Here’s my problem: Getting the water out of the barrels. I’m just using a hose. Down hill only at very low pressure. Good for trees and shrubs, but very time intensive. Impossible for the lawn. Any ideas?

Also, I have them in four spots with their own down spouts for quick filling, but I’m beginning to think that it would be better for using the water if they were daisy chained. When you drain two connected barrels, do they drain at the same time or indvidually?

Does anyone have any suggestions on how I could “seal” my shingles to use the collected water?

Thanks

http://www.rainbrothers.com/ra.....index.html

1. daisy-chain them to other barrels to catch more rainfall.
2. divert overflow to drainage.

Because I don’t need much more than one barrels worth in each spot, I have a hose clamped to my barrel overflow, then place the other end directly into my drainage tile.

We are so much more connected to the weather, now.

I never paid much attention to trends in the weather, unless they resulted in great inconvenience or were truly glorious. Now, I watch my water levels carefully, and have a feel for monthly rainfall.

I’m much more likely to celebrate a rainy day than I was before the rainbarrels. This has definitely increased the number of days when I cheer the weather!

Last summer, when I did the calculations, the actual savings exceeded my expectations. We saved well over $20/month with just the one barrel, during the growing/planting months. This is based on comparing the usage of previous months and years, and watching the numbers before and after the use of the barrels.

One thing that is becoming clear to me from this disucssion, is how important it is to do the calculations based on local rates, local waterfall, local weather conditions, personal needs and local government regulations.

I’m surprised at how much this varies across the country (never mind how much it must vary across the world!)

I think for most of us it’s not about saving money per se, but of capturing water that may or may not eventually make it into our own water tables. Let’s call it “Pre-cycling”. (I’d like to officially coin that term, please).

Still… I suppose I’ll eventually use that many barrels of saved water. Mine’s made out of plastic… It ain’t going anywhere anytime soon. LOL. And it’s re-purposed from a prior life of transporting bulk quantities of pickles or something around the country. So maybe in the end all I’m REALLY doing is keeping that big 55 gal. jug out of a landfill?

I paid $96 for the two of them. I have city water/sewer & do not have a second water meter for my outside spigots, so all spigot water use is also counted against my sewer bill. Normally when watering my landscaping, garden, & occasionally my yard, my water/sewer bill would jump from $50/month to $175/month.

Hence, in my situation the barrels will pay for themselves 2 – 3 times over this summer.

Again I am not saying rain barrels are bad or trolling to cause a fight, just saying that water in the quantities that we are talking about being able to utilize from a rain barrel is very CHEAP. So again if you are thinking about doing this to save money I would pull out the calculator and do some math.

All of this is a long winded way of saying that the laws against rainwater harvesting in some areas of the West are not stupid, but created out of the necessity of allocating a scarce resource. That said, I definitely use water barrels here where there is plentiful rain.

@Eric Water is NOT cheap in many area of the country. Here in the east it is incredibly cheap, but natural gas is sky-high. Where I grew up in Texas and Colorado, natural gas was cheap (and regulated, thankfully,) but the minimum water bill, before any gallons of usage were added, was $40-70 per month.

We’re going to be moving into our first house later this year. I would like to setup a 3 barrel staired daisy chain system for use in the veggie garden next year. It seems like it could be tricky to water the garden if the pressure is really low.

Has anyone tried setting these kind of barrels up into a drip irrigation system? rather than spraying?

Right now, we’re hoping for rain, because we’re almost at the point of needing to use the house-spigot!

Where do you live that you get so much water?

We’re in Boston. Sometimes the rainbarrels overflow, but I try, if I’m home, to fill up a bunch of (gleaned from other people’s recycle bins) modified 2.5 gallon plastic “bottled water” containers. They were meant not to be refillable, but I cut large holes where the pinhole was, and close them off with metal jar lids, which have glue-gunned corks on them, to keep in place.

I’d fill a rain barrel in an hour, I have to push the water about 60-70 feet out….

During the winter melt/spring rainy season my 1/2 horse sump pump runs every 60 seconds….I’d need an absolutely massive cistern to store all of that water.

For the mosquitoes, try goldfish:
http://blog.jugglingfrogs.com/.....arrel.html

Alternatively, BT mosquito dunks are reportedly safe for children and pets (though you shouldn’t drink the water) and don’t use chemicals. They use a mosquito-killing bacteria naturally found in soil.

Basic calculations for a 2000 square foot roof area to gather gives 1246 gallons.

2000 sq ft = 288,000 sq in
288,000 sq in x 1″ rain = 288,000 cubic inches of rain
At 231 ci per gallon, that gives the 1246 gallons.

