rain water catchment

four 250 gallon tanks plumbed together to get maximum head during catchment. Tanks serve and upper and lower garden. Just plumbed to catch as of now, need to complete the delivery system. Tanks set up next to a 750 gallon tank. 1750 gallons total collecting from a roof that gets 10,000 gallons a year on average.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• rain
• water
• catchment
• barrels

[harpoon52]

I believe your system may have significant energy losses. If you reduce it to a simple series of barrels with one low-level exit valve you will increase your water flow rate. Just some food for thought. Enjoyed your video, thanks for sharing.

[sunnyrasunny]

@harpoon52

that's 2" pipe. water flow is not an issue. It's done like it is to get maximum head and thus pressure. something I could not get with a series of barrels, at least not on the ground. having to build a support to get them up high and fit in the space available was out of the question. I find the larger tanks are much better than all the connections of the smaller barrels. having done both.

[freemab222]

Very clever.

An alternative that uses less plumbing:

Connect fittings to the bung holes in the tank caps, or saw holes in the caps and hot-melt glue fittings into these. Connect the side-branch of a tee to each cap. Now string the four IBC totes together via the tees in the caps, and a couple elbows to make the bend from the top row to the bottom. The tee from the top of the last tank goes to the overflow. Tap each tank at its valve. No external valves are needed. Bruce Freeman 5/31/11

[sunnyrasunny]

@freemab222

you need to leave a place for the air to escape when they are filling up or you get air lock and your tanks don't fill. also you don't want to have that kind of water pressure on capped tanks below, they will balloon out and cause troubles for you and you would never get that sealed well enough anyway.

[KagarBeardtooth]

Looks very nice!

Do you have something buoyant in the dirty water pipe to plug it when it's full?

[sunnyrasunny]

@KagarBeardtooth

no the crud settles in it, and it leaks out slowly. works pretty well for most rains.

[vid009]

nice job ! where did you find the barrels ? TKS

[freemab222]

@sunnyrasunny

If you use 2" pipe, that won't be an issue. The water can flow down one side of the pipe while the air flows up the other. Obviously the air does need someplace to go, but vents of that sort can easily be left in the system. Unfortunately, my own system is not yet complete. I did collect over 2000 gallons and maintained that through the season -- draining it only just before our October snowfall! -- but that was with kludged connections to the downspout, relocated manually.

[sunnyrasunny]

@cekiert they got painted black shortly after that video. you are right.

[cekiert]

wouldnt you get some crazy amount of bacteria going on in that. the transparent tanks would enable lots of activity, also many plastics have a much shorter life with uv exposure, including pvc.. I'm not looking to bash your work, just suggesting possible improvements

[BillBrasky7718]

im totaly jelous

[freemab222]

Well, I did something wrong in creating a "video" response illustrating my previous concept.

Search YouTube video PaqJTrE4G7U to see the pic.

(I couldn't even publish a live link here!)