Rain water hravesting

[hudr]

I agree that there are probably pollutants in rain water. I realize the water will have to be filtered, treated or something before it is consumed by humans. That is one reason I want to start out pouring it on the lawn and letting the livestock drink it. We have had a pretty bad drought going on here the last year or so. Our water useage went from about 3000 gal/month to well over 10000 gal/month. We were watering stock from the faucet. I would like to avoid that in the future. Not just from the $$ standpoint since I think it will take quite a while to realize any savings from this system, but also from the "good steward" standpoint. I also would like to be a lot more self-reliant. My children also need to be introduced to the concept of self-reliance. If we have any kind of catastrophe around here (fire, flood, drought, ice storm) I don't want my reaction to be "I'll just sit down right here and wait for my gov'ment to take care of me".
AndyC: I am just getting into the mechanics of the system now. I had a local "gutter installer" come out and look at the house, but will regular residential gutters handle the load if h2o backs up? Also, I was told there had to be a downspout every 30ft to alleviate the load. This would have me putting barrels at all 4 corners of the bldg. I want this done right and would love to learn from someone else's mistakes [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Pat]

hudr, Hopefully all the airborn activity from Chernobyl and similar are dissapated (some say NOT.) Rain and snow can also be radioactive as well as chemically polluted. Your motivations are certainly good. I hope the outcomes match.

Our Mexican property (Baja California) is in a development that is solar power only and has no local civil water distribution as a government entity. All water is trucked and stored in various size and type tanks. I helped a neighbor install a 2400 gal underground tank. He superchlorinates the water and then filters it at time of use. This prevents anything from growing in the stored water (tank or lines) but gives taste and odor filtration that removes the chlorine as it is dispensed.

I went a cheaper route with multiple recycled food grade plastic drums. They were originally filled with Kikoman Teriyaki sauce but cleaned up nicely and soon lost all trace of Teriyaki. With all the Clorox the Teriyaki didn't last long. It took more engineering and plumbing but was cheaper and I didn't have as much problem burying them. Multiple shallow holes were easier than a single large deep one, cave in wise (desert location with lots of sand.)

As the average rainfall there is 3 inches/year we didn't consider catching rain. Of course we took a hit from a hurricane a while back and that provided lots of rain.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[robertn]

Try looking for articles about Island life? I did a trip about 5 years ago to St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands. Most water was from roof-top collection. The house we stayed at had something like a 5000gal tank in the basement.

If you did not collect rainwater, it could be bought from a desalination plant, and trucked to the house($$$).

Otherwise, you didn't have much for water...

[captinjack]

I have been using roof captured rain for the last 10 yrs. at my WV deer camp that I use at least on a monthly basis.

My property doesn't have any ground water as the coal mines have drained all of it away. A cistern is the only water that I have. I collect if off an aluminum roof, aluminum gutters, PVC piping and a 1500 gallon food grade made for the purpose polyethylene cistern.

Filtration is via a small combination carbon and particulate filter that I change about 4 times a year whenever pressure/volume decreases.

We have an in-door toillet that is the largest consumer of water, however, we also utilize the out house when convenient.

We have had problems with water odor on a temporary basis once, and am currently having a problem with discoloration that eventually goes away if I use a lot of water over a weeks stay. Haven't figured out what it is yet, but it is not harmful as with proper filtering it tastes good and hasn't affected me yet.

So far it has met our needs completely, however, we don't live there all the time. The cistern is almost always full whenever we arrive so we almost never check the level anymore excepting when 40 people come down to camp for the fourth of July annual pig roast and stay for a week. We must be careful then and a thunderstorm instead of being a bummer, actually is a blessing.

If I had to do it over again, I would pump out of the 1500 gallon tank underground to a larger tank up the mountain and rely on gravity feed and a larger storage capacity. I think that system would work for year round living.

[GaryQWA]

You should look into the pH of the water and the effect of aluminium on the human body with long term exposure. If the pH is acidic, you could have an amount of aluminium, copper and lead from lead based solder in the water that is not good for you. BTW, there is no MCL (max contaminate level) for aluminium in potable water but there is a lot of data showing evidence that you don't need much to cause a problem.

Also, your carbon filter... bacteria love to breed in carbon. Bacteria creates gas and that is the odor you smell. You should inspect the inside of your storage and see if there is any slime formation and if so clean and disinfect the tank. And I suggest some type of bacteria controlling water treatment because of the source of the water but then it sits stagnant for long periods of time too.

Gary
Quality Water Associates

[BlueRidge]

Gary, you beat me to it on the aluminum issue. I would NOT drink that water except in an emergency.


Gary, what do you think about ozone treatment for a cistern like that?

[CJDave]

[img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] Great post, Gary...... you covered all of the salient points. Just another example of something that looks so simple actually being complex upon inspection. [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]

[GaryQWA]

Thanks for the kind words guys. Ozone is the most powerful and fastest acting disinfectant/oxidizer we have. Out on the West Coast they use it in on the surface large tanks/cisterns. The problem with that approach is that you need to get the ozone spread out throughout the column of water, and that can be difficult. A problem with ozone it its production and the volume produced. It is difficult to produce a consistent volume unless you have very dry air so in high humidity areas, you may need an air dryer and they have high maintenance. I'd go with chlorination and dechlorination as the water leaves the tank.

Gary
Quality Water Associates

[Pat]

Right, Gary, put it in and take it out. Down in Baja were water is delivered to many winter retreat residences by truck and stored in a tank till used in days or months or next year the smart folks super chlorinate the storage and then filter it out as dispensed.

The required equipment is simple as once the quantities are calculated it is just a matter of adding sufficient chlorine bleach. Knowing when to change the point of use activated charcoal filters is a matter of personal taste, literally. If you can smell/taste the chlorine it is time to change the filter.

Good call on the aluminum... but be careful you don't attract the ire of the "junk science" squad who poo-poo everything that is non lethal withing a couple minutes of contact.

I remember when aluminum pichers were quite common, some anodized in various bright colors to match or contrast with popcorn bowls or whatever and some in plane unfinished aluminum. These were used to serve cold drinks ranging from ice water to lemonade. Aluminum citrate anyone?

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[egon]

Heck; there was a time aluminum pots and pans were real popular. [img]/forums/images/icons/blush.gif[/img]

Egon [img]/forums/images/icons/ooo.gif[/img]