Harvested rainwater for non potable use in the home

[osolemio]

Originally Posted by Piwoslaw

Good for you!!


Is there some kind of filter system between the roof and the underground tank? If not, is the cistern easy to clean periodically? What kind of roof do you have? Our roof has shingles and I keep cleaning the sand out of our barrels. Plus lots of pollen in the spring, and dust after a few dry days.


Maybe a heating element in the rain gutters? I'm not a fan of wasting electricity, but that may be worth the extra water.

This tank installation requires that there is no hindrance from gutter to tank. Normally one would put a "sand catching" vertical tube, where the sand and other heavy particles would fall to the bottom. I think in this case, they don't want the idling water to sit there and catch bacteria? Or maybe the flow or ...

In any case, I have thought of some kind of filter in the gutter - I just need to make sure I remember to clean it now and then.

As for the tank - pollen floats to the top, sand goes to the bottom, so as long as the water is taken from just below the surface, I should not need to clean the tank that often.

I think the electric gutters will be too expensive. With falls usually being quite wet, I would imagine I would have close to a full 7500 liters / 2000 USG approaching december, so the period of no water should be short - if any. In normal winters here, there are usually periods with thawing - only recently was a bit odd, with several consecutive months of no positive temperatures at all.