[Water] Rainwater / Rainfall Collection (merged)

[PeakOiler]

Where the carport used to be:


The rainwater tank PVC downspout and inlet pipe was shattered. The Opel GT was not in the carport, but beside it. (It doesn't have a motor.) I bought it years ago for parts for the Opel GT that cannot be seen. That Opel GT was in the carport on the other side of the covered boat. (I rebuilt it's motor in 1990.)

So I got out the 100 ft measuring tape and measured the distance from where the carport was to where it is now. The carport looks like a solar panel on the greenhouse from this distance and angle:



The green 1,550 gal rainwater tank seen still has about 1,400 gallons of water in it, which I will use on the peach trees. A lot more peaches were blown off the trees, btw...



The image below shows the black 1,550 gal rainwater tank that collects off the greenhouse and Shed #2.

It appears from a gouge in the ground that the carport first impacted very near the black rainwater tank taking out a section of the chain link fence and smashing the chimenea. I'm fortunate that the tank wasn't hit by the flying carport!

[PrestonSturges]

It sounds like you're getting gratification from the insurance guys.

I've been told in case of wind storm damage like this do NOT move the debris until the insurance guy shows up.

Something to consider for the future - I have metal shelves that I greatly reinforced by screwing 2x4s to the metal frames with drywall screws, so it's pretty easy to strengthen stuff like this at strategic points.

[PeakOiler]

Today I took visual inventory of my collected rainwater. I have ~6,250 gallons (23,650 L) or about 47% of capacity. Assuming my average household use is 60 gal/day, that's 91 days of supply if none is used for irrigation. But I will use some of it for irrigation, esp. from the tanks nearest the peach and pomegranate trees.

I hope we get some tropical rain this year. There's a slight chance of storms today.

The recent US Drought Monitor map showed increasing drought conditions again in Texas.

The carport/rainwater collection surface shown above is still out of commission. Getting on my 12' ladder, I was able to remove some of the trim metal, gutters, and one damaged panel that was flapping in the wind like a metal flag, making a lot of racket.
The insurance company was very prompt transferring the money, the carport company has been slow since they've been very busy across the state repairing/replacing other customers' metal structures damaged in recent storms.

This time I'll have them anchor the carport with concrete.

[Shaved Monkey]

My tanks are at about 90 % full and we are in the middle of the dry season,possibly the wettest dry season on record.

I got a new pump the other day the old one packed it in (electrical problem ,I will have a tinker and have it as a spare to use on the next tank or back up)

[PeakOiler]

My tanks are at about 90 % full and we are in the middle of the dry season,possibly the wettest dry season on record.

I got a new pump the other day the old one packed it in (electrical problem ,I will have a tinker and have it as a spare to use on the next tank or back up)

Hi Shaved Monkey. Great to read that you're near full capacity. How has your rainwater collection system performed during drought conditions? IIRC, you had mentioned you still have access to the towns water. When was the last time you had to use mains water?

Last year we received less than 6" (152 mm) for the entire year.

btw, do you use a rain gauge to measure your rainfall at your residence and keep records?

I'm doing the same thing with my defunct water pumps. I already used an electrical cord from an old pump on an inexpensive water pump I bought last fall to transfer water from the outlying tanks to the tanks nearer the house and fruit trees. It didn't come with a power cord to begin with, which I thought was strange, but it was no problem attaching the old cord to the new pump. The wire-end connectors were already installed on the cord.
I haven't tried rebuilding one of the old ballast pumps. It's full of electronics including pressure sensors and a control pad. Here's the spec sheet for the Grundfos water pump I currently use:
http://www.rainharvest.com/grundfos-mq-3-45-1-hp-pressure-boosting-pump.asp

I guess I could take the old Grundfos pump to a shop for repair. Having a backup pump is a good idea. Not needing an electrical pump at all would be even better. I do use gravity flow as much as possible for irrigation from my water tanks. The ballast pump is used for the house only.

[PeakOiler]

Today I bought the PVC plumbing fittings to repair the pipe for the water tank that was collecting from the carport. The carport could (in theory) collect 236 gallons for every inch of rain based on it's dimensions.

[Shaved Monkey]

Hi Shaved Monkey. Great to read that you're near full capacity. How has your rainwater collection system performed during drought conditions? IIRC, you had mentioned you still have access to the towns water. When was the last time you had to use mains water?

I have 3 big tanks,I ran out of water for a few weeks about 3 or 4 years ago and had to go to town water.
Since then I have mulched, mulched and then even more mulched the garden,I still haven't connected the grey water system but have that as an option and the long term plan is one more tank up high on the hill.
Will be replacing the 2 dual flush toilets to even more efficient models soon too down from 6 litres to 4 litre.
We have had very good rainfall overall for the last few years La Niña (wet) they are predicting El Niño(dry) next year.
Having the town water on for a few days until the pump got here was convenient.
The tea and coffee tasted terrible without the rain water and my sourdough loaves for the week and my pizzas didn't rise as much (chlorine kills the yeast/bacteria)

Last year we received less than 6" (152 mm) for the entire year.

btw, do you use a rain gauge to measure your rainfall at your residence and keep records?

I dont have a rain gauge but should get one,I just look at the Government weather site.
We are at somewhere between 900 and 1200MM over the last 12 Months
We are about 100 MM above historical average so far.

I'm doing the same thing with my defunct water pumps.
I haven't tried rebuilding one of the old ballast pumps. It's full of electronics including pressure sensors and a control pad.
I guess I could take the old Grundfos pump to a shop for repair. Having a backup pump is a good idea. Not needing an electrical pump at all would be even better. I do use gravity flow as much as possible for irrigation from my water tanks. The ballast pump is used for the house only.

