In Nova Scotia we’ve had a few dry years. In some cases, dug wells have run dry. One option that I’ve been working with for a few months now involves diverting rain from the rooftop.
The system I have put in is rather simple. It consists of the following:
- 1 x diverter that you attach into the downspout.
- 2 x barrels
- a length of PVC pipe
- some plastic hose
- a few clamps
- and some lumber (4 x 4 and 2 x 4).
Siting
Siting is really about three things. First, you want the water to be collected close to where you are likely to be using it. These barrels are not pressurized so unless you pick up some form of pump, you want to keep them close. Second, make sure that you put where the chances of it damaging your home are remote. For me, I placed mine about 8 feet away from the foundation. at the top of the hill running down towards a little creek. Finally, you want to situate it in a way that the chances of damaging it are as low as possible. I decided to raise mine a bit and mounted it on a frame (also handy for filling containers).
Does It Work?
So far so good. You may be surprised at how quickly they fill up. My two 100-gallon “barrels” were fill to the overflow point after two rainfalls of just under 18mm (total). This sort of makes sense when you consider the area of a circle (A=3.141 x the square of the radius). Compare that to the surface area of the roof that is sending water down that downspout and the math makes sense.
A quick hint is to do a couple of quick checks on barrels where you have to install your own spigots, etc. Once the barrels are full, the are a bit difficult to check and even harder to adjust. Since the spigots are in the bottom of the barrel (you can see one on the right hand picture), it doesn’t take much to check to see if they are seeping.
From my own experience, the two barrels were full (meaning just under 200 gallons) after just under 35mm of total rainfall (remember, this will vary depending on the size of your roof and how much is being directed down the downspout you install the diverter in). If the average watering can is about 2 gallons, that means that there are about 100 watering cans of water stored up pretty quickly. Even if you’re using about 5 10 gallons
First Thing to Watch – Is it Level?
Water generally runs downhill and finds a common level within a system. While the instructions that came with my system said to make sure it was exactly level, I changed that a bit. I went about a quarter bubble of level with the system sloping away from the house. The reason for this is fairly simple. First, if things settle i want them to settle in a way where the water runs away from the foundation. I also stepped the barrels so that the one closest to the downspout was about 4 inches higher than the second. The idea there being that the overflow hose from the first barrel would fill the second. The second barrel’s overflow hose pointed down the hill.
Second thing to Watch – Weight
Some people have remarked that my stand seems a bit overbuilt. It may be. That being said, 100 gallons of water weighs about 834 pounds (so double that for two barrels). That weight needs to be looked at from three perspectives. First, will the frame the barrels are standing on survive the weight? The second is how that weight settles onto the ground. While i had stones under my legs for this, I also built in a support running parallel to the ground that would essentially help distribute the pressure if the platform started to sink. The final consideration was the center of gravity. I live in a spot with fairly high winds and i wanted that center of gravity taken care of so that the whole thing wouldn’t tilt or shift towards the house.
Stability also factors into this. The reason for the PVC pipe in the wooden run is to basically take the weight off the downspout. Otherwise, the diverter (even if strapped to the house) would have to hold the weight of a fairly long lever and you don’t want to damage the downspout in a way that water can run down along the foundation.
Steps Taken.
My project looked like this:
- Be clear on what you want to use the water for.
- Locate what you think would be the optimal spot for it, taking into account where your downspouts are.
- Determine how high your spigots need to be to be comfortable. That will help determine the size of your frame but also where you will need to install the diverter.
- Calculate the height of the frame and then height with the barrel on top.
- Build those and put them in place.
- Calculate the length of the run for the PVC pipe to the barrel top. Most diverters will come with a couple of hoses so you need to be close, but not “micrometer close.”
- Give yourself a little room for the 90 bend. This ensures that the water is flowing down into the barrel and not quickly across the top of it.
- Then determine what level would be (or the quarter bubble) on the downspout.
- Install the diverter so that you have a bit of wiggle room.
- Hook up the connecting hoses (overflow to barrel 2, barrel 2 overflow).