By creating several rain barrels you can save enough water to help you get through the hot and dry summer months.
House gutter rainbarrel.
One inch of rainfall over one square foot gives you about 0 6 gallons of water.
For a rain barrel you need nothing more than a standard spigot or short length of hose installed near the bottom of the barrel with an on off valve.
The storage tank or cistern can be made from almost any material even a clean recycled metal drum.
Amerimax 4 in x 120 in white k style gutter.
Wooden barrels have a nostalgic charm but they re hard to come by and expensive.
Amerimax 6 in x 120 in white k style gutter.
If you don t have downspouts you can often still use a rain barrel.
A spigot or hose connector lets you drain the water for use around your landscape.
Gardening stores sell 55 to 75 gallon plastic rain barrels complete with leaf screens and spouts for 50 to 250.
Creating a drainage hole toward the top of the barrel will enable overflow water to escape.
You just have to find one of those troughs where two parts of the roof come together and water pours out whenever it rains.
For pricing and availability.
1 walk around your house during the next rain and observe the water.
The amount of water you can collect is a rain barrel depends on how much rainfall you get and the size of your roof.
The rain barrel will need to be located near a down spout from your rain gutter if you want to get water from a downspout.
You can attach a longer hose to reach your garden or just use the spigot to fill watering cans.
The fittings are precisely moulded to fit closely on the standard downspout.
My own rain barrel is around the back of the house.
Amerimax 5 5 in x 10 in brown k style gutter end with drop.
A 55 gallon plastic drum with an intake hole cut in the top will work well.
A rain fall of half an inch filled my rain barrel to overflowing.
Made with 100 recycled plastic our authentic oak barrel texture is molded into each barrel and will not fade rot or risk insect infestation.
A rain barrel is a container that collects runoff from your home s gutter system connecting to the downspout with a rain diverter or fitting under a modified downspout.
Rain barrels provide an alternative to using municipal water or well water for irrigation.
Then you let gravity do the work.
However with the diversion plug fitted during a fairly heavy rain at least half the rain exited through the join in the unit rather than thru the spout this ended up saturating the wall of my house.
Most homes direct water into the barrel with gutters and downspouts but even homes without gutters can use a rain barrel.
