It’s important to understand the essential components of a rain harvesting system so you’ll know how the system works as a whole, the parts you need to purchase, and how to maintain it. Read More
Part two of the rainwater harvesting series brings us to water storage tank materials. The first question I had was what are the most common materials and does it make a difference which material I choose? What I found is that the two most common tanks materials to choose from are corrugated steel or polyethylene (plastic). There are other options out there (cement, stainless steel, and other varieties of metal), but they’re not as common. Based on my findings, here is my conclusion: go with plastic unless you plan to collect truly massive amounts of water, in which case a metal storage container might be a better fit. Read More
After reading the rainwater harvesting blog entry on Montpillard.com, I got to thinking about the topic again in a much larger capacity than my two previous articles on the subject. I started thinking that a rainbarrel sounds pretty wussy-like. I mean, if you’re going to collect rain, collect some RAIN – use it for non-potable purposes such as toilet flushing, washing clothes, and garden/lawn irrigation. And seeing as how we intend on moving to Texas in about a year, harvesting rain will be of even greater importance to us since the amount of rainfall throughout the year in those parts can be pretty slim. Read More
Just to go a bit further into the argument to harvest rain – although hard numbers on how it can positively impact the environment would help make a stronger case, I think the following videos and links provide some pretty solid first hand evidence that it can make a difference environmentally. Read More
Over seven billion gallons per day. That’s how much the EPA estimates is used nationwide on landscape irrigation. Now, no matter how you spin that, it’s far too much water. And the scary thing is most people don’t even think about it. I’ve got a friend who has a large, lush green lawn and I asked him what he did to make it look so nice. Read More