Sandrine Coosemans

I think the real question is...

How do you convince a homeowner who probably put a good bit of money and effort into installing a well-functioning and efficient (albeit expensive and unsustainable) heating system, to throw that out the window completely - and put in a rocket mass heater instead?

Might be simple and straightforward for a small house or a trailer, but what if you're tackling a more complex heating installation in a multi-storey (and not open plan) family home?

Most people don't want to build their own heating system. Researching it alone is giving regular people like me a major headache Most people just want to call a "heating guy" who will tell them exactly what they need, how much it will cost, and how fast they can install it.

In my opinion, the future of RMHs does not lie in telling more "regular" people about it - it's all about convincing professionals (installers, consultants, insurance companies etc) of their benefits - and ideally get governments to subsidise them, like they've been doing in many places with solar panels or heat pumps.

Thank you for your input Chris... Gravity is my friend indeed!
Having the first tank higher up (next to the house) would mean we can collect at least the water from the higher roof - and divide that to go to the animals and olive trees, further down. The second tank could go lower... not quite sure where yet though, as the ground is quite rocky - and we might need a full building permit if we want to build a cistern.
Lots of things to consider there

Didn't see this until now, thank you for your thoughts Jedd!

I'm going to research the possibility of doing 2 plastic tanks... I actually didn't even think about that option. They'd be enormous tanks though, and would probably not have the shape that fits where it needs to fit... still, we could find a way around it!

Jedd Rashbrooke wrote:You say that you have lots of water twice a year - do you mean a couple of single events, or over a period of several weeks?

A bit of both - there's usually one or two torrential rains a year (one around the first of november, one in april or may). And in fall or spring, we also have "normal" rainfall (lots more than in winter or summer).
We do have battery capacity to move water uphill - especially in summer of course

I didn't consider the option of dredging without emptying, that's probably some sort of vacuum cleaner? Will look into that option as well.

Loving your system! We hadn't thought of having the tank roof catching its own water... thanks for the tip.

We'll at least have different tanks for the upper part of the house and the guest section... Hadn't considered the option of putting the bigger tank downhill though. We'd mostly require to pump it up in summer...

We have one plastic tank (for the water from our well), it is dead ugly indeed We built something around it (just a stone wall), we'd probably have to do that with the other one(s) as well.
The swimming pond would definitely not be for water storage... more to escape the Spanish heat in summer, and maybe add a few fun plants as well!

Lots of food for thought here, thank you Jedd & Peter & Angelika!

Wow, that looks like a great resource - and exactly the thing we need. Thank you for the tip, I'll order it today!

Hi Maria,
I've recently set up a Facebook group called "Living off the grid in Spain". Not as specific as Off Grid Friends Tarragona, but you might find it interesting as well

Hi! I've just been scrolling through several other rainwater catchment topics, and wondering if anyone would have specific ideas and suggestions for our case.

We live off the grid in the mountains of inland Spain - with solar panels for electricity and a borehole for water.
Twice a year, we get LOTS of water from the sky though - and we'd like to use that better.

We already have all the gutters from the main house (about 200 square meters, equals a little over 2000 square foot) converging in one point... "all we need" now, is to build a rainwater catchment system that will last us a lifetime (or at least, long). In time, we'd like to use it to fill up a natural swimming pool we're going to build a bit further down, to irrigate our olive trees, and to provide water for animals. And you never know, one day we might want to convert rainwater catchment into our main source of water in the house...

So we're thinking one big 50.000 liter (about 13k gallons) concrete tank. I'd like to place an extra barrel before the big tank - one that is easy to clean out, as a settlement tank.
I'm not yet quite sure how we could go about cleaning out that big tank when needed... would it be needed often?
Did anybody else here build a concrete water tank - what are your experiences with it?



This is a picture of the house, so you can see what I'm talking about...

The roof we're currently planning a rainwater catchment system for, is the top roof. For the smaller roof on the left (which is the roof of the guest bedrooms, we offer farm stay accommodations), we'll need to design a separate system... probably something more simple, and dug into the terrace.

I'd be thankful for any insights - opinions - pics of your own catchment projects - etc!

I love the towable greenhouse! I would love to go travelling for a while (in 8-10 years or so), the only thing that scares me is the lack of a veggie garden. Wondering what you could grow in a towable greenhouse like that though?

I've been in the same situation - we had about 1,5 years before deciding to move to Spain, and the moment we really did it. There's a few things I regret doing, and a few things I should have done.

1. When we moved, we had so many tiny trees and plants in pots. It was a lot of hassle taking care of them in a time when we were travelling to and fro a lot, and even more hassle to take them with us moving - they took up a lot of space... and a lot of them died anyway after transplanting / in the first summer. I have a much higher success rate now with either plants I bought, or seedlings I started here.

2. Getting an dog (LGD) when not living on a farm yet - that was a huge mistake. We thought it would be easier to raise him, train him, go to doggy school and have him accustomed to things like babies & children, traffic, other dogs,... He did great in school, walked on a leash and everything - he hasn't had a leash on since he was 4 months old though (with the exception of an emergency trip to the vets). We should have raised him on the farm, surrounded by chickens and sheep and goats and other stuff so he could get used to them instead. We're having a hard time getting him not to play with them (which can be deadly with a big dog and smal chickens), and it took him a lot of time to adjust to life on the countryside. He's a great guard dog, but that's just his genes

3. I wish I had invested more time & money in buying tools and machinery, when still living in Holland; it was so easy to order things off the internet, or to go to shops and compare / try out stuff. Here most bigger shops are about 45 minutes drive (1h30 for the really big DYI stores, Ikea or electronics), and having things delivered to our house or to the village is just not as simple as it used to be (and often much more expensive). We're still planning to buy loads of things (a wood chipper, bread baking machine, solar electric fencing to name a few) and in most local shops it's more expensive and there isn't a big choice.

There's a few things I would have bought just before moving as well - eggs to incubate, organic seeds (so difficult to find organic stuff locally), chick feed (still buying that in Belgium every time I go back), brewing yeast, cheese making supplies,...

OMG this makes so much sense! Thank you for posting this.

Never thought of that - other people around here have been growing lots of veggies all summer (in a few cases they were exactly the same varieties as I have, since we exchanged seedlings). But maybe some zones are more affected by the extra sun / lack of rain than others?
I'm keeping records though, maybe I'll start seeing a pattern in a few years