can assemble a 10,000 gallon tank in about 3 hours, starting from roughly level ground. That includes spreading and compacting the sand. If you're working by yourself, it's still possible to do, but the heavy lifting is more difficult.

For filtration, it is vital that you go down at least as far as five micron before the UV filter if you intend to drink the water. Anything that is larger than five micron might not be sufficiently penetrated by the UV to be safe to drink. We typically use five micron carbon filters, they remove odors and tastes from the water. Also, proceed the five micron filter with a 10 micron filter to extend the life. If you were using it daily for household, you'd probably need to change about once a month with a two and a half by 10 inch filter cartridge. If you're just flushing toilets and washing hands, you might get three four six even eight months out of it depending on how much water you use.

You can also just use the septic tank idea. Deep enough underground that you don't have freeze problems, and make sure you have a pump inlet pipe in the tank and you should be good to go.

Sent from my moto z3 using The Garage Journal mobile app

 

[dirtybrownracing]

Here a well is $20-$25k. I've owned more than one and because all the water here has high TDS and is really hard, it's difficult water to deal with.

When I decided to build a house, I went GJ style and built a live-in shop first. Part of that shop design was supplying the water infrastructure for the residence. We decided to do water collection - and ran the math on what we need in terms of roof area and storage for our water use. There are spreadsheets that can help.

We currently store 15,000 gallons of water in 3 tanks. The tanks are interconnected on 2" valves and water seeks "level" so we can balance water across all 3 tanks as well as keep a reserve. We can direct the pump to pull from any specific tank by cutting off the other two.

I've had a lab look at the water and it's vastly better than what we pull out of the ground here. We don't need softeners.

What do you need for this to be a viable water source?

• First flush filters (these are simple mechanical devices that "drops" the first gallons of water when it starts to rain)
• Sediment filters (pre pump and post pump)
• We use UV to make the water safe to drink. IE - kill anything that might be living in the water

The best place to get the "cleanest" water is in the center of the tank. We use a 2" inlet hose (spa hose) with a filter that is sunk just under a float in one tank.

What have the problems been:

• Any exposed pipe can have freeze issues. Our system took damage under a rare heavy snow. I should have opened the flush filters 100% and drained any exposed pipe. Note, I'm in the south and we don't get long week or more freezes.
• In a downpour, you need huge pipe capacity. 4" pipe won't do it from 2 gutters.
• PVC may not be the right material long term (UV exposure)
• We can have droughts. This is our only water source short of begging from the neighbors. 15k gallons is the right math for droughts, but it's too tight for me. But I've added another 2 tanks and will collecting water off the residence. 25,000 gallons total.

I've got it plumbed to the pump with PVC, will be PEX from there to the ends of the lines. I only have 1 gutter run that is catching which is 35'.

Question, even with say 20 something degree temps here in Georgia, if the tank is halfway full I shouldnt have to worry about the actual water in the tank freezing would I?

Thanks

 

[dcg9381]

Question, even with say 20 something degree temps here in Georgia, if the tank is halfway full I shouldnt have to worry about the actual water in the tank freezing would I?

Thanks

It's really not the tank that you're worried about. In the 20s (if that's the high for several days) the water inside will start to freeze where it contacts the tank. But it takes a LOT of cold for a long time to freeze that tank. And you can get "ag" trough heaters to handle this.
It's the exposed connecting PVC that will take damage much quicker. Here, we have to recirculate the tank or drain the connected PVC... My guess is you could insulate it or add heating lines, but I didn't have luck this year when it got below 15 degrees for several days.

 

[dcg9381]

Curious - we see those metal tanks with liners out this way too. I believe they are made in Austrialia. Can you source these yourself and assemble DIY? When I priced them they included install / erection and were simply not as cost effective as larger pre-fab'd tanks.

 

[cvairwerks]

Curious - we see those metal tanks with liners out this way too. I believe they are made in Austrialia. Can you source these yourself and assemble DIY? When I priced them they included install / erection and were simply not as cost effective as larger pre-fab'd tanks.

Look at April Wilkerson's channel....She's just outside Austin and had one installed on their place. Don't remember who made it thu.

 

[dirtybrownracing]

Got everything put together, pump inlet filled.

pump runs fine if yard hydrant is open, but with Hydrant closed it pumps up to 60 psi and then goes wild and starts spitting and sputtering instead of cutting off. Any ideas?

 

[scofo]

I wonder if an air chamber on the discharge might help. Maybe it develops a water hammer that the pressure switch can't deal with? Put a garden hose on it with a shut off valve at the end then see if the hose acts as a shock absorber. If the pump shuts off properly with a garden hose full of air then build some kind of chamber to eliminate the hammer.

 

[flan]

Here’s my 2 barrel setup, I use it for yard watering.

 

[dirtybrownracing]

I put in a check valve before the pump and it cleared up the issue. Thanks for advice.