Estimated reading time: 10 minutes
Most people don’t take the time to harvest rainwater. It seems like a hassle, and it’s so easy to just get water from the sink. Unfortunately, there are times and occasions when rainwater could not only save you some money, it could also provide you with water during a crisis or disaster when tap water is no longer available.
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It’s Not That Hard
There are some rainwater collection systems that can be set up in less than an hour. Even more ambitious setups would take no more than an afternoon or, at worst, a weekend.
Some designs cost nothing to put together, using found or available materials, but even when you invest in a rainwater collection system, the total cost will be a couple of hundred dollars at most. More ambitious systems could cost more, but that depends on the situation.
Benefits of Harvesting Rainwater
- It’s free – Rainwater comes with no cost, and it’s even delivered. At a time when municipal water bills continue to increase, and when water is rationed or restricted, rain can be a steady source of water without the water bill.
- It’s a great emergency backup – A lot can happen to compromise our supply of water. A power outage can immediately cut off the water for people dependent on a well pump. Even municipal supplies that are gravity fed from a water tower can run out if an outage continues after the towers are drained. Municipal water towers depend on electric powered pumps for refilling and without electricity, pumps don’t work. Even a home plumbing problem can cut off your water for a day or two.
A lot of this assumes you live in an area with fairly consistent rainfall, but even someone living in a desert area or enduring a drought can harvest and collect rainwater, and they probably should. Dry areas are notorious for having water restrictions, so collecting and storing as much rainwater as you can is probably a good idea.
Incorrect Assumptions About Harvesting Rainwater
We mentioned that rainwater is very pure, but be careful. Most rainwater is collected as runoff from a roof. Roofs have a tendency to collect a lot of pollutants. Bird droppings are the most obvious, but even the dust, dirt, and chemicals in the wind will stick to roof shingles.
Adding to the mix of possible pollutants are the leaves and tree branches that fall to roofs and collect in gutters. Don’t assume your rainwater is automatically safe for drinking. Take the time to filter it and purify it. We’ll cover some easy solutions for doing this, but don’t assume that because it’s typically pure and looks clean that it’s safe to drink.
Another thing to keep in mind: If your rainwater has been sitting in a barrel for weeks, it’s a good bet that some bacteria have had a chance to develop and grow. It’s fine for watering a garden or other outdoor uses, but you need to filter and purify it before using it for drinking or cooking.
Rainwater Harvesting Concepts
The fundamental concept of any rainwater collection system involves harvesting the runoff from a large angled surface exposed to sky, and channeling or funneling the runoff into a container to store the rainwater.
The size of the surface and the size of the container will determine how much rainwater you can harvest and store. Rooftops are often the first choice for serious rainwater harvesting, but remember than any roof will do. That includes the roof of your home but also a detached garage, shed, barn, or greenhouse. If it has a roof, you’re one step closer to getting a harvest of rainwater.
Here are some of your options:
1. A Tarp in the Trees
Something as simple as a tarp suspended from 4 trees can present enough surface area to collect a decent amount of rainwater. A lot depends on the duration of the rain and its intensity, but a tarp can work anywhere at anytime.
And it doesn’t have to be a tarp. I could be a sheet of plastic, a poncho, even a Mylar emergency blanket. It’s a simple and fast way to collect rainwater in an emergency or on a camping trip.
2. A Tarp on the Ground
In an area without trees, a tarp on the ground can catch and collect a lot of rainwater. It depends on the size of the tarp and the intensity of the rainfall, but if you support the corners and the sides above the ground to create a low area in the middle of the tarp, you can collect a lot of rain in a large puddle. It’s not a long-term solution, but it can catch a lot of rain in the short-term.
3. Rain Saucers
You can improvise large plastic cones over a water barrel to collect the water if you only have a patio or other small space. The cones expand the area for rain collection and over time can fill a barrel.
4. From Puddle to a Rain Collection Pond
If you want to create a long-term solution, you can dig a large shallow hole and line it with a large pond-tarp to collect water. The size is up to you. The best location is a low-lying area where the runoff on the ground will run towards and into your improvised collection pond.
You then scoop out the water as needed or use a battery-powered water pump. Once again, the amount of water you collect and hold depends on the size of your shallow hole and the size of your tarp.
5. A Rain Collection Pond in the Garden
A permanent solution is a rain collection pond next to or in a garden. Once again, a low-lying spot will deliver the runoff to the pond, or you can direct rain into the pond from rooftop gutters or tarps channeling the rain into the pond.
6. From Pond to Pool
You can drink swimming pool water ,but anyone who has ever owned a pool knows how it eventually fills and even overflows from rainfall. There are above-ground pools that are easy to set up and let you easily collect rainwater, especially if you direct rainfall into the pool with tarps around the perimeter or hoses from gutter downspouts.
