Rainwater harvesting is a widely popular way to collect water for homesteaders and those invested in preparation for natural disasters, power grid failure, or even those who just want to save money. While many communities have guidelines on what harvested rainwater can be used for, there are plenty of great uses for it outside of making it potable. Watering your garden and washing your cars and home are wonderful uses for your collected rainwater if your town has regulations against ingesting it, and if they don’t, visit our article on purifying water and saving it long-term! While you’re here, let’s discuss building your rainwater harvesting system.
The first step in harvesting your rainwater is ensuring you’ll be doing it legally, and how much you can collect. Several states in the US have laws against collecting, so search for your local guidelines to keep yourself and your home in good legal standing. Following that, you’re going to plan out where you’d like to collect from, and how much room you have in that area to do so. Collecting from the gutter’s downspouts is a great idea, and due to how they’re designed to carry water away from the home, rerouting that flow toward your collection device is easy!
While choosing your harvesting location, consider the flow of water from your gutters and downspout, and what the ground surrounding the area can support. It might be necessary to lay a concrete slab below to evenly distribute the weight of your 55-gallon (or bigger) water drum.
Containers
There are several choices for storing your rainwater in the process of collecting, the greatest for beginners being rain barrels. These tend to come in smaller sizes than other harvesting systems, however, if you’re just getting started, 55-100 gallons should be enough! Rain barrels are widely available online and locally and are easy to set up.
A step up from rain barrel harvesting is the “dry method”. This system involves much larger barrel-like containers, in a system, and allows the piping to dry out after collection. This method is great for those finding their rain barrels aren’t capturing enough, or that they are overflowing too quickly. The biggest downside to this container type, however, is the need for it to remain near the home.
Moving toward the higher-volume collection methods is the “wet system”. Unlike the dry method, these much larger tanks don’t need to remain near the house, instead, they involve a series of pipes routed under the ground to carry water away to be stored. This more intricate system can collect water from any downspout on your home or in the area and fills the elevated container from the bottom up! Due to the nature of the setup, however, this method may not be for everyone, as burying water-tight piping and connections can get expensive quickly. There also must be a significant height difference between the lowest gutter on the home, and the height of the collection tank inlet to allow the water in the tank to rise.
Deciding to harvest rainwater for household use can be a great way to save money and use less water, and with a little bit of planning (and the local legislature’s “ok”) you’ll be well on your way toward using harvested water for tons of things around your home!