Or, if you just want to look at how much per area, you get .62 gallons per square foot per 1″ of rain.

Sooo… even if you only get 13 inches of rain a year, that’s plenty of full rain barrels!

Website here: http://www.epcontainers.net/id10.html

http://home.howstuffworks.com/.....toilet.htm

I live in Tucson,AZ and it is actively encouraged. I get all of my water except drinking/cooking water from rain I collect off of my garage. Even with less than 12″ a year I get all that I need with 1500 gallons of storage space although I must add that I am a super-water-conserver living in an RV. A little bleach in the water keeps the water clear and mosquito free.

Drilling a well costs around $35k. Some neighbors have wells others haul their water or have it delivered. I am the only one in my area that I know of who relies almost solely on rainwater. People just can’t believe it when I tell them.

We pay $22/month, most months, for all the water we use … most of it indoors, and with no sewer charges (we’re on septic) (we use ~3,000 gallons/month, though I do keep trying to reduce that). So it’s hard to come up with a scenario where this is worth the effort in financial terms. That said, once my son is older (now just 2), it might be an interesting/educational project to intall and use one or more of these just to give him an idea of systems, inputs, outputs, etc. So there could be other sorts of value added.

In my neck of the woods it has merit since we traditionally get a good bit of rain, and in most places it’s illegal to sink a well, so the water company has you in a tight spot.

1. I’m in SouthEast Washington. Its the opposite of what most folks think of for the PNW, its a desert here. I think we average 6″ of rain/year. And when it does rain, its not when I need to be watering stuff anyway.
2. Since it doesn’t rain much, there are no gutters on the house. Bit more of an initial expense there before being able to use rain barrels.

Still… I love the idea, and if/when I move someplace else, will most likely put it to use.

Actually, it’s quite common for it to be illegal to collect rainwater in the west due to water rights. Colorado just passed a law allowing people who live with a personal well to collect rainwater – before that it was illegal for anyone in the entire state.

I have been told by our local municipality they are more concerned about agricultural/commercial use than a homeowner watering his flowerbeds, that doesn’t mean you can’t be fined.

@AG: My wife & I are harvesting rain as well! We’re installing the rain barrels (rainbanks) this weekend. We are placing one on a downspout by our garden and the other on a downspout by our landscaping.

@Sam: Excellent question! Like Nickel said, it depends heavily on where you are. Another key point to address that I did not mention in the post is the ability to “daisy-chain” your rain barrels, this allows you to harvest as much as possible with each precious rain storm. Also, the average yield on a 1,000 sq.ft roof is approximately 6,000 gallons per inch of rainfall.

@My Journey: Ha ha ha ha, that’s hilarious. No, I’m definitely not going to carry my barrels around and dump the contents strategically on the garden. Like Nickel said, each barrel does have a spigot attached to the bottom where I attach a hose. Also, I am using them to irrigate my garden and landscaping.

@Jeremy: Take Jeremy’s advice and check with your local municipality to ensure the legality of harvesting rain in your area. It may not be allowed although this will be very uncommon.

@Quill: As Nickel said, yes…barrels are covered & have mesh screens over openings to prevent infestation. If you do become infested, dump out the entire contents of the barrel and start over. This will kill all the mosquito larvae.

@Stacey: Yep, sounds spot-on…nice work!

@Jeff: The screens in the eaves troughs and over the rain barrel filter any organic material out. Rain water is actually very clean and is excellent for washing cars since it is naturally soft water. Personally, I’m not going to wash my car with it…just irrigate my plants. For washing my car, opportunity cost warrants me to simply drive through an automatic car wash.

@Kelly: Awesome & congrats. There is something liberating about harvesting & using your own water! It is definitely akin to using solar/wind power for electricity! Best of luck on getting them installed, ours were very easy to assemble, and won’t be to hard to install this weekend.

We have yet to find time to install them, but the hubby devised an irrigation system for our small garden with them.

Hoping to make time to install them this summer.

The notion that rainwater is “clean” and devoid of dissolved minerals is…interesting. Rain drops collect tons of particulate matter as they fall, so whatever is floating in the air (dust, smog, whatever) ends up in the water. In thunderstorms some of the best nuclei for hailstones are dirt particles. And what about when it hits your roof? Is that clean? The last time I looked, birds liked to congregate at the peak of my roof and do their business. That all runs into your barrel. Anyway…go ahead collecting rainwater (where it’s legal) but don’t use it to wash your car unless you don’t value your paint job!