My old one is a Grundfos ,I will look at it and probably need to replace a switch or something as its got a bladder pressure tank so its not overly electrical.
I will put a tap in line to gravity water the garden without the pump and the tank up hill will be for gravity fed watering (I still will need power to fill it though as all my roofs and tanks are down the hill,unless I put a roof on the carport up there)

[PrestonSturges]

We finally got some rain and I filled all the extra buckets and barrels. Next comes the hose from the best yielding barrel down to the IBC tote to catch any overflow.

[PrestonSturges]

Got about 2.5" of rain in last 24 hours, filled the IBC tote, 4 barrels and every loose container I could find, so that's probably 4,000 l of H2O.

[PeakOiler]

Got about 2.5" of rain in last 24 hours, filled the IBC tote, 4 barrels and every loose container I could find, so that's probably 4,000 l of H2O.

Very cool. Another happy rainwater collector!

I measured 1.05" on Sunday, about 0.1" Monday, about 0.8" yesterday, and 0.4" today (and more rain is forecast)! I'm about to go outside and see which tanks may be full, and perhaps transfer some of the water from the fullest tanks to the less-full tanks just by opening the appropriate valves and let gravity do the work.

My carport still isn't repaired/replaced yet (I'm getting a little impatient with this company) and by not having that collection surface during the recent rain events has denied me collecting an additional 550 gallons.

[PrestonSturges]

Ooops I meant 2,000 liters! I was thinking of it being over 4,000 lbs.

I keep meaning to pick up another tote also.....

[PeakOiler]

Today the crew came out and took down the wind damaged carport. Now I'm going to get a new one.

The foreman told me it was totaled, but now I have plans for salvaging most of the sheet metal and posts that they left here for other projects. Such as, using the material for constructing more rainwater collection surfaces over the rainwater tanks. The salvaged sheet metal, once cut to size, could also shade the plastic tanks. I may also use some of the sheet metal to skirt around one of the sheds and the greenhouse (which are sitting on concrete blocks). Again, once the sheet metal is cut to size. I think I have my work cut out for me!

More rainwater collection surface area would help.

Turning lemons into lemonade...

[PeakOiler]

I received the quote for the new carport yesterday. Insurance is covering the cost of the new carport. I'm going to buy it today or Monday. I don't know when it'll be delivered and installed, but once that's done, I'll begin reinstalling rain gutters on it again asap.

[PeakOiler]

Yesterday I bought the rain gutters and gutter parts (joiners, corners, downspout). Now I just need the carport to mount them on! (Still no word on delivery date--probably in about two weeks).

[PeakOiler]

Today the crew came and installed the new carport:



It was 101 F (38 C) this afternoon!


This time, I bought 11 anchors in addition to the 3' long rebar anchors in the base rail. Here's one of them:



The warranty is up to 90 mph winds with these!

Now I have the task of reinstalling the rain gutters all abound it. I will do that work early in the mornings on the weekends over the next few weeks. There's a decent chance of rain Friday, but there's no way I can get the gutters installed before then.



And then I have to reinstall the PVC inlet plumbing.



At least I didn't have to move the tank out of the way. The crew was able to work around it.

[PeakOiler]

I measured 0.10" (~2.5 mm) rain on Sunday. (It's better than no rain at all. It was the first measurable rainfall in over five weeks here.) I got a chance to see how three of the 10' (~3 m) rain gutters I installed on the new carport functioned. No problems. None of the rainwater was collected from the new carport, however, since I haven't finished the job, but so far, so good.

I plan on getting one-half of the carport's gutters installed this next weekend, and the plumbing to the tank. At least I could collect off of half the carport until the other side is done.

I still haven't finished cutting down some of the cedar trees seen on the lhs of the pic:



I drilled a 4" hole in the side of the carport and dry-fitted the 3" PVC pipe that feeds the gutters. You can see that section of pipe in the picture. The PVC pipe collects from the gutter along 1/2 of the pitched side of the carport.

[PeakOiler]

Update on rainwater collection efforts...

Today I ran into a flaw in the plan for installing the rain gutters on the new carport. If you look at the image above, you can see that the gutter and gutter hangers are (relatively) flush against the carport wall. Not this time. When the crew installed this new carport, they didn't trim the wall length on the back side of the carport, something I didn't notice that day when they were installing it, so I had to cut away part of the siding to install the gutter corner. And now because of the gutter height being slightly different than before, I have to deal with the ridge in the wall panel on the back side of the carport. I may need to install some sleeve spacers or other kind of wall support between the gutter hanger brackets and the carport wall. hmmm

Gutter corner detail:

I still have to cut out and fit a short section of gutter between the corner section and the gutter on the side which you can barely see from this angle.

Testing the flow gradient of the back gutter which isn't cut to length yet:

The downspout section of the gutter isn't installed yet.

View from the opposite side:


The 4x4 is temporarily supporting the gutter while I sized the length of the gutter and to test the flow gradient.

I did get the other gutter installed along the top roof edge and cut out the other 4" hole for the 3" PVC plumbing on the other side of the pitched side that the rainwater runs off.

Slow progress, but I'm getting there....

[Bentaev]

If rain water tank is adjusted in the house. So adjust in the proper place where the water is collected or tank is saf

[PeakOiler]

Today I took inventory of my collected rainwater:



I have more than I thought! But we sure need more rain.

[patience]

Southern Indiana is short on rain, too. My cistern would normally have been running over for the past 6 weeks, but is still down about 20% below full. The extended drought this year was bad. Lots of crop failures and other problems.

The cistern is roughly 12' x 14' outside, has 8" thick walls and is 7 feet deep. My calculations make that bout 6,700 gallons, so we have about 5,400 gallons on hand. That isn't a problem for us immediately, but indicates that we are marginal on collection capacity for dry weather.