Dry, summer days will be here again. For some households, this means rationing of water supply at best or no water supply at all during the worst of days.
Thankfully, there’s a quick and simple solution to this problem that you can try at home.
We’re talking about installing a rainwater collection system in your yard.
“Don’t people only do that when they have leaky roofs or when they’re making a desperate attempt to collect some water?” you might ask. Well, some people do, but here are some very good reasons why, leaky roof and desperation aside, you should try it too.
Benefits of Installing a Rainwater Collection System
It’s convenient. Considering how bothersome water supply disruption can be, and how water refilling stations can easily run out of water after panicking consumers flocked to their stores following an unusually long service interruption, having your own rainwater collection system right in your own yard can be quite convenient.
Just set up your rainwater collection system where it can catch as much rain as possible, wait for your tanks or container drums to fill up, and use them as needed.
No more need to stay up until the early hours of the morning waiting for container after container to be filled, no more traveling to the nearest water pump or refilling station to buy a container of water or two, and no more lining up for hours on end waiting for the line to ease up.
Photo showing the rainwater collection system we set up in our compound
It’s economical. Depending on how large and complicated your water collection set up is going to be, it may cost you anywhere from a few hundreds or thousands of pesos to completely nothing at all.
For example, we have a rainwater collection system composed of eight container drums hooked up to the gutter through the use of PVC pipes, but since we had old materials from previous projects kept in storage, we hardly had to spend anything except for the additional container drums.
For a family with no more than four members, this is typically enough for watering plants, washing cars, cleaning bathrooms, and flushing toilets for up to three days. If you’re not reckless with how you use water, you can also add washing clothes to that list.
It’s cool, it’s refreshing, and best of all — it’s free!
It’s eco-friendly. Most water collection facilities use a fairly high amount of energy to pump water from the ground and distribute them to consumers. Not only that, they also produce significant carbon emissions that contribute to the pollution of our environment – two things that increase the farther the houses are from the original source of water.
By installing your own rainwater collection set-up right in your own yard, you’d be able to help reduce the amount of energy needed to deliver water to your home as well as the amount of carbon emissions that water collection or treatment facilities will be producing in the process.
The difference may seem insignificant at first, but it would be good enough for a start.
Building Your Own Rainwater Collection System
Now that you’ve made up your mind about installing your own rainwater collection system, it’s time to ask the next question: how?
The answer would depend on how you want to go about collecting rainwater.
For example, you can simply get a few container drums and place them in an area free of any obstructions that will allow them to catch as much water as they can and let the passage of time do the rest. This can be convenient in the sense that you would have no more need for PVC pipes and that you won’t need to build anything either; however, since you won’t have anything to catch the rain but the container drums, it would take a lot longer to fill them up.
This is in contrast to rainwater collection systems that are hooked to gutters where the roof catches all the rainwater first then relay them to the container drums through the PVC pipes. Roofs typically spanning several meters, they can collect a significant amount of water much faster than stand-alone container drums can, especially during days of heavy rain; however, such a system would require you to buy (or scavenge for) PVC pipes and do a bit of plumbing work.
If you like a good challenge and would like to build one yourself, though, on the right is a guide on how you can install a rainwater collection system at home. If you have the time, you might also want to check the other available tutorials for comparison so you can see which one is going to fit your needs best.
Rainwater Collection: Do’s and Don’ts
Excited to get to work?
Not so fast.
Before you get things started, here are a few tips that you might want to keep in mind:
If you would be hooking up your system to your gutter, make sure that your roof is always clean. A couple of dry leaves are probably of no great concern, but bird droppings and accumulated dirt and grime are probably something that you wouldn’t want to get mixed with your water.
For this, it is a good idea to scrub your roof every now and then and to always let the first downpour of rain wash off whatever unwanted materials may still be on it before you start collecting water. If you can wedge a clean filter between the downspout and your container drums, that would be even better.
Also, beware of using old tanks or container drums that were used to store hazardous or potentially hazardous materials such as chemicals, petroleum, and other similar substances. As much as possible, try to find container drums that were used for harmless materials such as food or natural juices.
Another thing, regular heating and cooling cycles may damage plastic container drums over time, so stainless aluminum tanks are usually preferable.
Done taking notes?
Great!
Now, get those hands working and let us know how it turned out.
Good luck!
🙂
Philippine Peso