Rainwater is an excellent source of drinking water whether you’re living on a homestead or surviving after a disaster. However, it’s not as simple as setting out buckets when it rains. You need to set up a proper rainwater harvesting system. And even then, you have to be careful not to make any serious mistakes.
Trust me, I know. The first time I collected rainwater, I just assumed the water was clean and pure. Well, it was, but not after hitting my roof and running through my gutters. After the first rain, I went out and dipped a cup into the rain barrel, took a sip…and immediately spit it out.
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The water didn’t look that dirty, but it tasted horrible. All sorts of toxins had leached out of my roofing tiles and into the water, making it taste horrible. Not to mention the bits of dirt and leaves from my gutters (and probably some bird poop). I should have let the rain rinse the roof for at least 10 minutes for collecting the water.
And even if I had waited that long, I still should have purified the rainwater before drinking it. There are all sorts of pollutants in the air (and therefore, rain) that we can’t see, smell, or taste. You want to avoid those as much as possible. So yea, I didn’t know what I was doing.
I’ve learned a lot since then thanks to videos like this one from Starry Hilder Off Grid Homestead. Starry goes over 7 common mistakes people make when harvesting rainwater. Look over this list of mistakes and make sure you’re not making them or you’ll live to regret it.
Here they are:
- Forgetting to make sure it’s legal in your area.
- Using the wrong kind of barrel (the wrong kind will leach dangerous chemicals into your water).
- Buying expensive barrels. If you’re search hard enough, you can find them used.
- Not setting up a system for getting your water out (such as a spigot or pump).
- Not keeping your barrels covered (with sheets, screens, or even cooking oil).
- Forgetting to let rain rinse your roof for 10 minutes before collecting rainwater.
- Using a small system. It takes a lot of water to live.
Be sure to watch the video below where she expands on all of these points.
How do you stop your rain water from getting algae growth when you collect large amounts?
Algae needs light to grow, consider trying to black out whatever you’re collecting in.
How do you wait before you collect the water? Do you have a cheap way to do that automatically? My rain gutters are attached to my barrels through a diverter. What should I use as a timer? How would that work? And, since my rain system is only for my garden, should I even care?
If it’s just for your garden then don’t worry about it. But if it’s for drinking, you can just cover the opening to your rain barrel and let the water spill onto the ground for about 10 minutes.
There are other rainwater collection sites that have a calculation to the wait times…That being said, what if your not there when it begins to rain? There are flush diverters that will divert the first few gallons of dirty water from your holding tanks. Usually a 6″ or 4″ pvc pipe is used. The length will be determined by the size of your roof. Once that is filled water will bypass the diverter and start filling your holding tank. After the rain stops the diverter is emptied via a plug at the bottom.
I was thinking some kind of pipe to catch the first 10 minutes or so of rain water before it’s diverted into the rain barrel. My thought was having a tiny hole in the bottom of the pipe where it would drip ever so slowly and then maybe not need to worry about draining a pipe? You could still take off a bottom cap or I suppose you could have a valve on the bottom of the pipe and let it drip. Then you still have the choice to open the valve to drain it too!
If you are collecting for gardening use only, no need for first flush system, however having one connected to system it would prevent accomoalation of sediments at the bottom of tank. The simple way of building first flush system is to have vertical deadend pvc pipe 100mm dia 2.2 m long installed as a “T” connection to horizontal pipe that discharges to the tank & have a floating ball inside of it.
For drinking water you could boil it or filter it through an AquaRain or Big Berkey system, though even a Survivor Filter or LifeStraw would work.
NO. This is dangerous advice. You must BOTH boil and filter water appropriately before it is safe to drink. This is a common misunderstanding. Filtering correctly can take out lead, fluoride, and other particles, but it does NOT make the water safe from disease, bacteria, and parasites which are often microscopic. Similarly, boiling does not remove lead and other heavy metals which will accumulate in the body over time, so it is helpful if say, a pipe breaks on you as a temporary measure, but not for long term. In most areas, rain carries some amounts of mercury. Drinking water is not a situation to be amateurish about it. Water treatment plants continually test and view their water under microscopes to keep our water safe to drink, and use chlorine (instead of boiling) and other additives to keep us from getting things like parasites, cholera, and birth defects.
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This spring, I’m thinking of adding a metal roof over my deck by the side of my above ground pool. The deck is 24 feet x 10 feet. I think I want to get a rain barrel and sit on top of deck and use this water to fill pool and also use to water plants.
Suggestions??
Why would catching up rainwater not be legal? What falls from the sky, surely cannot be subject to any local by-law or constitution. How can such a law be upheld in a court of law?
That was my thought also but its illegal in my town. I haven’t asked why but sure would like to know the rationale behind the law.
Lots of municipalities have regulations on standing water. It really does not have anything to do with how the water or why the water is being collected. The biggest reason for regulation is creating mosquito breeding pools and the disease that those little buggers can spread. In Singapore there is a minimum $500 dollar fine for having ANY standing water on your property. You could forget to bring in a Frisbee left upside down outside. If it rains and someone calls the authorities, you get hit with the fine. They are just a little more strict over there;).
And here I was thinking that in America it was because the municipalities usually own the water system. Thank you for giving me a better reason.
I have family in CO Springs area, it is illegal to collect rain water because the state of CO collects the rain water then sells it to the state of NV! You’d be cutting into the states profit. There may be other reasons too but I know that is a big one for CO residents.
must be in California
Or one could divert the water into another container for the garden, washing the floor ect. Flushing is a good use when there is no running water; just pour a bucket of water into the bowl.
Where would people allow it to be illegal for them to collect rainwater?
I like to use it in my hair. Do I need to do anything special to it befor spritzing it in my hair with a water bottle?
To make sure it’s biologically safe you should add bleach to your harvested water. I routinely pour 100 ml of 5% bleach (pure, no deodorant or anything) every cubic meter of water. If you can smell very light bleach it’s safe, if you smell a lot of bleach it’s too much bleach and you should wait, if you don’t smell it then add some.
Also to clean roof, you should discard the first 5mm of rain. This measurement is more precise than “the first 10 minutes” you can calculate 5mm times the area of your roof to know the initial volume of water to discard. Then there are passive systems that can do that for you.
Another reason for regulating rain water collecting is that if too many people started collecting/storing it then it could diminish the adequate amount of runoff into the drainage dikes that farmers need to water crops . Could create a drought type situation in some areas and in some climates where water is so vary precious. Can fall under a “Hording” type effect. the holding tanks used for collection should be sealed with no way for mosquitoes to infest. if you have an open top container/barrel, secure a black sheet type material to the top, it filters debris and mosquitoes both and the black will help minimize sunlight exposure preventing algae growth.
My grandparents collected rainwater into an underground cistern which they use for bathing and laundry. The only drank well water, knowing that collected rainwater was not potable..