If you live in an area with an abundant rainfall, you should collect rainwater. You simply place a rain barrel under your downspout and let nature do the rest. Few people know how much water you can collect from your rooftop. If your roof measures 1,000 square feet (20 feet by 50 feet), you can collect as much as 600 gallons of water with a rainfall of only one inch!
While rain water collection happens without any real effort on your part, there are three simple things you can do to improve your rain water collection efforts.
1.Make sure your rain barrel has a filter attachment. A filter at the intake portion of your barrel prevents debris from collecting and will also help prevent mosquitoes from breeding in your collected rainwater. Mosquitoes breed in standing water.
2.Get a rain barrel that allows for a hose attachment. Most come with a hose attachment or spigot to allow for easier water retrieval. It is much easier, and more efficient to attach your hose to a spigot at the bottom of your rain barrel than to open the top and fill a smaller bucket.
3.Attach a rain water diverter to your downspout. Rain barrel diverter kits are inexpensive and alleviate the problem of water pooling at the base of your container. This can occur when the water collected exceeds the capacity of your rain catching receptacle. A diverter is attached to your downspout above the barrel and works by allowing the overflow water to run through your downspout and out the waste channel as it was originally designed, after your barrel has been filled.
In the United States, 70% of water our is used for gardens and lawns. Rainwater collection is an obvious solution to the issue of needing to reduce water consumption. It's easy and it's free.
If you are interested in purchasing a rain barrel... You can find additional information about buying a rain barrel diverter along with other water harvesting devices and more interesting ideas about water reclamation. You can find a great selection of water collection products, along with lots of FREE information and tips to help you to harvest and utilize rain water at: http://rainbarreldiverter.com
Delighted to read your article on rain water collection, I had been thinking seriously about it recently and had a look at some water containers, so after reading your article, I will definately be collecting rain water soon.
ReplyDeleteHi, I am visiting all of the followers of my blog and would like to thank you for doing so.I have enjoyed your posts, all informative.I live in Ireland and have a water barrel which is never empty, I wonder how much I collect and use over the year?!
ReplyDeleteBest wishes
Here there's now a law which says that all new buildings must be equipped with rainwater collection equipment. Wish they'd extend it to the old ones too!
ReplyDeleteI hate to promote more laws..but it would be nice to have rain collection systems on all homes. I'm surprised it's not more popular in areas where they have to pay for their water. So much is lost just in run off from roofs and paved areas. We are in a low lying area and several housing developements have destroyed hundred of acres of land and trees that used to take up alot of the water...we are seeing higher water levels in our canals now...and it's just the beginning of hurricane season.
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