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Survival and Preparations Long and short term survival and 'prepping'.

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  #1  
Old 01-18-2013, 3:44 PM
Whoneedsafety? Whoneedsafety? is offline
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Default Rain Catcher Thoughts

So, I'm building a 10x10 shed in my yard (you know like the high dollar ones at Home Depot). I was thinking of installing rain gutters on each side of the shed to collect rain, but then I remembered I live in SoCal and at best may only see a few showers a year. I thought to feed them into 2-55 gallon drums.

Please tell me your thoughts. Now that I have typed this I think it's a STUPID idea to add rain collection (not the shed, the shed is a brilliant idea).

My shed will house 4-55 gallon drums, extra blankets, cots, medical supplies, basically all our camping gear, plus extra changes of clothes, coats, heavy duty gloves and boots.

It will be in close proximity to a city wall that separates my yard from a horse trail. Kids smoke pot back there (until I climb a stool and soak them with the hose, I need to record and post this on Youtube) my fear is one day a match or cigarette will catch it on fire. Do you think my home insurance (Farmers) will cover it and belongings?

Last edited by Whoneedsafety?; 01-18-2013 at 3:46 PM..
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  #2  
Old 01-18-2013, 3:52 PM
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Rain collection is never a stupid idea. The small shed roof will not collect it as fast as the roof of your house might, but it's better than nothing. Here'a a link to a calculator that may help you figure out how much you can collect. (It's probably more than you'd think.)

http://www.csgnetwork.com/rwcollectioncalc.html
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Old 01-18-2013, 3:54 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jbohon View Post
Rain collection is never a stupid idea. The small shed roof will not collect it as fast as the roof of your house might, but it's better than nothing. Here'a a link to a calculator that may help you figure out how much you can collect. (It's probably more than you'd think.)

http://www.csgnetwork.com/rwcollectioncalc.html
But wouldn't evaporation negate the amount I could collect? Even if I fed the water to drums stored in the shed. I'm thinking it's not worth the effort and that space could be better utilized.
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Old 01-18-2013, 3:57 PM
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Al Gore told me it will never rain because of Global Warming. Save your money buy more ammo!
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Old 01-18-2013, 4:01 PM
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Al Gore told me it will never rain because of Global Warming. Save your money buy more ammo!
Love it! Thanks for putting it in perspective.
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Old 01-18-2013, 4:57 PM
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I just installed some rain gutters on the back of my house and they are feeding into two 50 gallon barrels. The wife will cycle the water as she will use it for the garden.
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Old 01-18-2013, 7:18 PM
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Evaporation can be controlled by keeping the containers covered when it's not raining. My barrels are both closed with the exeption of the relativley small inlet for the water from the downspout. I checked it in August when it was hot and dry for a few good weeks and found very minor losses...
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Old 01-18-2013, 7:20 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gtturborex View Post
I just installed some rain gutters on the back of my house and they are feeding into two 50 gallon barrels. The wife will cycle the water as she will use it for the garden.
Same thing we use it for...
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Old 01-26-2013, 7:55 PM
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I have basically the same setup. 8x10 shed in the back yard, three 55 drums that are kept full with water treatment. I am also in the process of installing some sort of rain catcher. But as a backup to refill my drums in case I run low. I don't want to install these "super" collectors that filter out leaves and such as I don't have any trees. I am more thinking of just installing/threading in a fitting to attach a garden hose, and block the normal down pipe with plastic and a sandbag.

Something easy
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Old 01-26-2013, 8:31 PM
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Rain collection is not a dumb idea, but a bit impractical for most of California. For a usable amount for gardens, landscaping, and trying to save on water bills, you have to save a ridiculous amount of water to last the dry season.

If your just using for watering some potted plants, sure.

Storing the rain water for drinking, it's going to need some water treatment for long term storage for bacteria control.
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  #11  
Old 01-26-2013, 8:55 PM
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I plan on catching my rain water into a funnel that goes to the barrel. Then I add a pingpong ball to the funnel, or any ball that is lightweight and hollow (floats) on the funnel. That should reduce loss from evap, but water spilling into the funnel will lift the ball then flow in.
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  #12  
Old 01-27-2013, 5:09 AM
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Whoneedsafety you can put a "check valve" in-line with the intake line that leads to the barrels. That will cut down on evaporation. If Home Depot or Lowes does not have the valve on display you can probably have their special order desk get it for you. You can also go to a irrigation supply store. Now in terms of your shed possibly catching on fire due to weed heads smoking close to your area, you can purchase a fire retarding paint. Just Google and you'll see at least several company offerings. I take it that the barrels you'll planning to use has a closed head and two bung openings right?
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Old 01-27-2013, 12:29 PM
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What do you plan on using the water for emergency storage, irrigation watering. Instead of having 55gal drums think about these, the system I designed for a buddy we used the large 2500 gallon poly tank, it works great for him because he has the space. His was mostly for summer time irrigation in his garden.


or
http://www.waterwalltanks.com/fatboy...lon-rain-tank/

Here was the idea for what we used for his system.

http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects...inCol/Main.htm
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  #14  
Old 01-27-2013, 8:08 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Whiterabbit View Post
I plan on catching my rain water into a funnel that goes to the barrel. Then I add a pingpong ball to the funnel, or any ball that is lightweight and hollow (floats) on the funnel. That should reduce loss from evap, but water spilling into the funnel will lift the ball then flow in.

That is definitely a creative idea. I agree a rain catcher is impractical in SoCal.
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  #15  
Old 01-29-2013, 8:29 PM
Scout2Diesel Scout2Diesel is offline
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Make sure you have enough separate structure coverage. Especially if you have a detached garage and/or other structures (shed, pool, etc...) Contents are on the same premise so... no 10% limit IIRC.

Rain barrels are a great idea.
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