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rainwater catchment

Permies Poll: Do you have rainwater catchment on your homestead?

posted 2 years ago

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Back at it again with another Permies Poll.

Splish splash, sometimes rain might mean a bath! Do you currently make use of rain on your homestead? In what capacity? For livestock/garden/personal use? To what capacity? Do you have to deal with freezing weather and if so, how?

If you have pictures of your system, please add them.

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Timothy Norton

Steward of piddlers

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Location: Upstate New York, Zone 5b, 43 inch Avg. Rainfall

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posted 2 years ago

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I currently do not have rainwater catchment on my property.

I plan on running a butter off the roof of my chicken coop and using it for garden irrigation needs but I'm still learning how gutter systems come together before I start buying parts and pieces.

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Nikki Roche

gardener

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Location: South Carolina

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posted 2 years ago

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I have a couple of rain barrels to catch runoff from the roof. I use it for irrigating the garden, growing seedlings, and providing water for my daughter's outdoor mud kitchen.

(Reminder to myself) God didn't say, "well said, well planned, and well thought out." He said, "well done."
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John F Dean

master steward

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Location: southern Illinois, USA

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posted 2 years ago

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I have a 26,000 gal cistern that is fed off my roof. I also have a large pond.

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Mark Mittner

gardener

Posts: 195

Location: PNW Steppe climate, not far from the big river.

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posted 2 years ago

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Our current system is low-tech, gutters on the corral feed an IBC tote on each slope of the roof. One is inconveniently far from gardens, whoops. The other we use to irrigate trees and a garden bed. The system (by which I mean me) could be a lot smarter.
We plan to gutter the house roof, too, but that is a bigger project.

I admire the 26k gal cistern, John! Is it metal, concrete, or what? I have installed a number of poly tanks over the years, but a lime-plastered concrete tank has always seemed more desirable (and a lot more work! Isn't that the way of it, though).

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John F Dean

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Location: southern Illinois, USA

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posted 2 years ago

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Hi Mark,

It was in place when I bought the property. I suspect the 26k represents its volume if filled to the top…which never happens. There is an overflow pipe that runs to the pond.

The cistern appears to be poured concrete.

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Juan Montes

Posts: 36

Location: Coastal NorCal

posted 2 years ago

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No. It's dry here other than in the winter, but there's a year round creek on the property and several springs if we need them. The rainwater catchment is technically lots of aquifers in the mountains here.

Mari Holzhoft

Posts: 3

Location: Alaska

posted 2 years ago

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I have an annoying but workable system off the house gutters - 600 (+/-) gallons in second-hand poly tanks direct-filled and plumbed together, and another 550ish on an elevated platform up the hill. Currently sump-pumping water from the house-tanks to hill-tanks (when there's enough) to get better head-pressure for the garden (and double the storage). Current use is limited to garden/yard and animals, but I'm hoping to set up a filter and plumb it into the house system at some point. The utility of that project makes it a back-burner - we're in interior Alaska, so rainwater only works from late April through late September.

John C Daley

pollinator

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Location: Bendigo , Australia

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posted 2 years ago

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My signature has a link to a topic of rainfall collection and my experience with it for many years on many jobs.
Huge tanks are the best way to go.
Poly tanks are very good.
Concrete tanks generally are harder to seal if built to a budget.
Steel tanks will deteriorate after 25 years or so, but can be built in sections with a plastic liner.

All systems need first flush systems and high water off take floating pipes.

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C. Letellier

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Location: Greybull WY north central WY zone 4 bordering on 3

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posted 2 years ago

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Define catchment? I have a reservoir that about 1/4 of the total surface area of the property drains into and I am working on a second small one combined with a hugel to handle another 1/4. But if you mean a tank catching roof then the answer is no. And I am not likely to invest in such a thing because I live in on of the driest places on earth with normal average precip being 4 to 6 inches per year. Go east or west from me a couple of miles or a bit over and it goes up but is still never big. We had an amazing year last year with roughly 15 inches but that is a once or twice in a lifetime year here. Without the irrigation from the mountain snow packs agriculture would be nearly impossible. For the first 30 years of my live we hauled every drop of household water from town and the rest came out of canals for irrigation.

Country oriented nerd with primary interests in alternate energy in particular solar. Dabble in gardening, trees, cob, soil building and a host of others.

Meli Mot

Posts: 64

posted 2 years ago

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Yes, I use rainwater catchment for all of my water needs.

Tina Wolf

gardener

Posts: 2128

Location: Zone 8b North Texas

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posted 2 years ago

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I have an area that is on a slight incline that has an area, 1' down, dug out to level an old above ground pool. The pool is not longer there, but I was thinking of attempting a small Humus well above it with the pipe coming out into the dug out area. Of course, I would dig it out more and place the lowest corner of the humus well so the pipe emptied into the area. It collects water some anyway so I figured I can work on it being more of a water garden or small pond.

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John C Daley

pollinator

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Location: Bendigo , Australia

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posted 2 years ago

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.Leyyellile I can say you maybe able to do better in your location.
Tanks have the advantGE OF NO EVAPORAtion, but they cost money.
If you consider the lower price you may have paid for the land, there may be room to hold more water and gain a financial benefit.
carting water seems like a bad option.
A lot depends on your yopography.

John C Daley

pollinator

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Location: Bendigo , Australia

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posted 1 year ago

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I use rainfall exclusively and my signature has a link to more details.
I use 5000Gal storage tanks to clean and hold the water and I have no filters or chemical gizmos to alter the water.
It is not needed if a large tank is used,
Chemical and other suppliers may suggest I am wrong but after 50 years of living this way I am still alive!
And healthy , apart from broken spine, leg and neck, which the water had no role in.

