Anyone collect rainwater.

[ToadHill]

That's a nice setup. I actually collect mine in a 1/2 acre pond using the runoff from one of my hayfields. I use a generator and an old sump pump to transfer the water to the garden.

 

[DAY]

On a historical note, ALL the water in Bermuda is rainwater, collected from rooftops. Clever systems let the first bit of rain wash the dust off the roof, then capture the rest in cisterns. It has been that way for a long time. Interesting what a society can do with limited resources, IF they have the will.:thumbsup:

 

[zonta223]

Hi
Your setup sounds great.
We have about 100,000 lts of rainwater storage and 40,000 lts of bore water.
A normal house roof catchment will more than fill all these tanks when we get our average 20 inch rain fall.
Have been running the whole house on rain water for the past 18 months.....certainly makes a difference in the shower etc.

regards
Bob

 

[Trkrd]

In addition to rain barrels for watering, I ran a pipe from my iron filter in the pump house down to the garden. When it regenerates it blows out about 50 gallons of water onto the ground so I figured I'd put it to use. The garden loves it.

 

[gniniar]

We, (the wife and me) use rain water for every thing in the house, got no choice there is no other supply. Bore water is ok for sheep and for flushing in the bath room but that is about all.

There 4 x 6000 gallon tanks for runoff from the house roof and 2 x 5000 gallon tanks for run off from the shed roof.

Hot and cold water for the kitchen, shower and laundry is supplied by a pressure pump. Water heaters last for ever. Enough water for the summer if you don't take long showers and waste any, our winter rain is usually enough to fill the tanks. The rainfall in our area is around 18 to 20 inches a year.
Dave.

 

[von-mil]

I would love to be able to collect as much water as the OP's setup does. Right now, I use a single rain barrel which holds about 48 gallons and fills up pretty quickly - about 2/10 of an inch of rain will have it overflowing.


I use a small pump to transfer the water from the rain barrel to an assortment of storage barrels, trash cans, buckets etc. I don't like wasting the rain either so I'm often doing the transfer mid-rainstorm rather than waiting until the rain stops. At last count, I had a capacity of about 780 gallons.


Then it's on to the carry-all to deliver the water where it's needed.

 

[tcreeley]

The 3 story house I grew up in (western Mass) had a slate roof and a large cistern in the basement. All of the down spouts ran to it. It was built in the early 1900's. At some point, the cistern was disconnected and the water was channeled along the edge of the dirt road it was on. The plumbing was connected to the cistern, possibly the barn.

 

[grsthegreat]

nope... but anyone wanting to collect rainwater can feel free to come to my place and collect all they want. its been raining at least 4 days a week for ...lets see. about 2 months.

I sure wish summer would come along....before old man winter springs forth again an a few months

 

[outinthetalgrass]

I picked up theses 2 tanks on ebay for 25.00 each. they hold 275 gallons, One is used to collect the rain water, and then i pump it into the trailer. I can then use the tractor to pull it around the place for my wife to water her plants.

 

[looknlearn]

Wow, Some of you guys have got some big rain collecting systems. Got any pictures, zonta223, and gniniar.

We are trying to figure out a way to get the water from the big tanks to tanks in the hoophouse for gravity drip irrigation. We have access to some free solar panels so was thinking something like hooking one directly to a DC pump and letting it pump when the suns out. Anyone know if this will work? We want to avoid having to use batteries.

Could also build a small windmill that would pump when the winds is blowing.