Rain Barrels

[tbn.al]

Just got my ugly electric blue rain barrels painted the same color as the house(important when you live in a subdivision) and since they are now pretty, I decided to post for comments, questions, snide remarks etc.

Atlanta has been in a class 4 drought for 3 years. Our drinking water supply got down to a few months last year. The fine for illegal outdoor water use in my county is $500 first offense and water shut off for the second. In order to keep my beloved flowers alive I put in a rain barrel system. Not wanting to rely strictly on rain or lack thereof, I also channel my A/C condensate and shower warm up water to the system. The A/C system (good for 5 to 10 gal a day in the summer) can be switched back and forth from normal outdoor discharge to rain barrel with the turn of a valve. The master bathtub is right beside the shower and I run the water in the bath until it gets hot (3 gal per shower). Then when you jump in the shower, it is ready to go. There is a valve between the tub drain and the shower drain to switch from sewer to rain barrel. There are 3 55 gal (60) barrels for a total of 180 gallon capacity. The downspout that empties into the rain barrel catches about 300 square feet of roof area and .1 inch of rain will fill me up. When the barrels get full, the overflow system diverts the water form all sources back into the downspout drain pipe and into the creek below. I can keep my deck flowers in great shape with an everyday dousing and hardly see the levels decrease. I can also divert the water to the front flower beds using a line inside the basement connecting the outdoor spigots. There are anti back flow valves at each spigot to keep the treated water separate. Since I have a 10 foot rise to my front yard and 12 foot to the deck I installed a submersible fountain pump with a head of 18 feet. That gives me about 3 gpm on the deck. That's enough to do hand watering. There is a switch on the deck to turn the pump on and off.

http://s125.photobucket.com/albums/p77/ ... 20Barrels/" target="_blank

[Dan Schultz]

Cool! I have a hand-dug well here... 36" diameter x about 50' deep that stays full to within 2' of ground lever no matter how much I pump it. I used to use it for things like filling the pool but I haven't had the lid off of it in several years. I've been tinkering (well... that's what I do!) with the idea of dropping in a submersible pump in so the water can be used for general things like laundry, watering grass, cleaning tubas, washing cars, flushing toilets, and the like.... keep the city water just for drinking purposes and making ice cubes. The well water is OK to drink but contains enough sulfur to make it a little 'stinky'.

[DLThomas]

I put rain barrels on each corner of my house last year...they work great. A simple solution to help with those pesky water shortages.

Dave T.

[DonShirer]

I got a cylindrical concrete container from the local septic tank supplier and sank it halfway into the ground with a wooden frame around it to hide the concrete. Water from the eavestrough goes into it through a projecting channel and a rain chain. Sort of cool to see the drops cascading down the chain during a storm. The tank holds 4-5 barrels worth and usually furnishes my garden the water it needs during a week of drought.

[elimia]

I think every new home built in Atlanta should be required to have a cistern installed. If you get one large enough you never need much in the way of city water. Rain barrels are a huge step but cisterns could not only alleviate stresses on the water supply, they would reduce the flash flooding caused by concentrations of impervious surfaces.

Atlanta is going to be in perpetual drought according to most future projections; tell me this wouldn't be a good infrastructure spending project. Can you justify a single new road there compared to running out of water?

[rocksanddirt]

sounds like a good project!

[tubatooter1940]

Rain barrels are a great idea.
I found an old well capped off next to my house and rigged up a pump and built a pumphouse. I got the guvmint to buy me a portable generator so I can run it when the wind blows our power lines away.
If I could still buy wind and hail insurance, I might be able to replace them someday.

[Rick F]

I just added a rain barrel to one of our downspouts yesterday. A neighbor gave me an extra barrel he had, then two trips to Home Depot (how come it always takes more than one trip ) for necessary items, and about 1-hour work to complete.

Although the drought in S. FL has lessened, it's good to make use of some of the water that would normally be wasted.

[steve_decker]

I just added a rain barrel to one of our downspouts yesterday. A neighbor gave me an extra barrel he had, then two trips to Home Depot (how come it always takes more than one trip ) for necessary items, and about 1-hour work to complete.

Although the drought in S. FL has lessened, it's good to make use of some of the water that would normally be wasted.

It amazes me every time I see these for sale that someone will pay $1xx for something that can be had for about 1/4 the price and an hour or so of work. Nice job! Based on your pics, I would rotate the cement blocks 90 degrees so that they are in their strongest position before the barrel has opportunity to collect much water.

[Rick F]

<snip> Based on your pics, I would rotate the cement blocks 90 degrees so that they are in their strongest position before the barrel has opportunity to collect much water.

Thanks. I just did that about an hour ago. I didn't notice the blocks until after I uploaded the pictures.