Rain water storage in SA

[Watchdog]

Anyone do it here? I have been toying with it, I have the space, knowledge and time to setup a system. I would be curious to know how much water people get though. I would probably setup a 90-110 gallon setup (3-30's or 2-55's)

I just need to source barrels, but before I do that, I want to see what people have been able to do. Based on the rain today, I would think I could fill a 30-gallon barrel easy.

 

[TexasR.N.]

This is a little different from what you are asking for, but I found it helpful when we were researching this topic:

http://www.twdb.state.tx.us/publica.../doc/RainwaterHarvestingManual_3rdedition.pdf

Innovative Water Technologies - Rainwater Harvesting Documents | Texas Water Development Board

 

[Sapper740]

Tractor Supply has a good selection of water storage tanks: Tractor Supply Co. - Enjoy searching:water tanks I installed a 1500 gal tank last year which uses run-off from my roof to fill it and I'm adding another one this year.

 

[Rottweiler]

Many feed stores have plastic barrels for sale . Usually around 25 bucks each.

 

[Booyah]

I have been toying with the idea myself for quite a while...just haven't gone there yet. There is no shortage of info on the net about it. With just a little searching I have found multiple sites around the net that have spreadsheets available, free for download, that will calculate your harvesting potential based on your roof area, average rainfall per year and many other factors. Tank-Depot has a good selection of tanks and harvesting accessories on hand and even more available if you want to order a specific model. They also have a demo rain catchment setup on their office that you can checkout.

 

[35Remington]

We had a thread going on this before. See if you can find it.

Multiply your roof's square footage by the amount of rain you're expecting. Ex: my garage roof is roughly 40'x60'. We got an inch (.083 feet) of rain last night. 40x60x.083 equals 200 cubic feet or 1496 gallons.

Are you in San Antonio? If so I have a spare 40 gallon barrel you can have for free.

Very important: get barrels you can seal. Otherwise you will have major mosquito problems, and will lose water over time to evaporation.

I found all my barrels at a car wash place. They were empty and free; just had to rinse them real good.

There's a device at Home Depot for $10 that attaches to your down spout and allows you to connect a water hose. It's worth every penny.

The obstacle I have not overcome is getting the water from the barrels. I'm too cheap to buy a pump. If you really wanna do it right, elevate the barrels such that gravity will help you.

Hope that's a good start.

 

[35Remington]

Here's the old thread. Couldn't find it using this forum's stupid search engine but google pulled it right up.

http://www.texasguntalk.com/forums/...ly-rains-once-every-10-years-around-here.html

 

[TXARGUY]

I'm not in the SA area but it's funny that this thread has popped up. I have gotten quite an education on it lately. I have an engineer working with my architect who is designing the rainwater collection system for my new house.

We'll be hooked to the local water supply but will rarely need to actually use it. It's mind boggling how efficient they can build them these days.

And, collected rainwater is much easier to filter and treat than ground water and the engineered system costs much less than drilling a water well.

This is a very simplified schematic of what we're doing:

We will have two collection tanks that will look like this:

But they will have solar switching power like this:

When I have the complete blueprint of the system finished I'll post it up so maybe you guys can get some ideas off of it.

 

[35Remington]

^^ When the fit hits the shan, I'll be needing your address.

 

[ScorpionHunter]

TXARGUY, the only suggestion I have is to look closely at your tank access point where the pipe dumps the water in the tank. There's usually a 90 degree pvc elbow there with a final basket filter. Make sure you have an easy way to get to that basket filter. No matter all the leaf guards and first flush space, something winds up in there eventually, whether it's a dead squirrel or a bunch of leaves that clog the basket. My system does not have easy access, and I am trying to figure out a solution. Flexible pvc might work, but I'm worried that it would get blasted off by the surge of water.

Also, if it's not already in the plans, make sure to put a ball valve at the end of your first flush pipe. The 6" are really expensive, so I went with a 4" valve and a 6" to 4" coupling. I'd also suggest having the flush pipe terminate horizontally so you don't get soaked when you empty it. Another idea is to have the flush pipe empty into a smaller tank.

 

[Savage805]

I have two narrow profile tanks about 1100 gal. each. One for the front of the house one for the back. About 1" of rain will fill them both. They are great for the garden, but I would not use them for drinking water without filtering the water first. The water is much better for the plants than treated city water. The round ones hold a lot more water and are cheaper but take up more space.

 

[BRD@66]

Caution when you're "setting up". I've got a 650 g tank with 90' of 4" guttering feeding it. The bbl has only a 2" diameter overflow pipe. When I get one of those 1+"/hour rain storms, it fills faster than a 2" pipe can carry away the excess. What a mess. But the barrel is full & the Crabgrass is watered.

