Here at Piedmont, when we are not busy building biodiesel plants for our clients, or sucking grease out restaurant barrels to make biodiesel for the b100 trail, we’re thinking up new and inventive ways to use the massive amount of 275 gallon totes that accumulate on project.  One of our favorite ones has been the rainwater collection systems that we’ve been tinkering with the last 3 or 4 years.  Right now we’ve got a design that we are very happy with, and we’re looking to spread the idea around.

It’s no secret that water can be a scarce commodity in the summer in North Carolina, and there’s a bunch of different folks selling barrels and other designs.  There’s a few things that we especially like about our design:

• Our single 275 gallons equals about 5 of those pickle barrels
• Our system utilizes a LeafEater screen to keep leaves, debris and bugs from contaminating the rainwater
• A ‘first catchment’ design catches the first bit of dirty water to come off the roof before filling up the tote
• The attractive cedar stand elevates the water making it much easier to just hook up a hose and water
• With the simple turn of a valve you can disconnect the system for the winter

Depending on your situation, we can sell you a kit and you can install it yourself, we can also come out and set up the system for you at your house or business, or we can sell you individual parts to build your own system.  Check out our prices below, and contact Chris to get started collecting free water off your roof!

Complete 275 gallon Rainwater Catchment System (for standard applications)	$625
Individual 275 gallon tote with NPT adapter	$110
4’ Cedar Tote Stand	$175
Installation and consultation	$40/hour

Philosophy

We should note that many of us have been using rainwater to power our gardens for years.  Like most people we started at the downspout, added a vessel, and collected a bunch of rainwater that never got delivered to the desired target. We have talked about rain water collection on our website many times.  Sometimes to sell stuff, and sometimes to simply offer our reality.

Like everyone else in rainwater, we used to start at the eave.

There are big problems with that.  We use words like “rain water collection,” and “rain water harvesting,” when in fact those are wrong-headed terms.  Instead we should start at the root we desire to water.  Working back from the root we would find that what is needed is a “rain water delivery” system.

Part of what we do is correct the systems of others.  One of our jobs was for an eighty year old woman who had had two hips replaced.  Because of her deep and abiding belief in sustainability she invested in a 200-gallon collection system.

By the time we showed up to help her out, the water smelled bad.  Collection was state of the art.  Four pickle barrels plumbed in line at the end of her gutter.  Delivery was easy.  Take a bucket to the last barrel, scoop out about twenty pounds of water, carry it down the stairs and dump it on the plants.  So easy she never used it.

We elevated the barrels, plumbed to her raised beds, and made it so that she just had to walk over on her cane and turn a valve at waist level.  After all, she wanted to deliver, not collect, the rain.

A lot of people’s rainwater smells bad.

Because it never gets delivered.  Our advice is to forget about your gutter.  Start with the target that needs water. And work back from there.

Gravity

We love gravity.  We like to build stands for vessels, fill them up with rainwater from on high, and deliver that water to the target area.  The problem is that most folks are not used to gravity.  Compared to a pressurized system gravity is slow.  We have heard people say, “I don’t have time for gravity.”

We hate that.  Gravity is something we believe in. Certainly we can install pumps and pressure tanks and bells and whistles, but why bother?  Gravity based systems merely change the way we water.  Instead of standing over a garden hose, spraying water wherever it is needed, we suggest drip hoses under mulch that are on timers.  No time for gravity?  Simple, dial up the amount of minutes you wish to water, and go do something else while the rain water drips out to the plants that need it.

To use soaker hoses we recommend a filtration step or two.  We like to add “first catchment” systems that eliminate debris and crud from the system.

Conservation

We believe in gravity.  And in conservation.  And we find that rainwater delivery is like everything else we do.  If we are to achieve a sustainable future, the startpoint is conservation. That is far and away the largest resource we can tap.

If you want to drive around on fuel you have made yourself, start driving less.  If you want to take your house “off grid” with your solar array, start by unplugging the empty “beer fridge” in the garage.  If you want to power your garden with rain water, deliver it beneath the mulch to eliminate evaporative losses.  It’s funny how the same principles rear their ugly heads over and over again.

On their face, rain water systems conserve nothing.  All they do is provide a hiatus to the water cycle-storing up a bit of water and delivering it when needed.  But the reality is that people who become accustomed to watering with rainwater figure out ways to reduce the amount of water they are using.  It’s a lot like biodiesel in that way.

If 30 percent of your sprinkler water goes into the air in evaporate losses, and you invest in a gravity based rainwater system that switches you to drip irrigation, less water is used to deliver the same result.

To say nothing of the chemical energy invested in cleaning up town water, or the electrical energy invested in delivering well water to your garden plants.

For us rainwater systems are not something we set out to do.  But they are something we do a fair bit of.  We’ve learned a lot about delivering the rain,  and we are well positioned to deliver industrial debris to a new purpose. That makes us a good choice for rain water pieces and parts-and for  turnkey  delivery systems.

We have been thinking and writing about rainwater collection and delivery for a long time.  We have a couple of current projects that involve delivering irrigation from ponds.  They are tricky.  Right now we have one of them powered by Arlo, but we have a sinking suspicion it is not sustainable.

Here is some of the debate which informed our thinking.

And here are some old blog entries from the days of drought in the Piedmont of North Carolina.