For the past two weekends, we’ve been working on a rain barrel project after seeing an article in the Dallas Morning News about them. When we first moved to our house, we bought a trash can and stuck it under a rain spout which was ok for awhile but was decidedly low tech and eventually sprung a leak. As you can see from the pictures below, these were a definite upgrade. They won’t be leaking assuming the marine sealant works as advertised. With rain coming on Tuesday, we should get our first test. We found some basic plans on the internet and then modified them to our situation. All told, we should have 165 gallons of storage capacity though right now we only have 110 hooked up.
Sealing the top
The Plans
The Hookup
The Final Result
I’m no physicist, but something seems wrong, gravity-wise. I guess the two barrels equalize? Is that top hose on the secondary barrel just overflow?
Yeah, I don’t see how it works either but there were two types of plans, one with the connector on the bottom and one on the top. The big problem with having them on the top is that you have to completely fill up one barrel before the other one. I did some rudimentary testing in our sink with two cups and a straw connecting them and it seems to work. Plus, I think the concept is similar to how a Brita filter works.
Yup, the top hose is for overflow. If we ever get to overflow around here, I’ll be real happy.
Dude you are making have flashbacks to falling in that old cistern that had been covered by years of leaves and dirt. It looks like a good setup should prove to work out well. The barrels finding equilibrium is the same fluid property that allows hydraulics to work and is itself a simply hydraulic system. In this case there is no outside force like a cylinder but instead just the weight of the water. This makes me want to give my lesson on how Tornados form but since I’m commenting on a blog that isn’t mine I will just be quiet now
I haven’t stopped thinking about your stupid rain barrels all damn day. I’m going to have to go buy and hang gutters, because I want one. I am heartened to learn that I didn’t forget everything from junior high science, too. And I applaud you for testing it in the sink first, too.
How about a link to the plans? I guess that spigot on the bottom of tank 2 is for actually using the water? Hell, it’s pre-filtered. You could probably drink it, and definitely cook with it.
I bet you’re gonna be surprised at how fast they fill up. You’re funneling a lot of surface area into those things. That’s not arithmetic, by the way. Just guessing.
Heh, my ideas are infectious. My test was a pretty leaky test but it seemed to prove out the point. So we went with it.
This is the plan that we based ours on. We didn’t put in the rubber wingnut plugs because we weren’t that worried about cleaning them out. In the end, what we did was made up a list of items and then kind of felt our way through Home Depot making it up as we went. I drilled the wrong sized hole twice but just upgraded to the next bigger PVC plug with no problems.
I really liked these plans but the better half took one look at the bungee corded top and deemed it far too ugly for our landscape. I preferred it because you don’t have to worry about lining up your downspout, just put it in the general area. I also liked his thoughts about the barrels being ventilated since as it fills up, the air has to go somewhere. I have the feeling I’m going to have to deal with that on our second one with the valve but we’ll see.
It’s supposed to rain here today so I’m hoping to find out where all my engineering deficiencies show up. As long as the marine sealant holds the PVC in, I can deal with leaks.
I guess living in a watery area spoils me but what do you use these rain barrels for? Drinking? Watering? Bathing?
We live in a pretty wet area but we’ve had our share of droughts in the past few years. Plus, by doing this, if and when the powers that be implement water restrictions, I can keep my veggies and flowers growing. Which is what we intend to use this for.
Eventually, I’d like to live somewhere that would allow me to have much bigger storage capacity and hook up most all water within the house to a system like this.