Rain water catchment system

[ewarmour]

I'm not making drinking water here - this is for irrigation. If I ever need to drink this water I have a ceramic filter system.

I had gutter glove screens installed on my gutters for first filtration.

The filter box is more of a fast flow secondary screen.







Bucket filter -








Not happy with the bucket






Just need to install an overflow in the filter box and fill it with gravel, install and level then plumb in the 2nd tote and over flow from it down and away to my next project - more totes. Then cover/hide everything with a plywood box.

[I_Love_My_.38]

sweet, one day ill have a nice system setup like that, instead of a paint bucket by my downspout

[ryno066]

What happens to the water in a heavy rain storm (25/100 year event), or once the tanks fill up?
You will want to make sure the water has a clear emergency area to escape to, that is not you or your neighbors house. Remember you are taking all the water off the roof on that side plus all the water from the yard on that side.

Unless the 3rd from the last pick is the fronts gutter coming in also. Then that is all your roof water with no ground saturation slowing it.

Just something to mull over. If that's all covered its a nice set up your have.

[Toyman321]

Looks great! I've been saying the last couple of years that I need to put gutters on the house, and I've always wanted to have a collection system connected to it. Where did you source those containers from?

[DavidR310]

Nice setup, here are some photos for inspiration

http://www.houzz.com/photos/modern/Cistern-

[ewarmour]

I got my totes from https://sites.google.com/site/drumsandtotes/

I have an over flow from the 2nd tote out to my back yard. I'm also putting in and over flow at the filter, just incase.

[Librarian]

Do you use a first-flush diverter?

Basically discards the 'rinse water' that picks up the dirt and pollen off the roof surface.

Example http://www.rainharvest.com/rain-harv...rter.asp?bc=no or http://www.aquabarrel.com/product_do...wall_mount.php

May I ask about how much your Gutter Glove part cost? I need new gutters ...

[Darklyte27]

I got one that hooks into the gutter once my 5 40 gal open top fill up the rest of the water goes down the drain. Got mine from amazon its called rain reserve

[Squid]

I wonder about 1st batch of water off any roof, but Comp or tar in particular.

Doesn't the sun beat down and destroy the tar over time, even though semi protected by rocks?

Even for irrigation I'd think about discarding at least the SEASON's first two rain falls.

I heard about some guy who built an permitted basement, then decided to turn that into permitted cistern.

[ewarmour]

Do you use a first-flush diverter?

Basically discards the 'rinse water' that picks up the dirt and pollen off the roof surface.

Example http://www.rainharvest.com/rain-harv...rter.asp?bc=no or http://www.aquabarrel.com/product_do...wall_mount.php

May I ask about how much your Gutter Glove part cost? I need new gutters ...

I decided against 1st flush diverters as this is an irrigation project and I have 1700 sqft of roof I'd need to wash - it came out to 85 gallons to divert. Basically I'd rather keep 85 "dirty" gallons than divert it.

(Example for a heavily polluted roof of 1700 square feet: 1000 square feet X 0.05 = 85 gallons to be diverted)

I figure between the gutter glove and the gravel secondary filter I'm going to catch most of the chunks. Plus I've been going back and forth on filtering the overflow from the first tank to the second. Upside if I did that I'd have 275 gallons of drinkable water right there. Downside that (slow sand) filter will certainly back up and overflow the system upstream during rains.

Then on the other hand if I need to drink the water one day I'll dip/pump water from the top of the tanks and run it through the ceramic filters I have.

I'm sorry, I'm not sure how much the gutter glove was exactly - it was a cash deal for some gutter removal, gutter install, the gutter glove and some miscellaneous pipe work. I seem to remember it was as expensive as the gutters.

However,

I'm impressed with the gutter glove - it even catches the granules from my asphalt shingles. Plus on the upside you never have to clean your gutters again.

[ewarmour]

Nice setup, here are some photos for inspiration

http://www.houzz.com/photos/modern/Cistern-

Bad @ss.

http://earthship.com/systems/water

[ireload]

Nice set up there Ewamour. By the way how much for the totes and how heavy are they? I take it your purchased them from a business in Federal Blvd huh?. I've been meaning to purchase one or two from them.

[frigginchi]

Hmmm... get's me thinking I can replumb my toilets to use rainwater.

[ewarmour]

Nice set up there Ewamour. By the way how much for the totes and how heavy are they? I take it your purchased them from a business in Federal Blvd huh?. I've been meaning to purchase one or two from them.

$110 per tote and they are deceptively light (lite?). Me and a 115# girl loaded the two of them in to the back of my truck (full size tundra) no problem. I moved them around the house with a small hand truck without a problem.

[abesh]

Very nice setup!

It is good to see you are exercising a freedom we Californians' enjoy - that is not available to people in other states

http://www.naturalnews.com/029286_rainwater_collection_water.html