Ideas about rain water collection?

[MelleeRN]

I would like to build a rain water and gray water collection system. We have plenty of rain during the spring, but nothing during the summer. *Anyone have any ideas?

[backlash]

Be glad you don't live in Washington state.
The state .gov passed a law that they own all the rain.
Seriously you can be ticketed for collecting rain.
I don't know of anyone that has been but you can't trust them.
AC

[flatwater]

Backlash I hear ya. I'm in eastern washington and I don't give a crap what they say , I'm collecting. She has some more things she would like to impliment so we would look like other socialistic places. She must have some real poor depth perception because she went from brown nosing Obamas plans to turning into a big sh-t head. I think she has her eye something further up the political ladder like past governor lock.

[MelleeRN]

thats sucks, but live in OK so it is still legal to collect rain ;D

[Anon001]

Mellee, I just collect it from the roof and I only have part of my guttering up. For every inch of rain, I catch a little over 150 gallons. It filters into my storage tanks where I keep just a dab of bleach once every couple weeks. Then as it comes into the house, it is filtered, chlorinated and the drinking and cooking water is refiltered.

Paul

[MelleeRN]

Paul,
That is more than I had thought could be collected. I have been doing some research and think that out next big project is to get off of the county water, as much as possible. Plan to stay still hooked up (just in case) :)

[Anon001]

Mellee,

A couple things I forgot to say.... 1. My roof is a 4/12 pitch (I think lol) and the house 24ft wide. 2. I only have 20ft of guttering.

[MelleeRN]

lol.... We have a 12/12 pitch and house is 14ft wide, wonder how much water we would have collected this past month.

[Anon001]

use my figures for you math..... I ain't no mathematician. lol

[backlash]

OK I think this is right.

square feet of the house X the total rain fall = cubic feet of water
1 cubic foot of water is 7.48 gallons.

So a 1000 sq foot house and 1.5 inches of rain(.125cu feet) will get you about 125 cubic feet of water.
At 7.48 gal per cubic foot you would get 935 gallons of water.
I don't think the roof pitch would matter much. I think you just have to figure out how many square feet of earth the house covers.
I may be all wet but I think this is correct.
AC

[MelleeRN]

lol.. thank you, I was just teasing about the math. *;D
I could have really used you around last semester for my statistics class.

[tufhelp]

Here is a fairly comprehensive PDF for figuring the size of your cistern for a rainwater catchment system, which could also be used to calculate your possible catchment: Sizing Your Cistern (http://www.ose.state.nm.us/water-info/conservation/pdf-manuals/Roof-Reliant-Landscaping/RRL-Chapter-3.pdf)
It is from the Office of the State Engineer (OSE) in New Mexico (The department charged with water conservation and overseeing water rights.) NM - OSE (ose.state.nm.us)

[backlash]

Here is a fairly comprehensive PDF for figuring the size of your cistern for a rainwater catchment system, which could also be used to calculate your possible catchment: Sizing Your Cistern (http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2431157.ece)
It is from the Office of the State Engineer (OSE) in New Mexico (The department charged with water conservation and overseeing water rights.) NM - OSE (ose.state.nm.us)

Sizing your cistern link took me to the Sun newspaper. ;D
Backlash

[Anon001]

backlash,
The only reason I listed my pitch was so that she someone could figure the square footage of the roof on one side... and I only have 20 feet of gutterin up even though the eave is 24ft. (welll 26ft on the other side but that's another story). Thanks for your info and to tufhelp for the link. I will appreciate it almost as much as mellee lol.

[Anon001]

Here's what I found.

http://www.rain-barrel.net/rainwater-calculator.html
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/AE029
http://www.rainwaterconnection.com/rainwater_harvesting/how_much.htm

maybe this is easier to understand. It was for me:

"Let's say the building you have to work with is 27 x 20 feet which is an average 2 car garage. The eaves add 1½ feet on all sides, so the roof covers an area of 30 x 23 feet.

30' x 23' = 690 square feet of catchment area
690 sqft. x 0.625 gallons of water = 431.25 gallons caught per inch of rain."
from: http://www.rainsourcewater.com/specs_catchment.html

[12vman]

This is a great site that covers most bases.. ;)

http://www.harvesth2o.com/

[tufhelp]

If fixed that link for sizing your cistern... Don't know what came over me - I did take a short stop at that shuttle/sun photo...

