Rainwater Collection Systems

byoung | Posted in Construction Techniques on March 17, 2003 03:43am

In a past issue of Fine Home Building No 42 I run across a article of rainwater collection. I new this was a system my parents grew up with but thought no more about it till my wife and I started building our owen house. I was surprised by the cost of having a well drilled in my area. So after doing some cost figuring I have decided to go this rout. I have done some research on this and found out their are a lot of ways this is done. So now my problem is what to do, first I was told to build a round tank because their is less stress because of no corners. I was also told if I went with a 7 sack mix on the concrete it would not be a problem with stress. Finally I have ben given so many answers on the size, from 2000gal to 35000gal. So if their is anybody out their that could help with my problem it would be of great help

Replies

Ward | Mar 17, 2003 05:00am | #1
I am no rainwater expert, but try this out.

I presume you are talking about collecting water from your roof.

Take the area of your roof, say 2,000sf and

multiply rainfall that you expect to collect, say 1 ft

equals 2,000 cf of water

multiply by 8 gallons for each cf so 16,000 gal.

I gave up on watering my lawn last year, best of luck.

Snort | Mar 17, 2003 05:05am | #2
Dennis Lightborne, tell 'em how they collect water in the Bahamas. best yet that I've seen... EliphIno!

timkline | Mar 17, 2003 06:33am | #3
The Journal of Light Construction did an excellent article on this subject last year. Very in depth.

carpenter in transition
johnnyinbda | Mar 19, 2003 02:40am | #4
I live in bermuda where our main source of water is colected off the roofs. The bigger the tank the better, we had 7 people living on a 10,000 gallon tank, we seem to run dry a lot. I know people who have a 35,000 gallon tank with a pool, they rarely run out, but they do have a big house with a very efficient collection system. Check your water quality, we add a little chlorine once a month.

Johnnyinbda
Texfan | Mar 19, 2003 09:51am | #5
Look at this site: http://www.twri.tamu.edu-twippubs-WtrSavrs-v3n2-article-1   Also check out http://www.countryplans.com forum section now for a discussion on this subject and a nice link.

Edited 3/19/2003 4:06:03 AM ET by Bill
hasbeen | Mar 21, 2003 03:05am | #6
I'd suggest that you find out the average rainfall for your location and when it falls. It isn't an even-amount-per-month thing! Then take into consideration the longest period you're likely to have to span between rainier months. Also figure out how much you use now for something to compare to. There a book called Waterworks: A Guide to Rural Water Systems. It was sold by Real Goods years back. I've heard that it's out of print but you can find it used thru Amazon. Be sure to add in roof water from all outbuildings, too!

You might want to check out whether or not there's a place to get water to haul home in an emergency and how much it costs to set up for hauling water and to get the water.

It doesn't matter how fast you get there, it just matters that you go in the right direction.