Topic: Saving rainwater

[Garden Manager]

With all this wet stuff now falling from the sky (TBH id forgotten what it was until last saturday), I am wondering if anyone has any ideas on alternative methods of saving the stuff, other than the usual roof/gutter/waterbutt combo.

I have a butt attached to the only accessible downpipe on the house (there are 2 others which i cant get to), which is already full, I cant have a butt on the greenhouse but have 2litre lemonade bottles on the ends of the downpipes, which are then emptied into an old waterbutt which stores rather than collects rainwater.

Any other ideas? (that wont make the garden look like a junkyard that is)

Thanks

[Ed^Chigliak]

Raised decking suported on 6" joists. The spaces between the joists are lined with pond liner. Rainwater is stored below your feet. I calculate 150 liters per square meter. You would need a pump to get at the water. Like a pond I guess but no digging. Some areas could be open water with decking around the perimeter and maybe a bridge over feature.

Is that any good as an idea?

[Garden Manager]

Hmm thats a good idea if you had the space - i dont (at least not suitably level anyhow). Sounds an awfull lot of work as well, so i'll give that one a miss if you dont mind. Thanks anyhow.

[Ed^Chigliak]

You do know you can link more than one water butt so the overflow from one will fill a 2nd and 3rd.

Alternatively you can use a submersible pump to move water between butts and locate them wherever you please.  Cheaper than a submersible pump you can get a pump attachment for a power drill although I don't know how well they work.

I don't see any reason why you couldn't mount a rain diverter kit at a higher level and run it into a smaller pipe that runs at a slight angle around your house which will maybe get you to a convenient place you can have additional water butts.

A plastic downpipe is not so hard to move. Modern guttering is a modular system that clips together so in theory you can just swap it about. If it's wood or iron then it's a more costly job so maybe not worth it unless it needs replacing anyway.

[wardy]

My lotty mate has a plastic water tank inside his greenhouse which has guttering and a downpipe harvesting rain off the roof.  As it's inside the greenhouse it doesn't look unsightly and the water gets warmed up which is less of a shock to his plants.

[Kepouros]

All you need is spare hose pipe to use as a syphon, and as many water butts as you need placed wherever you want.  Once your original butt is full start it syphoning into another, then that to a third, etc. and leave the pipes in place. All the butts will then maintain the same level.

[wardy]

My elderly relatives have got a voucher from the waterboard for a £15 water butt with stand.  I want one too!  I'm not elderly though so they told me to get lost  ;D   I shall have to go and chat up a pensioner  :)   I know mine will be overflowing so I think I'll have to rig up a plastic water tank I've got to receive all the overspill.  I've got some guttering too.   I'll do it when it stops raining  :)

[Garden Manager]

I found myself yesterday walking back and forth up and down the garden from one butt to the other with buckets, transfering water from the 'collecting' butt to the 'storing' one which is right up the garden by the greenhouse in order to make space in one and fill the other one up. 

What i really want is another butt or better still a water tank of some kind so i can keep the collecting butt empty but still save the water. Doesnt matter really that they arent connected as i can transfer manualy.

The problem with the other 2 downpipes on the house are that one is right by the narrow side passage so putting a butt there would block the path, and the second is locatedin a very small gap between the neighbours fence and the conservatory wall. I doubt id be able to get in there to fit a diverter, let alone anything else.

Does anyone else think that some of the proprietary drainpipe diverter kits are a bit 'over designed' I have one such kit and had no end of trouble with it, not only setting it up but also using it afterwards. recently part of it broke and the repair i did to it seems to make the whole thing work better than before it broke! 

Personaly i think the simplest way to get rainwater from drainpipe to butt is to have the pipe go straight into the top of the butt with an overflow pipe in the side leading to the drain/soakaway. When i next set up a waterbutt i think i will be using this method.

Thanks to all who have posted so far. Some good ideas there.

[Robert_Brenchley]

That was an idea much used on my site before the advent of piped water. From what I've seen of the survivors, the system was to pump water either from a butt or from the stream, into a large tank, which was then used as a water supply. There must have been a good deal of hard graft involved in the pumping!

[amphibian]

Because I haven't got a shed yet, I have a tarp raised on four poles, i have cut a hole in the centre and hung weights there, so that it hangs down like a funnel. Under the hole I have a water butt; found in the hedge at the bottom of the plot. This set-up should collect water much faster than a shed, because my tarps has a far greater surafce area than a shed.

Since I set it up we haven't had a drop of rain, in the days before I took on my plot we had a huge amount--typical.

[wardy]

I'll suggest that clever idea to my bro who has now water supply or shed  :)

[Svea]

sounds like a good set-up, amphibian.
did you use scafolding poles or summat? nice and sturdy, i hope.....

[wivvles]

When we had the central heating changed, I saved the cold tank from the ceiling to connect to my water butt as an overflow.

However, the main piece of recycling was the hardboard and battening that had been used to clad the old fireplace.  The main piece was 4ft by 8ft.  I edged this on three sides with 2 x 1 timber battening (leaving a three inch gap at one corner), braced it with the same and covered the whole thing with roofing felt.  I attached this to the side of my shed against the roof, ensuring that the corner with the gap was at the lowest point.  Two pieces of 2 x 2 to hold it up.  Result is a huge area for rain collection.  I made a downpipe out of plastic milk bottles with the bottoms cut off slotted together, and have filled the butt three times in the last month.

[amphibian]

sounds like a good set-up, amphibian.
did you use scafolding poles or summat? nice and sturdy, i hope.....

I used some old tent poles, with guyropes, in each corner. It's sturdy enough and won't blow away unless it gets very windy.

Even a tarp, uncut, supported on two (or three) poles at adjacent corners, or hung from a wall, fence or tree branch, and then angled down towards a butt could be fashioned into a water catchment.

[wardy]

It's the same principle as that survivalist bloke on telly uses to collect his rainwater.  On a bigger scale though o 'c course  :)        Ray Mears - I just remembered  ;D

[amphibian]

It's the same principle as that survivalist bloke on telly uses to collect his rainwater.  On a bigger scale though o 'c course  :)        Ray Mears - I just remembered  ;D

d**n my true identity is out ;)

[wardy]

Hi Amphib, ooh Ray I mean.  I really love your programmes and watch them intently in case I ever find myself stranded in the jungle, desert, rainforest etc  I now know how to keep my matches dry which is essential when you need to get a fire going on the plot  :)