Here it is so you don't have to go back up to the original I just repaired:

Sizing Your Cistern (http://www.ose.state.nm.us/water-info/conservation/pdf-manuals/Roof-Reliant-Landscaping/RRL-Chapter-3.pdf)

[jebrown]

MelleeRN
Before you disconnect from a municipal water supply check local ordinances.
In some cities and counties if you are not connecte to their water line they will carge you a monthly fee for fire supressioin services.
If any of your property catches fire, they take their sweet time responding.
Enid has supression fee if you are not on city water. I haven't heard anythibng about bad response time here either.
Just something to consider.

[MelleeRN]

Thank you everyone for the links and advice. Working on plans now and attempting the math, which will be fun ;D.
As for unhooking from the city, we are currently part of a coop for water. Due to the area that we live in, we do not have hydrants. Our fire house has great response time and are half a mile down the road. For twelve dollars a month, you become a member of the fire house and they do not bill you if you ever have to call them for first response or fire.

[randallhilton]

I know I'm real late to this particular party but rain catch is part of my urban homestead plan.

Re: Roof pitch -- it's irrelevant to the calculation of how much water you can catch. Simply figure the square feet by using the perimeter (foot print) measurements of the roof line.

Re: Lots of winter rain vs not much in the summer -- check your atlas for the average rain fall for each month. Estimate how much you can collect during the rainy season then size your cistern or tank/s accordingly. You can reasonably catch 1/2 gallon per square foot per inch of rain (a bit more if you don't lose too much to splash over, leaks etc.) so a 1" rain on a 1,000 sq. foot roof would yield about 500 gallons.

If your rainy season lasts for 3 months and you average 3" a month then that 1,000 sq. foot roof could potentially yield 4500 gallons during the rainy season.

If all you have is a 500 gallon tank then that's all you're going to capture, no matter how big your roof or how tight your system is. If you need water for the dry season, get serious about your storage tanks.

Also get serious about water usage. It's easy to waste water when irrigating crops when all you have to do is open a tap. If you water according to actual needs then you'll probably find that you use much less water.

Here's a cool thought: If you're in a decent rain area but wells are deep you could possibly build a pole barn (for a rain catch surface) for less than the price of a deep well and then you'd have a place to keep stuff dry as well as a water supply that works even when the power is out.

[MooseToo]

given the fact that functional systems will include cisterns that are fitted with an overflow function, would it not make sense to create an adjacent leak-proof pond to take advantage of that overflow - especially if the seasonal aspect of local rainfall precludes installation of adequate cistern volume ?

[kawalekm]

I think it makes more sense to increase cistern capacity rather than putting in a pond. If your rain is so seasonal you have to worry about running dry, then a pond would only make it worse because of evaporation. Better to keep that water in an enclosed tank where it can't just evaporate away. If you want fish in your pond, you might end up using your cistern water to keep enough water in the pond to keep the fish alive. My own neighbor here has a pond that he is worried will go dry, so he is starting to ask whether he can pump some water out of my well to put in his pond.

My own property now has a well, but I too want to rig a rooftop collection system to supplement the well water. I want about 12,000 gallons of poly tank storage for the amount of water I think I can collect off my roofs. I'd use the rainwater mostly for irrigation because I'm worried about the long term buildup of salts in my soil.

[MooseToo]

I think it makes more sense to increase cistern capacity rather than putting in a pond.

more sense - less sense - i have not mentioned anything about increasing capacity - by all means, purchase all the cisterns you can - but, common sense says that your ultimate cistern array must still include overlfow capability and my suggestion is to not simply waste that overflow -

[Anon001]

I catch in a 300 gallon tank. When it gets close to full or if I think it is too full to handle an incoming rain, I pump it into my 1500 gallon tank. but I still have no overflow. If it gets full it runs out the top.

[MooseToo]

I catch in a 300 gallon tank. When it gets close to full or if I think it is too full to handle an incoming rain, I pump it into my 1500 gallon tank. but I still have no overflow. If it gets full it runs out the top.

no paul, you do have overflow - it's just unmanaged -

[flatwater]

Ya paul ,what moosetoo said , it comes with getting older, unmanaged overflow

[Anon001]

I stand corrected. LOL