 

[Savage805]

I put in a french drain for just that reason. You also have to consider the cost of rain gutters and a footing for the tank.

 

[HKaltwasser]

TXARGUY, the only suggestion I have is to look closely at your tank access point where the pipe dumps the water in the tank. There's usually a 90 degree pvc elbow there with a final basket filter. Make sure you have an easy way to get to that basket filter. No matter all the leaf guards and first flush space, something winds up in there eventually, whether it's a dead squirrel or a bunch of leaves that clog the basket. My system does not have easy access, and I am trying to figure out a solution. Flexible pvc might work, but I'm worried that it would get blasted off by the surge of water.

Also, if it's not already in the plans, make sure to put a ball valve at the end of your first flush pipe. The 6" are really expensive, so I went with a 4" valve and a 6" to 4" coupling. I'd also suggest having the flush pipe terminate horizontally so you don't get soaked when you empty it. Another idea is to have the flush pipe empty into a smaller tank.

I guess I've been lucky for the 8 years I've had my system. I have filter baskets at every drop and have never had a clogged inlet. The baskets are easy to access and I probably only have to clean them once every two years.

Remember to purge your system in between longer spells of drought, to get rid of stagnant water in the lines.

 

[BuzzinSATX]

Best source in San Antonio for barrels is Dave the Barrel Man:

http://davethebarrelman.net/

White, 55 gallon food grade barrels are $25 apiece. Also food grade 275 gallon IBC's are $135.

Check them out. Always plenty in stock. All the barrels I've bought were one-time use Mt Dew or Pepsi syrup barrels.

 

[ScorpionHunter]

HK, It sounds like you have a well-designed system. I've had mine in place for about 5 years, and it's been a learning process of things that I would have done differently if I had started from scratch. The company that put mine in has a lot of experience, but I had to change some of the parts as I began to collect water and use it. Even though I cut back the trees surrounding the collection surface, some dead leaves do land on it, and they can work their way through the gutters and pipes. I have 5400 s.f. of collection surface, and enough leaves make it through to sometimes block the filter baskets when it does rain.

How do you purge the stagnant water? I run a hose up to the gutters and run it for a while with the first flush open. I'd love to know if there's a better way.

 

[HKaltwasser]

HK, It sounds like you have a well-designed system. I've had mine in place for about 5 years, and it's been a learning process of things that I would have done differently if I had started from scratch. The company that put mine in has a lot of experience, but I had to change some of the parts as I began to collect water and use it. Even though I cut back the trees surrounding the collection surface, some dead leaves do land on it, and they can work their way through the gutters and pipes. I have 5400 s.f. of collection surface, and enough leaves make it through to sometimes block the filter baskets when it does rain.

How do you purge the stagnant water? I run a hose up to the gutters and run it for a while with the first flush open. I'd love to know if there's a better way.

I have valves on the two main lines that run to the tank. I open them up and let gravity do it's magic, then close them once the pressure reduces before it sucks any unwanted material back in. It's enough to keep them clean of the sitting water.

Are you running a UV ionization unit?

 

[franzas]

I'll throw this in-

I had to order a couple 4000 gal poly tanks for work (needed for water and caustic for our catalyst regen). The vendor asked if they were for rainwater collection. I said no and asked why. He said that if they were for rainwater collection I could buy them tax free.

So, moral of the story- If you're buying stuff to collect rainwater, be sure to mention it to the vendor, as you could get a tax break!

 

[breakingcontact]

I put in a french drain for just that reason. You also have to consider the cost of rain gutters and a footing for the tank.

How substantial does the footing need to be? We talking concrete slab? Pea gravel?

 

[NavyVet1959]

How substantial does the footing need to be? We talking concrete slab? Pea gravel?

Water weights around 8 lbs per gallon. An 1100 gallon tank is going to weigh over 8800 lbs. But the total weight is not the most important aspect. You need to know how it is distributed (i.e. footprint).

I once put a 275g IBC tote in the back of my pickup to take some water to a property that I own that was not hooked up to city water. I put the tote in the back of my pickup and started filling it up with a water hose. I hadn't bothered to calculate the weight beforehand, but as it got around half full and I saw how much lower that the bed of my truck was sitting, I quickly realized that I probably should not fill the tote all the way up. Of course, being not filled all the way up, the water sloshes around and when you put on your brakes or accelerate, it makes the vehicle move in strange ways. Luckily, it was only a couple of miles on local roads.