Rainwater system for 2022

Looking for some advice on my rain barrel system for 2022.

I always like to plan ahead with our tiny home project and next year I'm going to build raised gardens to grow veggies there which is directly on the 45th parallel. We installed new gutters with leaf guard on them last week. Next spring, I'm going to set up the rain barrels. Since I'm only there 10 days out of the month, my watering system has to be unattended although my handman can come out and check on it as well.

What I'm doing is taking two 55 gallon rain barrels, fitting a spigot to the bottom of them and then using brass mesh to create a filter inside the barrel with a screen pre-filter where the gutter comes in. From there, a battery operated zero pressure timer to feed water to misting hoses in the the raised veggie beds. I thought of using the drip system but think the misting hoses will have less clogging problems.

The brass mesh filter will be 20 inches long, 6 inches wide - 2 pieces of brass mesh soldered (silver) together, held into a filter shape by thick copper wire as a frame. I'm thinking that it will be big enough so that it doesn't have to be cleaned so often.

Can I be bold and suggest your plan from the garden end.
I have experience with rainwater collection.
- what volume do you need
- when do you need it
- how long between rainfall events
- annual rainfall
- area of catchment
- Volume of storage needed
- type of tank
- tank fittings

When you have this data, the system will fow [ no pun intended]
Many people just assemble bits and it becomes disjointed and may cost more for a bad system.

Also look at the link in my signature just below, it may help.

If you put the figures here, I can take you through the calculations.

This will be my third system I've set up there so I understand the fitting bits and bobs and hope it works which is why I'm designing this one with better filtering.

Rainfall events in northern Michigan can be sporadic, especially where we are. It's a major snow belt in the winter and we can get a lot of rain in between April and September - the normal amount for our area is between 25-35 inches but that varies a lot. Normal snowfall on our property is 165 inches per year. Last year, 63 inches. We're on an elevated portion of the shale deposits so it gets kind of weird up there sometimes - for instance the intensity of the sun is far more noticeable on our property - I take a med that makes me sensitive to it so I have to aware. Many times it will be hotter there than at home in Ann Arbor.

As for periods between rainfall events, could be two weeks, could be two days. It's a real pain sometimes. I time my trips this year between the rain events so I can say this year it's 4 days of "possible showers" and 7 or 8 of no rain. Or it could be "cloudy" and rain all day. It's the weather pattern off of lake Michigan that does it. The NWS station up here monitors the most coastline in the U.S. and has more masters degree holders than any other station but they still get it wrong.

I have (2) 55 gallon drums (plastic food grade) to collect the rain, with each one feeding the 2 raised beds I'm planning. the gutters are 36 feet long, the roof is 10 feet wide. We're also on a lake, so I could carry water up to the barrels as well. Can't use a irrigation pump because it's a 50 foot head from the lake.

As far as tank fittings, like I said, fitting a normal spigot, attach the timer, attach the hose. Timer has options for once a week, 72 hours down to every hour and time settings from 1 to 120 minutes. The system would have to be adjusted depending on whether it's a wet or dry year. We've had some years where it's really bad - if that's the case, the handyman can truck in water between my visits. Next year, I'm planning on getting there while there's still a bit of snow and setting up the barrels as early as possible but I could be talked into setting them up this fall. My main worry is the barrels bursting from freezing.

A few extra points;
- wrapping the barrels with good insulation may be a good experiment to carry out and report on.
- Can you install a pump at the lake and push the water up?
- Installation of a first flush unit will keep a lot of detritus from the tank
- a floating inlet to the discharge pipe will prevent muck from the bottom getting drawn out.
If you had 2 inch rainfall sessions, the volume off the roof would be 36 x 10 x 2/12 = 3x 10 x 2= 60 cub ft = 60 x 28.3 litres = 1700 L

So you could say you need a 2000L tank.

Sometimes they are big enough not to freeze.

Winterizing your system is a whole topic in of itself. (By the way, if you need a book, Essential Rainwater Harvesting by Avis and Avis is not bad, the authors are from Canada and are pretty experienced with winterizing)

If you're just going with rain barrels, the simplest thing you can do (and is common practice in Canada and other freezing climates) is to just empty it before the first frost enough for expansion. If you have pipes with water sitting in them, drain those. Done.

Alsoooo...Winterizing runs the gamut from burying tanks beneath the frost line to building tanks inside heated homes. I'm thinking in your case, where you'll be watering a garden (will the garden be out of commission in the winter?), the system isn't in use during the winter. I propose draining enough for it to freeze and you'll be good to go. Or just deconstruct for the winter and reconstruct for spring, if I'm reading correctly the system seems fairly non-complex. What do you think about that?

I'm also interested in your materials - what plastic are your rain barrels made of? And what materials are your conduits made of? Those might need to be stored inside during the winter too.

Two 55 gallon barrels is a  rather small volume though adding  to it should be easy enough, should that prove nessisary.

I am suprised to hear that  misting heads would work in alow pressure system.

I have found the cost of fittings to connect small tanks can mount up.
As for low pressure misting, I have never achieved it.

Foir low pressure, 1/2 plastic ball valves on 1/2 inch tubes has been the only way I have got plants watered.
BUT, there may be ways I have not heard of.