Rain water collection

shawn...
we're renting a place with rain/roof water catchment and we use rain water for everything but ingesting. being a soft water (mineral free), it's especially good for any cleaning including bathing, i can't imagine using groundwater. rain can be filtered to the extent you're comfortable with.

our original catchment system was very crude and i've been upgrading it as best i can with what i have to work with (elevations, tank location, roof debris, etc) but if i could do it from scratch, i'd put the tank in the ground as close to the house as possible and use a pump with a pressure tank and also... put in a manual pump for those all too many power outages. of course, you can pressure up with a generator but the generator with this place is so loud, i hesitate to use it.

sizing the tank???
our tank is about 1100 gallons
we're two conservative water users with indoor plumbing, our garden is about 25ft sq. and in the dry season, we water about 100 gallons a day due to low organic matter in the soil (we're working on that) .

we can go a couple of weeks in the dry season before we start packing water from who ever has water in the neighborhood. a bigger tank is in the planning and i'm wondering about using EVG panels for the tank and i can't find anything online. ideas???

i'd be happy to talk rain water with you anytime.

norm : ))~

 

I was fortunate enough today to be able to stop by another members home who are using rainwater for ALL their needs, truly impressive set-up. Some of the other things he brought into the design of their home were a first for me in 27 years of construction; really opened my eyes to a few things to building in a tropical environment.

I love EVG panels, but they are not structural components, same as using local block but without the other benefits. I would never consider them for a tank.

I've installed both concrete and steel tanks for water on numerous projects, am really leaning towards an above ground tank for our situation even though it will be hard to hide with flowers.

Shawn