Collecting and using rainwater for watering gardens
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znelbok
Active Member
radiation from japan is the least of your worries....
As for your rainwater - I live on rainwater, we dont get town water at all. I have a 120kL tank (inground concrete).
Scroll through the Aussie sites as water tanks are a big thing here and have to be isntalled with any new development.
Size your tank accordingly, either to suit the flow or physical restrictions.
You ca get a product that will send your town water to your tank should it be low.
The next step you can take is to use rainwater in your washing machine and toilets - save more money again assuming a plumber is not too expensive.
Mick
As for your rainwater - I live on rainwater, we dont get town water at all. I have a 120kL tank (inground concrete).
Scroll through the Aussie sites as water tanks are a big thing here and have to be isntalled with any new development.
Size your tank accordingly, either to suit the flow or physical restrictions.
You ca get a product that will send your town water to your tank should it be low.
The next step you can take is to use rainwater in your washing machine and toilets - save more money again assuming a plumber is not too expensive.
Mick
apostolakisl
Senior Member
120,000 l would be about 30,000 gallons. That is exactly what people here in the Texas hill country do. Typical indoor use for a family of four is about 4 or 5 k gallons/mo so 30,000 gallons gives you 6 months on a full tank. We easily can go 3 or 4 months with minimal rain so you need the reserve. In bad drought times people pump well water into the cystern or buy delivered tanker trucks of water.
Those with rainwater love it though. It washes stuff better and doesn't leave any mineral deposits.
Those with rainwater love it though. It washes stuff better and doesn't leave any mineral deposits.
hucker
Active Member
Dan:
I went through this a couple of years ago and it makes almost no sense from a financial standpoint if you have to build a pond/tank and install pumps. The basic math goes like this:
Plastic tanks cost about 1$/gallon. So a 1500gallon septic + digging the hole + getting a pump + running power and piping I costed out at 3-5K. Let's call it 3K since I'd do the work.
The value of the water on a full tank is $6 (we pay 2.95 for 748 gallons). In Seattle we get very little rain in the summer so I guessed that I could have it full in the spring easily and then maybe full two or three times more so I'd get 20-30 bucks a year out of it. The ROI is 100 years. In other places where there is more rain in the summer it might work better...but if there is more rain then you don't really need a storage system.
Now if you have a location for a pond that is higher than your yard so you can store a LOT of water and gravity feed some options are more interesting. If you had a very large tank for free it would make sense. If you can run gray water to a bunch of shrubs in a passive sort of way it makes sense (although it is illegal in Seattle for health reasons).
I was quite excited about the solar and water options when we did our house and in the end the only way you could do it was so you could claim you were green...to which I would say you'd be 'greener' by buying muni water and donating the water system money to a green cause and taking the tax deduction
Chuck
I went through this a couple of years ago and it makes almost no sense from a financial standpoint if you have to build a pond/tank and install pumps. The basic math goes like this:
Plastic tanks cost about 1$/gallon. So a 1500gallon septic + digging the hole + getting a pump + running power and piping I costed out at 3-5K. Let's call it 3K since I'd do the work.
The value of the water on a full tank is $6 (we pay 2.95 for 748 gallons). In Seattle we get very little rain in the summer so I guessed that I could have it full in the spring easily and then maybe full two or three times more so I'd get 20-30 bucks a year out of it. The ROI is 100 years. In other places where there is more rain in the summer it might work better...but if there is more rain then you don't really need a storage system.
Now if you have a location for a pond that is higher than your yard so you can store a LOT of water and gravity feed some options are more interesting. If you had a very large tank for free it would make sense. If you can run gray water to a bunch of shrubs in a passive sort of way it makes sense (although it is illegal in Seattle for health reasons).
I was quite excited about the solar and water options when we did our house and in the end the only way you could do it was so you could claim you were green...to which I would say you'd be 'greener' by buying muni water and donating the water system money to a green cause and taking the tax deduction
Chuck
apostolakisl
Senior Member
Dan:
I went through this a couple of years ago and it makes almost no sense from a financial standpoint if you have to build a pond/tank and install pumps. The basic math goes like this:
Plastic tanks cost about 1$/gallon. So a 1500gallon septic + digging the hole + getting a pump + running power and piping I costed out at 3-5K. Let's call it 3K since I'd do the work.
The value of the water on a full tank is $6 (we pay 2.95 for 748 gallons). In Seattle we get very little rain in the summer so I guessed that I could have it full in the spring easily and then maybe full two or three times more so I'd get 20-30 bucks a year out of it. The ROI is 100 years. In other places where there is more rain in the summer it might work better...but if there is more rain then you don't really need a storage system.
Now if you have a location for a pond that is higher than your yard so you can store a LOT of water and gravity feed some options are more interesting. If you had a very large tank for free it would make sense. If you can run gray water to a bunch of shrubs in a passive sort of way it makes sense (although it is illegal in Seattle for health reasons).
I was quite excited about the solar and water options when we did our house and in the end the only way you could do it was so you could claim you were green...to which I would say you'd be 'greener' by buying muni water and donating the water system money to a green cause and taking the tax deduction
Chuck
Exactly, but with one exception, if you do not have city water at your site it does potentially make sense. It depends on how much a well costs in your area. Around here, it is often times a similar price for a cystern or a well. The well is a bit more reliable, but the water is crappy compared to rain water, so you need to figure that in as well.
But we really aren't talking about irrigation water. A cystern just isn't going to do it unless you get a lot of regular rain, then you don't need to irrigate anyway! If you want to irrigate anything but a postage stamp yard, or you like cactus, you need a well. I know a lot of people with both. Well for irrigation and rain water for the house. It is an expensive way to have really nice water in your house, but what the heck, it's just money.
Snow is almost gone, so it's time to think about the gardens. This year, I would like to start collecting rainwater, and figure out a way of distributing it efficiently to my garden beds. Is anyone else doing this, and if so, can you share more details please? Of course, I also want to integrate this with my home automation
Hi Dan
Here,s a few pics of my water tank install
http://s195.photobucket.com/albums/z38/frankmc_2007/
HTH
Frank
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