Author Topic: D.I.Y. rainwater harvesting  (Read 13278 times)

Offline NOLA556

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D.I.Y. rainwater harvesting
« on: March 14, 2012, 09:02:48 PM »
this will be my official "winging it" first attempt at a rainwater harvesting set-up.

DISCLAIMER: I made at least one or two mistakes, but they'll be included in this write-up so you can learn from them. There are undoubtedly MANY different ways to achieve the same end product, but this is simply how i did it.

OK! now we're ready to get started harvesting some rainwater!

First, you'll need to be at least this sexy:


after that's out of the way....

depending on what type of drum you've gotten your hands on, you may need to cut the top off and fabricate your own lid. In my case, the drum was not one with a removable lid, so I had to do some cutting.

I drilled a 1/2" hole right next to the rim of the drum on the top and used a hacksaw blade to make the circular cut around the top of the drum to form the lid. This ten minute process would have been far more efficient with the aid of a reciprocating saw but such luxuries were not available.



Next, I moved on to the spigot.

There's not much to it really. The spigot I chose is 3/4" ID (inside diameter) so I used a 1" paddle bit to accommodate the outside diameter of the threaded fitting. It was a fairly snug fit with the threads just barely cutting into the plastic. Perfect. (or so I thought) This was a mistake.
I planned on squeezing the plastic between the spigot itself and the female fitting inside the drum. This would have been a logical plan if I were actually able to "bottom-out" the two pieces tightly onto the wall of the drum. But alas, the cheap Chinese-made crap wouldn't bottom-out (poorly cut threads? idunno) so my spigot ended up "tight" but not as solid as I'd hoped. So what did I do? I Gorilla-glued that sumbitch. (on the outside) ...and once that was dry, I covered that with some silicone weather-proofing sealant outside and inside the drum.

Lesson learned. for a 3/4" spigot, use a 7/8" paddle bit. The hole will seem to be too small, but that's actually what you want. Force the threads to cut into the plastic wall of the drum by firmly pushing and twisting simultaneously until the threads "bite". This should give you a good tight fit and a water-tight seal all by itself without having to go through all the trouble I went through. (side note: you may also want to pick up a few appropriately sized rubber washers or gaskets so you don't have to worry about silicone sealant)





(it's a nice touch to make sure that the size of your spigot corresponds with the size of your garden hose. Of course, this isn't a necessity, but it's convenient, and it only takes a couple seconds to check and make sure.)



Back up to the top-side of the drum, I needed a mechanism for securing my lid into place. I bought some generic sheet-metal brackets and cut four of them to the size I wanted with tin-snips (sheet metal sheers), then screwed them into the outside of the lid allowing about 1/4" of each bracket to hang over the outside edge of the lid. I honestly don't see why it would be necessary to secure the lid to the drum. The weight of the lid itself should be plenty enough to keep it securely in place. I still haven't decided whether or not it will be necessary to seal the lid in place with silicone. As of this point, I have not. I'm pretty sure screws aren't necessary to secure the lid, but I still keep an open mind and an open eye for the possibility of sealing the cut-line with silicone. I'll modify this part of the write-up in the future if I discover that it is necessary to seal the lid.

Obviously, this step is irrelevant if your drum has a removable lid.

Update: 5/11/2012 - make sure that the platform you build that your drum will sit on is LEVEL. In my case, the platform is slightly off-level. I have it positioned right next to the wall of the house. Because it's off level, when the drum fills up all the weight of the water makes it lean against the house. Not really a big deal except all that pressure against the wall caused the top of the drum to warp, thus rendering my home-made lid useless.



Now up to the roof.

If your house already has rain gutters then you're all set. All you have to do is re-route your downspout to feed your new water drum. In my case, my house didn't come equipped with said water-catching capabilities (and I wasn't about to solicit my landlord for some gutters) so I went to my friendly neighborhood big-box home-improvement super-colossal-mega-plex and picked up some vinyl rain gutters. (I won't cover the installation of the gutters simply because it's really easy and if you can't figure that much out on your own then you probably won't survive 5 minutes after SHTF anyway)

Traditional? Vinyl Gutter System Installation




Next, I cut a small sheet of window screen to fit over the intake hole in the lid. I used tie-wire/ceiling wire/whatever you feel like using to fasten the window screen over the intake hole. This should, in theory, keep out the skeeters and their damn eggs. (I don't know about your AO but around here, a skeeter-farm is frowned upon)

This is where I had to get a little creative.

I used a flexible gutter downspout to make the connection between my fixed downspout and the intake of my drum. Fabricating some kind of firm connection at the mouth of the intake would have been entirely too much work for this project so I settled with this...

I locked a plastic funnel which I've used for years as my motor oil funnel for my truck into the vise on my work bench (after I cleaned it of course) and used a hacksaw to slice off the narrow side of the funnel. It took a few failed attempts before I finally cut off enough of the funnel's diameter that it finally fit snugly around the intake hole of the lid on my drum. I then sealed the perimeter of the connection with the same weatherproof sealant that I used on the spigot.





Now I'm just waiting for some damn rain....