7. Rooftop Gutter Harvest
There are specialized downspout attachments that you can connect to drainpipes from your roof gutters that allow you to connect a hose to direct and channel rainwater to a container. They have a lever on the side that allows you to redirect the runoff into the drainpipe if your container is full.
Bonus Method: Gutter Funnels
Another way to harvest directly from a rooftop gutter is with a large PVC funnel attached under the end of the gutter. The PVC continues from the roof, leading to your collection container. There’s no shutoff lever, so the runoff will continue to flow to your container unless you have a way to drain off any overflow from a full barrel.
Rainwater Containers
Dedicated Rain Barrel Design
Any barrel can collect and hold rainwater, but there are specially-designed barrels made specifically for rainwater collection. These barrels feature on open slot on top, usually covered with a screen to filter out leaves and coarse debris.
They also have a spigot at the bottom to make harvesting easy. One of other features is an overflow spout towards the top of the barrel that allows you to dump any excess water as it approaches the top. The excess can be drained to a garden with a hose or directed to another barrel or collection container.
Water Tanks
If you live in an area with frequent rains or have a large roof or collection system setup, you can use a large water tank to collect your water. They range in size from 200 to 400 gallons and have many of the same features as a rain collection barrel including spigots, screens and overflow spouts.
Automatic Garden Watering
It doesn’t make a lot of sense to water a garden while it’s raining, but a water barrel close to your garden can make watering a few days after rain a lot easier. The key is a soaker hose running through the garden.
A length of regular hose connected to the barrel leading to the soaker hose in the garden can keep your garden watered. If you have a water bill, you probably know that watering the garden uses a lot of water and harvested rainwater makes it easier and whole lot cheaper.
Basic Rainwater Filtering
This is about filtering stuff out of rainwater; it’s not about purifying it for drinking. Even if you don't plan on drinking it, there are plenty of reasons to filter debris out of rainwater. Washing windows is a good example, and rainwater is ideal for window washing because it's free of the harsh minerals that sometimes show up in any water sourced from the ground, including both well water and municipal water.
It’s easy to improvise a water filter from available materials.
All you need is a plastic bottle with the bottom cut off filled with gravel, sand, charcoal and a piece of fabric at the bottom. The result will be clear, filtered water but it still may not be safe for drinking. We’ll get to that later.
Other Uses for Rainwater
The most obvious uses for rainwater are for gardening, drinking, or cooking. Here are a few more:
- Washing stuff from the car to equipment, decks, bikes or anything else that gets dirty and needs to be washed. It works for washing floors as well. Better yet, when you use rainwater for washing something, you typically don’t have to worry about filtering or purifying it.
- Bathing. Every farm girl and farm boy knows the best way to wash your hair is under a downspout in the rain. Rainwater is soft water and leaves hair thoroughly rinsed and soft. It’s also good for any other bathing use, assuming you have enough to fill a tub or at least a bucket. If you store your rainwater in a black barrel in the sun, it will even be warm.
- Cars and Wood-fired boilers are another surprising destination for rainwater. The low pH of rainwater makes it best for refilling car batteries with water, and the same is true of the radiator. Because it doesn’t have the concentration of minerals that most other water sources carry, it makes the best solution for things like batteries and radiators that will build up minerals, especially from well water. Wood-fired boilers are also subject to mineral buildup, and rainwater solves that problem.
Purifying Rainwater
Rainwater purification is no different than the purification methods for any other natural water source. There are filters with ceramic inserts that purify water as well as water purification tablets. When using tablets, pay close attention to the directions on the bottle so you use the proper amount of water per tablet.
If you want to maintain water purity in a barrel or container for a longer term (a couple of weeks or more), you could add some chemicals designed for long-term water storage. They’ll at least prevent the growth of bacteria and make it safer for drinking if anyone decides to take a sip.
Additional Information about Rainwater Harvesting
There are plenty of videos and articles about the subject of rainwater harvesting and storage. Here are few to consider:
Articles:
- Rainwater Harvesting 101
- 13 Mistakes to Avoid When Harvesting Rainwater
- How to Remove “Forever Chemicals” from Rainwater
- How to Start Collecting Rainwater
- The Ultimate Rainwater Harvesting System
- How to Harvest Snow and Ice as Drinking Water
- A Beginner’s Guide to Rainwater Harvesting
Videos:
Try It
Even if it’s just a tarp in the trees, you might be surprised how much rainwater you can collect and how many ways you can use it. If for any reason you’re shaking your head about a rising water bill, this may be a good solution to at least reduce the cost.
Better yet, it’s a great backup for power outages or other emergencies. We can’t survive more than 3 days without water, and here’s a water source that’s not only delivered to your door—it’s free.
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