First-flush

Table of contents for Rain water collection

Last week, we left you with some calculations. So this week we are going to make it up to you for being painstakingly boring with build pictures! Woo!

To start the construction of our rain water harvesting system we needed to obtain some supplies.

Storage System Components:

We are choosing to install one rain barrel for our first try and later upgrade our capacity when the system we have designed proves to be working, or fails miserably–in which case we redesign it. That being said, we opted for a simple down-spout collection system off the back of our rented house. The rain barrels will be held off the ground so we can use gravity to assist in delivering water to our future filtration system. This also allows us to conveniently water any plants in the yard without needing any additional power. We decided to connect the outflow of the barrel to a garden hose faucet to make connections easy.

To this basic idea we are adding a roof washer to pre-filter the rainwater coming off the roof. We also added a first-flush system that will divert the initial dirty water away from our rain barrel. We want that barrel to be as clean as possible so we will be dumping the first bit of water off the roof in each rainstorm.

Most of the things you need to get started can be found at a typical hardware store. The list will be updated regularly with new materials as our design progresses. As we continue to build the system, it might be necessary for us to add to this list later, in which case, we will let you know of any changes.

Item	Price	Quantity
Rain Barrels, 65 gal food grade	$20ea	1
PVC pipe to fit gutter downspout	Had on hand.	N/A
1″ PVC pipe to connect the barrels together	Had on hand.	N/A
Sillcock brass 3/4″ FPT Check out the wiki	$6.99ea	1
Wood pallets, concrete cinder blocks or any sturdy structure to carry water barrels	Had on hand.	N/A
Plumbers tape teflon thread 4 mil	6.99ea	1
Gutter guard 6″x20′ Vinyl	$3.79ea	1
Nylon mosquito window screen 1′x4′	$0.79ea	1
Silicon or other sealant for pipe to wall of barrel connection	Had on hand.	N/A
Fasteners stainless steel carriage bolts 5/16-24 x 2″	See below	2
Matching lock nuts and washers to go with carriage bolts	(everything together = $0.74)	2 lock nuts, 2 washers
Plastic adapter barb XMPT 3/4×3/4	$1.99ea	1
Wood boring bit 5/8″	$4.79ea	1
Gutter end caps	$13.00ea	2
PVC pipe to fit gutter downspout	Had on hand.	N/A
White vinyl gutter	$7.60 for 10ft segment	3
White vinyl gutter slip joint	$2.46ea	2
Gutter drop outlet	$5.49ea	1

Construction:

1. Cleaning the rain barrel:

Many of the rain barrels available to us were originally used for the shipment of food products such as cooking oils, scents, and spices. We felt it necessary to clean out our rain barrel because if we had not, it would have made all our rain water smell like lemon oil. This may not be the case for you, but cleaning the inside of the barrel is recommended for general purpose.

It was fairly easy to clean out the barrel. We simply added warm water into the barrel and dish soap. Next, we rolled the barrel around till the suds touched all of the inside of the barrel and let it sit. Rinse and repeat if necessary. Pictures are below for reference.

2. Taking off the old gutter:

Another fairly easy task to accomplish was taking off the old gutters. These highly dilapidated old things had many cracks and were not actually carrying water in the first place. The previous constructor did not use gutter clips, and proceeded to screw the gutter into the edge of the roof outriggers. To dismantle the gutter, an electric drill was used to unscrew the gutters. The power cord can be seen running through the laundry room window in the pictures below.

3. Putting on the new gutter:

We had to replace the old gutters on the house with new vinyl ones. We did this because the old gutters were really dirty and we wanted to have clean incoming rain water. Not to mention, they were also cracked and falling apart and, in general, not lending themselves to the carrying of water. We chose not to use gutter clips in this situation either because the vinyl gutters are really light and easy to screw through. We screwed them into the end of the outriggers while repairing broken outriggers. See the images below for the installation.

Gutters turned out to be fairly cheap so this wasn’t a big deal. Plus, the landlord really likes that we are upgrading his house so it’s a double win.

4. Sand filter construction:

We decided to use a 5 gallon bucket for the sand filter. We cut a hole in the bottom of the 5gal bucket so that we could put two 1″ PVC pipes through it. This will allow the water to drain from the bottom of the bucket to the rain barrel. We also cut many small holes in the smaller PVC pipe so that water would percolate through the sand and into the holes in the pipe providing us with much more cross-sectional drain area. We have not tested the sand filter with sand yet but have acquired the necessary materials to finish it. We purchased evenly graded medium sand from Home Depot as well as some pee gravel for the bottom of the sand filter along with some filter cloth to keep things separated.