3 Ways to Collect Rainwater

Table of Content

• Which is best between well water vs rain water harvesting?
• DIY Filtered Trash Can Rain Barrel
• Rainwater might not be safe for household use without additional treatment.
• Rainwater harvesting is a simple way to conserve our limited water supply. Here are a few ways you can use it at your home…
• DIY Rain Barrel System
• Does drinking rainwater have health benefits?
• A BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO RAINWATER CATCHMENT SYSTEMS

Before deciding to set up your rainwater harvest, make sure to check with the local rules. Dirty rainwater is great for rinsing vegetables straight from your garden, especially root vegetables. Try filling a large bucket with rainwater, adding some carrots, potatoes, beets or other hard vegetables, and swish them together to knock the soil off.

Depending on the roof area that you are collecting the rain off of, this can have a dramatic impact on the health of your plants. Many plants rely on heavy rain fall in the winter to get them through the dry season. The effects of the extra water will be obvious even in the dead of summer, when your plants are still thriving even if you are irrigating infrequently.

Which is best between well water vs rain water harvesting?

You can easily do this by connecting them via the overflow pipes located on top near the lid. However, this minor inconvenience is countered by its ability to link up several units in a series, so each barrel is filled as soon as the former is full. The size and shape of the system also allow people to transport it easily in the back of an average car. The option of collapsing the unit and moving it to another spot with minimal effort is an invaluable functionality. Homeowners can easily move the tank around to different locations or properties.

As a result, some are more expensive and harder to install while others are much simpler. We’ve covered rainwater harvesting systems in more detail here. Rainwater collection is a new trend in the Western world but in most cultures, it’s one of the oldest ways for water collection and storage. While it used to be popular in the Western world too, people had stopped doing this after municipal water filtration and distribution systems become advanced enough. However, today it’s on the uptick and and increasing number of people are starting to collect rainwater again. This method involves locating the collection pipes underground in order to connect multiple downspouts from different gutters.

DIY Filtered Trash Can Rain Barrel

Finally, be sure to calculate how much water you'd be able to collect to determine the size of rain barrel you'd need. Most rainwater systems are intended for outdoor use such as gardening and washing. This need, compared to the amount of rainfall that can actually be collected, brings us closer to determining the appropriate rain barrel size. Outdoor rainwater collection systems don’t need as much treatment because the water is typically used outside. One of the easiest rain collectors to make is a repurposed old garbage can.

In-Home Use Web Course – Click here for a free, five-part course about using rainwater for in-home use. It covers basics, proper installation techniques, sizing, treatment, and maintenance. You can decide how to build your system once you determine what system would work best for your home. Once you start saving rainwater, you will help save the planet. A diversion or a splash block is an efficient way to hold onto the rainwater and divert it to the proper storage or canal.

Rainwater might not be safe for household use without additional treatment.

Second, before drinking rainwater be sure that you have thoroughly researched the purifying process in order to protect yourself from possible illness. Jennifer Poindexter Jennifer is a full-time homesteader who started her journey in the foothills of North Carolina in 2010. Currently, she spends her days gardening, caring for her orchard and vineyard, raising chickens, ducks, goats, and bees.

Using your drill or box cutter, cut 1-2 smaller holes in the lid to accommodate this extra flow. Rainwater is typically used in ways where filtration isn’t important. This includes watering the grass, washing the car, washing the dogs and so on. The reverse of the tarp trap is a pond in your yard that you can funnel the water from your roof or property via gutters or pipes. You can dig your pond as deep as you want and you can cover the plastic liner with flat river rocks to make it look good.

Rainwater harvesting is a simple way to conserve our limited water supply. Here are a few ways you can use it at your home…

In a passive system, you redirect your downspouts towards a swale in the landscape. This can be in the form of a dry creek bed, a wide, shallow basin, or you can even fill the swale with an extra thick layer of mulch, making it so the ground looks flat. Places that suffer from water scarcity are usually the ones that receive little rainfall throughout the year. So when there is rainfall, collect and save up as much water as you can save for the non-rainy day. Since it’s filtered and the container is closed except for the pipe’s inlet, you can be relieved from contamination. You can make a DIY splashback with cement and pipes, and other equipment.

The 2,000 gallon need, divided by 30 days, averages out to about 66 gallons of water per day. For this particular scenario, a rain barrel between 50 to 100 gallons will be quite large enough. It can be noted that most rainwater harvesting applications are set up for outdoor use, namely for irrigation, gardening, and outdoor washing.

Rainwater is a major clean water source and increases the amount of drinking water. For your outdoor pools and ponds, you can fill them with any collected rainwater. Unlike the fountains, the water does not have to be treated.

Constructing this larger-scale tarp collection system will harvest the most water in the most efficient way. In a pinch, though, you can simplify the system by digging a wide hole in the ground and lining it with a tarp to catch rain. Lay out your tarp so that its edges lay over the bermed edges of your collection area. If you can, try to use a billboard tarp, which is around 20 in × 30 in (51 cm × 76 cm) in size, to collect as much rainwater as you can. If you want to keep it simple and still get the most out of the rain, simply put out some collectors to collect the water.