« Last Edit: May 11, 2012, 05:49:16 PM by NOLA556 »
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Offline JohnyMac

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Re: D.I.Y. rainwater harvesting
« Reply #1 on: March 14, 2012, 09:31:45 PM »
Good job NOLA. Don't forget to put a piece of screen and or pantyhose material in the down spout. Put it in a spot you can easily clean regularly.
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Offline NOLA556

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Re: D.I.Y. rainwater harvesting
« Reply #2 on: March 14, 2012, 09:47:53 PM »
Good job NOLA. Don't forget to put a piece of screen and or pantyhose material in the down spout. Put it in a spot you can easily clean regularly.

i got screen over the hole where the water enters the drum.
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Offline Reaver

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Re: D.I.Y. rainwater harvesting
« Reply #3 on: March 14, 2012, 10:04:14 PM »
Fuck you Nola.... now I really got to step my game up.


My vote is in for best entry so far. [URL=http://www.smileyvault.co
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Offline NOLA556

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Re: D.I.Y. rainwater harvesting
« Reply #4 on: March 14, 2012, 10:11:52 PM »
Fuck you Nola.... now I really got to step my game up.


My vote is in for best entry so far.

karma points are welcomed, lol.  [url=http://yoursmiles.org/p-m
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Offline Reaver

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Re: D.I.Y. rainwater harvesting
« Reply #5 on: March 14, 2012, 10:13:20 PM »
You better link it to the 500,000 views contest bro.

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Offline WhiteWolf

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Re: D.I.Y. rainwater harvesting
« Reply #6 on: March 14, 2012, 10:17:15 PM »
Nice.  [URL=http://www.smileyvault.co I did a few of those last year. I'm building a little different version and a stand for watering my garden this year.
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Offline thatGuy

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Re: D.I.Y. rainwater harvesting
« Reply #7 on: March 14, 2012, 10:21:30 PM »
You better link it to the 500,000 views contest bro.


I'll second that.

Offline NOLA556

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Re: D.I.Y. rainwater harvesting
« Reply #8 on: March 14, 2012, 10:28:07 PM »
You better link it to the 500,000 views contest bro.

 


maybe but i already won one of those things... I can't be sucking up all the prizes. I may be brilliant but I'd just come off as a dick if I won every contest....   [img]http://www.arrse.co.uk/at
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Offline NOLA556

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Re: D.I.Y. rainwater harvesting
« Reply #9 on: March 14, 2012, 11:16:06 PM »
Nice job.  I do have a question... where does the water go once your drum fills up and reaches overflow?  Don't know if it matters much at your particular house, but I would want to avoid having alot of water spilling over into a single location near the foundation, may result in ground erosion or wood rot.  Did you consider an "over-flow spout" to carry excess water away from the foundation, or maybe into a secondary drum and then away from the house?

Regarding your removable top, I would want it removable.  If in the event you need to clean it out, or remove ice, or add another storage drum mentioned above, it would be nice to be able to easily remove the lid.

I need to work on a rainwater collection system as well, but my problem is that I have a flat roof with multiple "scuppers" up two stories high.  Certainly not as easy to install a system on a SW style home while remaining aesthetically pleasing to the wife.

Good write up.

Regards,

Walker

I have a second drum which I plan to use as an overflow reservoir. As stated in the write-up, this is experimental and I don't know how much water I'm going to get from this. If it turns out to be more than the drum can handle, then I'll install the second drum. If two drums isn't enough well then I'll just have to figure out something else.

As far as ground-erosion is concerned, my house has existed for at least 7 or 8 decades with no gutters, so I'm not worried about ground erosion. The house sits about 700 or 800 yards (give or take) from the Mississippi River. Over millions of years the river's silt deposits have built up the ground to be higher than the surrounding area. My particular area drains quite nicely. Ground erosion may be something to factor in under different circumstances but I'm not worried about it for now.
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Offline EJR914

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Re: D.I.Y. rainwater harvesting
« Reply #10 on: March 14, 2012, 11:46:34 PM »
Great thread, NOLA.

Offline WhiteWolf

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Re: D.I.Y. rainwater harvesting
« Reply #11 on: March 15, 2012, 04:22:36 PM »
I don't know how big your roof is, but you should be expecting a fair amount of overflow from containers that size. If we get a good rain here mine can fill up in one shot. (And that's in one that has run off from just the garage roof.) It's easy enough to run another line for overflow, but if I were you I'd build a higher stand for it. Maybe that way you can actually water that little garden you got going. Haven't seen pictures in awhile. Hope it's gotten bigger than last year.
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Offline NOLA556

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Re: D.I.Y. rainwater harvesting
« Reply #12 on: March 15, 2012, 05:00:40 PM »
I don't know how big your roof is, but you should be expecting a fair amount of overflow from containers that size. If we get a good rain here mine can fill up in one shot. (And that's in one that has run off from just the garage roof.) It's easy enough to run another line for overflow, but if I were you I'd build a higher stand for it. Maybe that way you can actually water that little garden you got going. Haven't seen pictures in awhile. Hope it's gotten bigger than last year.

haha! that garden actually doesn't exist anymore. my machete did away with that horrible Cacuzza vine (it literally started taking over the yard. it grew "too good".. and the squash were gross anyway lol) and the dogs had their way with everything else.

