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19 Feb ’14
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We are looking into doing a rainwater catchment for our inside water uses, including drinking/cooking water. Could you please post pics of your system? Simple or advanced.
24 Mar ’13
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In my humble opinion, almost any water can be made potable, especially rainwater. We have a 1550 gal. tank sitting in the yard but not in a permanent place yet. Even so... theres a gutter run straight into it from the roof. No filter on it yet. We leave it filled for emergencies until we have time to set it up right.
Eventually hubby is going to set a flat tank under the porch at the kitchen and plumb it to the kitchen sink with a small pump.
We have the Doulton water filter (British Berkefeld), and I wouldn't think twice about using the tank water through my filter and drinking it. In my opinion, just get a tank and run your roof water in it, then get a Berkey!!! My roof is metal, if I had shingles I'd probably pre filter to save wear on my ceramic filters. We only filter what we drink and cook with.We have a spring/cistern setup that is used for everything from laundry to showers to dishes. In the hottest months the spring slows down and we sometimes treat the cistern with chlorine to prevent bacterial growth. I mention all this because even the springs we use are rainwater based since the groundwater starts as rain somewhere.
If you have a Berkey, you have the assurance of potable water from almost any water you can come up with.... Sorry for no pictures!
We don't have city water and we don't have a drilled well either. That has made me fairly aware of water use and safety.
19 Feb ’14
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Horse-Fork-Farm I agree with you on this being a great opportunity to tap into a great natural source that flows off the top of the roof. Just great!!!!
24 Mar ’13
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Be careful if you're in town or on city water.... my daughter was just told she cant put her rainwater down the public sewer lines... Be in stealth mode!
6 Feb ’14
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Also, beware of "water rights". Depending on where you live, harvesting rainwater may be illegal. This can happen mostly in more arid areas.
I don't have water rights issues in my area and rainwater harvesting is my only available solution.
Horse-Fork-Farm, do you do a first flush of your rainwater before it goes into the cistern? And have you tested the rainwater springs for groundwater contamination? Neighbors near or far can unknowingly (or knowingly) do things which contaminate the groundwater.
Also your Pintrest link lead me to one that was of interest to me.
Filter for Cistern Water
The problem of keeping water in a cistern clean is most easily solved by not allowing it to get dirty, as can be done by the device shown in the drawing. Two barrels, each with a perforated false bottom, are set side by side beneath the water spout from the roof and connected with a pipe leading to the cistern. Above the false bottoms fine gravel and then sand are packed to the depth of 8 or more inches. On top of the sand rest stout floats as large as can be let down into the barrels. From near the margin of the floats two heavy wires extend vertically upward about 2 feet to engage loosely near their centers with a tilting spout by means of knobs on both the ends of the spout and the wires.
When the barrels are empty the floats rest on the sand. As the water begins to pour in one barrel it strikes the float, but is prevented from gouging a very deep hole at the outside of the barrel by striking a strip of wood about 1 inch high, 2 inches wide and 1 foot long. This spreads the flow. A layer of gravel at this place would also help prevent gouging. If the flow is too great to filter away readily, the float will rise and the knob on the wire will engage with the spout, which will be tilted until the flow will suddenly start into the other barrel. If the delivery pipe to the cistern be large enough there should be no danger of either barrel overflowing. When the sand becomes dirty a few minutes will serve to remove it and put in fresh. This will insure clean water in the cistern, and greatly reduce the number of times the disagreeable job of cleaning out the cistern must be done.
3 Nov ’12
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pretty slick way of keeping the water clean before it gets inside!
24 Mar ’13
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Horse-Fork-Farm, do you do a first flush of your rainwater before it goes into the cistern? And have you tested the rainwater springs for groundwater contamination? Neighbors near or far can unknowingly (or knowingly) do things which contaminate the groundwater.
I will do a "roof wash" with a diverter and maybe a debris filter then straight in the tank. I have a new in box under the sink filter I can install if needed. But my Berkey is my work horse that I trust.
The spring water here is clean... my concern here is more with things that could show up such as cryptosporidium and giardia etc... But again, the Berkey filters those reliably. Cannot stress enough the need for a Berkey for reliability!
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