I set two first experimental rain barrels under downspouts next to the back porch last night. Before joining the green movement and being promoted to rain barrels, they were regular pickle barrels, between 55 and 60 gallons each, I guess. A pretty average (that is, not strong at all, just a bit more than a drizzle) rain filled them in about 15 minutes this morning. Wow. That's a whole lot of water :)) and a whole lot more than I expected. Of course, I could do the math first but where's fun in it?
Now I'm waiting for the rain to stop so I can measure how fast dripping irrigation hoses connected to the barrels will empty them. Then I can calculate how much water we need to catch.
By the way, it's been raining almost non-stop for 2 or 3 days now. This is not how it's supposed to be in FL in the summer.
Excellent site on rain barrels and other water related projects BTW - http://www.watershedactivities.com/projects/spring/rainbarl.html
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3 comments:
Very cool, it's amazing how much water can be collected from a near-drizzle. I came very close to buying drip irrigation hoses and whatnot this year, just couldn't quite justify it yet. Are you using the black irrigation hoses with emitters?
I'll gladly take some of that rain here! :)
That's a nifty site... I actually have a pool skimmer laying around here, I should pre-filter the hog water so it doesn't fill with debris.
Ron
Yep. 1" from a 1000 sq. ft. = 600 gallons, These two downspouts collect from probably 2000 sq. ft, so they only need 1/10" to get 120 gal.
I hope to use black soaker hoses that kinda sweat water through them. I've used the ones with emitters before - they clog. I'm not sure there will be enough pressure to push water through the soaker hose though. My experimental barrels got clogged - I guess you need a screen even on experimental ones :) I'll definitely report on the details of the final version.
Oh, and I would definitely send you some rain - I need to fix the roof :) But as we've established we always have the opposite weather :)
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