My 55 gallon plastic barrels are recycled from Anderson's Car Wash. They cost $8 a piece and originally held bio-degradable detergent. The rain collection unit is placed under my deck with a spigot coming out of the lattice, so it is not visible from the yard.
Rain comes off the roof from a 3" ABS plastic pipe (1) and drops into the diverter 'T' (2). Air purges from vents (5) at the top of the barrels and allows the tanks to take on water until diverter is full. Water then passes beyond the diverter and out an overflow. The plenum (3) is pressurized by the tank volume and comes out a spigot (4) A pipe extending the plentum (6) allows debris to fall past the spigot outlet during filling. A plug is for seasonal clean out and tank expansion.
The diverter serves a couple functions...
The plastic 3 inch "T" diverts the flow off the overflow and acts as part of my mosquito control system.
Mosquitoes can breed in a bottle cap and with West Nile Virus active in York County special care needs to be taken not to create a mosquito breeding ground. Traditionally, people throw a little bleach into their rain barrels. I wanted to work around chemicals with mechanical innovation.
In summer, rain often comes as a quick, heavy thunderstorm several times a week. Since I installed the collection system, my diverter has flushed off a couple times a week, quite short of the mosquitoe breeding cycle.
I have a balled up grocery store bag pushed into my overflow outlet. This keeps things from crawling/flying up to my diverter and signals me when the diverter has flushed.
The downspout inlet is sealed up to the roof and it's unlikely a mosquito is going to fly down 25 feet and through my ABS pipe system.
The vents on the top of the tank have screens that keep the critters out of there too.
I installed unions where my plentum meets the tanks and only glued pipes in my pressure zone and some joints. The entire installation can be drained and torn down for winter.
For every inch of rain I collect about 100 gallons from half my roof. The system fills more efficiently during a slow and steady rain, but the quick hits flush the diverter.
In a drought year, I might also collect water from the front part of my roof and add barrels to the plentum.
I have tons of water! I use it for plant watering, cleaning cat boxes and all kinds of uses when I need water that isn't for drinking. My water bill for the month is down about 300 gallons over the previous month.
Leave a comment