I'll be planting my good heirlooms in the next few weeks. we'll see how that plays out as the season progresses.
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Offline thatGuy

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Re: D.I.Y. rainwater harvesting
« Reply #13 on: March 15, 2012, 08:14:35 PM »
Nice job.  I do have a question... where does the water go once your drum fills up and reaches overflow?  Don't know if it matters much at your particular house, but I would want to avoid having alot of water spilling over into a single location near the foundation, may result in ground erosion or wood rot.  Did you consider an "over-flow spout" to carry excess water away from the foundation, or maybe into a secondary drum and then away from the house?

Regarding your removable top, I would want it removable.  If in the event you need to clean it out, or remove ice, or add another storage drum mentioned above, it would be nice to be able to easily remove the lid.

I need to work on a rainwater collection system as well, but my problem is that I have a flat roof with multiple "scuppers" up two stories high.  Certainly not as easy to install a system on a SW style home while remaining aesthetically pleasing to the wife.

Good write up.

Regards,

Walker

Good looking out Walker! Putting all the water from one side of your house onto the same piece of ground might not be a good idea... I'm a Carpenter, I know about these things.  :o

Next time we bump into one another I'll let you know how to pull it of with canales (scuppers) while pleasing the wife.

Offline NOLA556

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Re: D.I.Y. rainwater harvesting
« Reply #14 on: March 17, 2012, 07:37:53 PM »
Nice job.  I do have a question... where does the water go once your drum fills up and reaches overflow?  Don't know if it matters much at your particular house, but I would want to avoid having alot of water spilling over into a single location near the foundation, may result in ground erosion or wood rot.  Did you consider an "over-flow spout" to carry excess water away from the foundation, or maybe into a secondary drum and then away from the house?

Regarding your removable top, I would want it removable.  If in the event you need to clean it out, or remove ice, or add another storage drum mentioned above, it would be nice to be able to easily remove the lid.

I need to work on a rainwater collection system as well, but my problem is that I have a flat roof with multiple "scuppers" up two stories high.  Certainly not as easy to install a system on a SW style home while remaining aesthetically pleasing to the wife.

Good write up.

Regards,

Walker

Good looking out Walker! Putting all the water from one side of your house onto the same piece of ground might not be a good idea... I'm a Carpenter, I know about these things.  :o

Next time we bump into one another I'll let you know how to pull it of with canales (scuppers) while pleasing the wife.

I think I may have misunderstood what he was saying...

yes indeed I'll have to watch out for just how much water this thing may suck in. My house doesn't have gutters (except for the one I just installed)

if you recall the pictures in the OP, the gutter just above the drum wraps around all the way down the side of the house and then stops. so I'm only collecting water from that one side, and the 6 or 7 feet above the drum. The rest of the house is still just dumping off the roof like it always has.

I'll be sure to keep a close eye on the water-level of the drum and also how the gutter effects the rainfall on each side of the house and modify accordingly if the need arises. We use plenty of water in the yard so I don't see the drum filling up faster than we can use it unless there's some kind of downpour (which does happen from time to time) in which case I'll add another drum attached to an overflow drain at the top-side of the first drum.
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Offline crudos

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Re: D.I.Y. rainwater harvesting
« Reply #15 on: March 18, 2012, 12:34:55 AM »
Thanks for the info NOLA. We are in the process of purchasing our first house and think that some kind of rainwater collection system would be a great idea. And someone buy that man a new hat, please.

Offline mountainredneck2051

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Re: D.I.Y. rainwater harvesting
« Reply #16 on: March 18, 2012, 01:46:27 AM »
but how could i ever be sexy enough to begin  [img]http://www.arrse.co.uk/at
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Offline NOLA556

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Re: D.I.Y. rainwater harvesting
« Reply #17 on: March 18, 2012, 12:22:41 PM »
Thanks for the info NOLA. We are in the process of purchasing our first house and think that some kind of rainwater collection system would be a great idea. And someone buy that man a new hat, please.


hahaaa... but i like my Glock hat... obviously. I will accept charitable donations though... maybe.... Springfield Armory?  [url=http://www.freesmileys.or (we need an emote with a Croatian flag...)
« Last Edit: March 18, 2012, 12:24:42 PM by NOLA556 »
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Offline NOLA556

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Re: D.I.Y. rainwater harvesting
« Reply #18 on: March 21, 2012, 01:53:04 PM »
ohhh wow... update time.

so today we've gotten our first rain since I installed this whole set up... wow.

the drum was overflowing in less than 15 minutes. granted, it was a downpour, but still...

so my plan is: rather than just drill a hole for an overflow drain (it's coming out easily on it's own, lol.. good thing I didn't seal the lid), I'm just going to link another drum (also with it's own spigot obviously) to an overflow pipe near the top of both drums. if two drums fill up quicker than I can use the water then idunno what to do, I have limited space and I rent my house so I can't have a yard full of 55-gallon drums.
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