Finished the water barrel. Haven't had a chance to take a photo yet, but did test the tank by filling it 1/4 full. Used a 1/2" brass ball valve and glad I did. When you open the valve, it gushes out water to fill a 3 gallon bucket in seconds. I have 110 gallons of water capacity (two 55 gallon barrels hooked together) and when watching the gutter spill out water during a rainstorm, this should fill with no problem. Interesting thing is that when demonstrating how the barrel worked to Heather, she said "don't waste the water". Considering that for years, it rains and we never tthought about the potential of harvesting this water. But once you collect it, you find you don't want to waste it and you'll wonder why you haven't done this before. Its kind of interesting how the psychological feedback of how much resources you have at the moment can change one's personal consumption habits. Anyway, I highly recommend any of you spend the time to get a rain barrel installed.
2 comments:
This is a little be nuts in my oh-so-humble opinion. My homeowners association would never allow this on the side of my house. Also, besides for the few bucks that this could potentially save on your water bill, I don't understand why this is practical. My sprinkler system has a sensor that prohibits it from turning on if we've had rain recently. I can adjust the sensitivity of the sensor accordingly. THAT saves me big money. But this... please explain! Daus, you've gone GREEN! I thought you opposed all of this Al Gore stuff?? Is water really in short supply? Check this out for REAL savings: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMROpXu9WLw
For one, I believe 95% of these "green" ideas I see out there are just "feel good" projects that dont' help much. The rain barrel project is not necessarily about being green, its more about practicality. We've have two days of rain and have collected 110 gallons of water already! Wow, 110 gallons of free water that didn't have to get treated. In south Florida, we are STILL under water restrictions.
With the water barrel, you have gallons of free water to water your lawn or plants. For me, that's also free (chlorine free!) water for my garden and the hydroponics unit. Also, for hurricane season, that's free water for drinking, flushing the toilets, washing, etc. We were out two days from fresh water or electricity and were making rounds to the community pool to pick up water. Besides, it beat drinking my own piss Costner style... :)
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