How to Harvest Rainwater for Home Use

Rainwater is free, pure and plentiful in most places. It simply runs off the roof. Collecting it for garden use is moderately easy.

Things You'll Need

• A barrel (a 45-gallon cooking oil barrel works well)
• Small platform or stack of bricks
• Faucet
• Hand drill
• Flat wood bit (a little smaller than diameter of faucet connection)
• Tin snips
• A small hack saw or cutting drill bit
• A short pvc "nipple"
• Hose
• A Pencil

Instructions

How to Harvest Rainwater for Home Use

1. Obtain a plastic barrel. There are commercially available barrels, completely rigged with a faucet, overflow valve and screen catchment. These can be purchased at nurseries or garden supply outlets for amounts ranging between $100 - $500. Used plastic barrels that once stored cooking oils or other food stuffs can be used as well. These can be purchased from wholesale food outlets for about $15 -$20. If buying a used barrel, make sure it is completely cleaned.

2. Using the upstream end of the faucet, trace the circle of the fitting on the side of the barrel about two inches from the bottom.

3. Using the wood bit and drill, drill a hole in the circle you just drew.

4. Screw the faucet into the hole.

5. Water is going to be gravity fed from the barrel to wherever you wish to put it. Because of that, the barrel needs to be elevated. Using stacked bricks, pavers, or any other structure, raise the barrel at least a foot from the ground. Remember that a barrel filled with water is significantly heavier than an empty barrel, so take that into account when you're elevating it. The elevated structure must be immediately beneath the downspout.

6. The short PVC nipple is going to fit onto the gutter on one end, and into the rain barrel on the other. The end fitting onto your gutter should be a little larger than the diameter of your gutter. The end fitting into the top of the rain barrel should be about an inch or two smaller. (This type of nipple is readily available at local hardware stores.)

1. Cut a hole into the top of the barrel. The hole needs to accommodate the small end of the pvc nipple.

2. Place the barrel on top of the elevated structure and then place the small end of the pvc nipple into the newly-drilled hole.

3. Using a pencil, draw a line on the downspout just a little beyond the end of the larger end of the pvc pipe. (The downspout should fit into the top of the pvc like an arm in a sleeve.)

4. Using the tin snips, cut the downspout along the pencil line.

5. Snugly fit the downspout into the end of the PVC.

6. Make sure that the faucet is closed. As the rain runs down the roof, it will flow into the gutters and then into the downspout, and then into the rain barrel. If the faucet is open, then any rain collected will simply run out.

7. A regular hose or a soaker hose may be attached to the faucet installed at the bottom of the rainbarrel. Or, the faucet can be used to fill watering cans or other vessels.

Tips & Warnings

• Cut a small piece of large mesh screen and place it into the pvc nipple. This is to keep leaves and other debris from falling into the rain barrel. It may be necessary to clean the screen occasionally, but it is a lot easier than having to dump an entire barrel full of water because leaves are clogging the faucet.

• Any standing water tends to attract insects, especially mosquitoes, which may lay their eggs these. A couple of drops of lanolin or other non-petroleum-based oil will create enough surface tension on the water's surface to help prevent the female from laying eggs in the first place, and will certainly prevent the hatched mosquito larvae from breathing.