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]