Rain Collection System

[teach]

I thought this might help some of you planting gardens. We spent ten dollars each for the barrels, about twenty-five for the pipe and around one hundred-fifty for the pump-you may be able to find a used one for less. It only takes about two good rains to fill them. When we get our plants in the garden, I will post more pics showing the drip hoses this system feeds.


We are using 6 - 55 gallon plastic drums. I made the header using a 3 x 2 inch Tee that is fed by the downspout off the gutter on the house. The header feeds the 6 barrels , all the barrels are sealed except the last barrel which is vented. When the first barrel fills the water will fill the second barrel and the all the others. This work because the barrels are pressurized and they fill in order 1-6 because of the vent on barrel 6. Once the barrels are full I use a 1/4 HP self priming pump that hooks to a supply line with adapter that hooks a short section of garden hose to the pump. The pump has a fitting that allows a garden hose to attach to it, which I use to supply water to our garden.


http://s289.photobucket.com/albums/l...urrent=RB1.jpg




http://s289.photobucket.com/albums/l...urrent=rb2.jpg

[Morguns1Cam]

That's a great Idea what kind of barrels are you using ? I guess you could bury the barrels and just have the inlet pipe and the vent above ground, and it could also serve as an emergency water source (filtered or treated for drinking of course).

[teach]

They came from a local car wash and we just cleaned them well. I don't know about under the ground but probably. Thanks.

[Village Idiot]

What a cool design!

[herbalpagan]

Next time I'm in town, I'll see if our local car wash has any barrels! One of the things that our house did not have is a gutter system, and it's on the list for this spring. I've priced rain barrels and they are around $100 each and I want 4 of them. Our garden is a ways away from the house, so I might need a pump too.
When you have a barrel that you are going to use exclusively for watering the garden, you can add in a bucket of comost (or put it in a mesh bag) and make "compost tea". Feed the plants when you water them!

[Village Idiot]

Manufactured rain barrels are so expensive! I got 3 55 gal plastic drums (food grade) today to make my own. Each barrel was $12. My thoughts are that if they turn out well (don't leak around the faucet openings) then I'll make some to sell at the farmer's mkt or from my driveway. I live in an area that's all about sustainability these days, so I'm really hoping I can sell some for around $80. If they cost me $25 to make, that's a decent profit and they'd be saving over what it'd cost to have one shipped from a fancy catalog. :)

I found the guy who sells the barrels on craigslist. I posted a 'wanted' and a few people replied with info about where to get them cheaply.

[Zombie Axe]

Nice setup teach :)

I am in the proccess of moving my raised beds which will be downhill from my rainbarrells. I have nothing that well designed but it does inspire me :)

Oh yeah nice tower as well ;)

[teach]

The tower belongs to W4OCO on this site, my better half.