Friday, February 04, 2005

Using Rain Barrels for Water Collection

Using Rain Barrels for Water Collection: "Why Harvest Rainwater with Rain Barrels?
Rain is a naturally soft water and devoid of minerals, chlorine, fluoride, and other chemicals. It is usually collected from the roofs of houses and picks up very little contamination when it falls. You can harvest a surprisingly large amount of rainwater from your gutters with one or more rain barrels. Instead of letting the water flow down your driveway and into a storm drain, you can collect it.

Because harvested rainwater does pick up some contamination, you need a good filtering system before it can be used as potable (drinking) water. Many cities require the filtration system to be certified and the water to be tested on a regular basis. However, you do not need a filtration system for landscape uses. You can use it directly from your rain barrel on your garden.

The most obvious reason for harvesting rainwater is to save money. Even if you live in a rural area and have your own well, the well water may be hard enough to justify harvesting rainwater. Have you ever washed clothes with really hard water? There are other reasons as well. "

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1 comment:

Heather said...

Soundss great, we tried rain barrels for a little while but live in area where it doesn't rain enough for this type of irrigation system to work efficiently. We settled for a drip system we got from Orbit, works great! Find it here: http://www.orbitonline.com