Rain Water Harvesting

[hwp]

Even though we live in "the City", we do not enjoy some services such as water and sewers. We have a 5000 gallon cistern that is an integral part of the foundation of our house. We collect rain water from some parts of our roofs and not others (not from roofs subject to bird droppings, etc.). We use the collected water for everything, house and garden. If God doesn't provide us with enough water, we get it by the truckload. The water used in the house goes through four filters, two sediment and two charcoal, and a UV lamp. We get our water check by the Department of Health and have never had a problem with contaminated water. We have an electronic water depth gauge (made by Rain Water Harvesting in Australia and now distributed in the US and Canada) that allows us to monitor the water level in the cistern.

 

[teg]

I have it for watering the garden... only 500 gals... it fills up fast and when it rains you don't need the water. When you do need it, 500 gals is not very much... I wish I had more "need" for the water, but I don't. Make the design easy to by-pass when the tank gets full.

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[allenr]

In South Australia I use winter rainfall for washing, bathing, drinking and garden irrigation, right through Summer and Autumn. (first pic)

At a rental property I own the drainage trench fed with water from the bathroom, laundry and kitchen became blocked.
So I dug a hole with the backhoe and dropped in a secondhand 1600Litre (about 400 US gl) septic tank and finally also connected up the gutters to this tank.

Tried an above ground pump but it wouldn't prime, so now have a large submersible sump pump sending the water (when it trips a float switch) to four wobbler sprinklers, which only require 10psi, watering four Walnut and one Mulberry tree. (pics two to five)

Not a good pic, but just shows one of two 5000gl concrete tanks on the right and behind the fruit trees in the chook run are two 5500gl poly tanks.

Rental House - top of concrete septic tank just visible

Catchment from gutters not shown here - added later

Small tee toward the back of this pic distributes the water to the trees

Trees to the left in this pic receive the water via wobbler sprinklers between the trees. (walnut trees not seen, one hidden behind mulberry and three to the left of camera

 

[The Dougster]

The Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) offers an excellent publication that can be downloaded and would be an excellent source of information to anyone interested in rainwater harvesting....

http://www.twdb.state.tx.us/publications/reports/RainwaterHarvestingManual_3rdedition.pdf

 

[scgargoyle]

I've heard it is illegal to save rainwater in Colorado- I guess they feel you are diverting it from the aquifer. I don't know if this is true anywhere else.