Margaret Youmans

Posts: 14

posted 1 year ago

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We built our house on a slope so we would have a basement to put 275 gallon ibc totes 6 of them for now under house and we have gutters on one side of house the other side is coming but we catch in one tank and for now we pump it over to other tanks with a water pump until we get them all plumbed together but we use it for shower and all animals everything

Phil Stevens

master pollinator

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Location: Ashhurst New Zealand (Cfb - oceanic temperate)

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posted 1 year ago

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We've got 5400 L collecting from the main house roof plus the garage. Another 600 intercepts the carport roof. 1000 for the glasshouse. 300 coming from the NE corner of the house. 600 on the metal shed out back. So that's almost 8000 litres hooked up and useful for watering. Most of this is 200 L drums, but there is a 1800 L round tank as primary storage off the house and a tall 800 L one off the garage, and those are connected together with a few drums. I almost never use tap water on anything now.

I'm on the lookout for some salvage gutter material so I can hook up the hay barn and feed shed, and that could easily support a couple of totes or a row of drums.

Marco Zolow

Posts: 48

Location: Southwestern Ohio, Zone 6b

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posted 1 year ago

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I have two 55 gallon food grade barrels that I can divert the downspout on the back of the house to. The barrels are tied together so as one fills up, the overflow fills that second one. One good storm filled both barrels. Wish I had several IBCs, yet in my suburban context, I don't have the space or ability to transport. Still, having over 100 gallons of rainwater to use in the garden feels better than using the hose from the tap all the time. Progress, not perfection...

Anne Miller

master steward

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Location: USDA Zone 8a

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posted 9 months ago

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Ours is for a backup in case the well runs dry.

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Steve Zoma

Posts: 828

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posted 9 months ago

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I don't yet, but I am thinking of installing a system.

I live on an island, off an island, off a peninsula so pretty far out at sea. I also live out on a point of land on that second island so I am surrounded by sea. I have a hand dug well and a drilled well, but both are compromised by sea water. We also have incredibly high amounts of iron at 37%.

I am not alone on this. The point on this island has 7 drilled wells on it and everyone is compromised by sea water. The price to filter such bad water is is the $33,000 to $45,000 range making it too expensive for most people. So my neighbors all have rain water collection systems.

My situation is a bit different because my house is on piers so I do not have a basement to keep rain water, and as you can imagine, being at the end of the earth on an archipelago, ledge rock is but an inch below the thin topsoil so no digging a hole easily. I might be able to put a catchment tank under my house and heat it during the winter to keep it from freezing, or I might be able to store some in my hand dug well. There should be enough heat rising up from underground to keep a tank inside it from freezing. So its possible, but I am also looking at other options.

We bathe and use the water for life, but CANNOT drink the water here. We buy our drinking water, but so do most people on the island.

Gordon Longfoot

Posts: 45

Location: Arizona

posted 8 months ago

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Not yet, or not exactly.

There was a pond already when we got here, it collects water from a wash but overflows during monsoon season and ends up going towards another property. With water rights I don't think I'm allowed to mess with it.

All the livestock enclosures I've built with solar and catchment in mind for a later time. The roofs are metal or poly carbonate instead of asphalt shingles. All single slope roofs south facing. Only one has solar on it at this point. We're still using well water for everything.

We go through 200 gallons a day with human use and livestock, so unless I had thousands of gallons of storage it would only last for a few weeks. We have three 275 gallon tanks and one 2,500 gallon. If I had a way to fill them all it's only about 16 days of water.

Samantha Lewis

gardener

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posted 8 months ago

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I have two huge metal roofs dumping in to one rain barrel. This is way too much for the barrel of course but I have the barrel overflow into a 500 gal tank that I can get water from to water sheep and gardens.

Perfect The Dwelling Land!

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Ben Zumeta

pollinator

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Location: NW California, 1500-1800ft,

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posted 8 months ago

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I catch roof runoff from my house in a gravel filled trench/swale that runs into my zone 1 garden, dug with an excavator. I also catch road and driveway runoff in ponds and swales. This all recharges our spring below, which provides water to tanks atop the hill via a solar powered pump. When these overflow, it goes into an infiltration basin I recently dug.

This is all just my opinion based on a flawed memory

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Sophie Hatter

Posts: 8

Location: Arkansas

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posted 7 months ago

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I have a 32 gallon plastic garbage can to collect the rain water that runs off one direction of my camper (as I work on house plans to build). I use it for watering my 4 dogs, mostly, and will wash things that don't need to be "clean" clean. I've not gotten to do a proper set-up to filter it or even keep debris from getting into it, so I'm limited in what I can use it for at this time. When I build, I will have a proper setup and plan to use the rain water for everything. I'm in the early stages of trying to work out how to manage the weight of the water, as I want the totes inside to protect them from direct sunlight and to prevent frozen pipes in the winter. I'm not sure it's going to be feasible, but I hope so.

Amy Clarke

Posts: 26

Location: PNW 8B

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posted 6 months ago

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I drink from the well, but irrigate with rain. It's basically time travel -- the water ends up on the same watershed as it would have without me, but I change when it arrives.

John C Daley

pollinator

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Location: Bendigo , Australia

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posted 5 months ago

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I use 100% RAINFALL CATCHMENT AND hAVE FOR 50 YEARS.

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