This Instructable will be an overview of how to setup your own rain barrels. This may not show 100% step by step since I've found their is a great variation to how you want your rain barrels to work and the setup you use. I will try to point out all the options and variations so you, yes YOU can decide how you want to do your setup. This setup is for using gravity and a pump setup for a later Instructable. The later Instructable will also include how to hook it up to a toilet and setup an additional faucet.
To start, this setup cost me less than $30 dollars to do with free barrels. You can do it for cheaper with one barrel or using other parts. I designed this to be able to be expanded (10 - or maybe more barrels :-D) and to include a pump.
This took me a week to do because I could not decide / find all the right parts but once i got one adding the other took me about an hour to do. I'd suspect that this could be done in a matter of an afternoon with all the parts at hand.
To start, this setup cost me less than $30 dollars to do with free barrels. You can do it for cheaper with one barrel or using other parts. I designed this to be able to be expanded (10 - or maybe more barrels :-D) and to include a pump.
This took me a week to do because I could not decide / find all the right parts but once i got one adding the other took me about an hour to do. I'd suspect that this could be done in a matter of an afternoon with all the parts at hand.
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Signing UpStep 1: Your type of Barrel
This step will determine what and how you do your next steps.
There are a few types of barrels:
Plastic food barrels (usually pickles or olives come in them)
They have a screw on top and are usually black in color. (see picture 1)
These are also the safest if you are even thinking of using the water to drink out of. The rest should not or use caution actually drinking the water from them. I'll also talk about what I've found with types of roofs that you should be careful of.
Plastic cleaning barrels
They usually contain cleaning products for businesses since they buy them in bulk. Some may or may not wash out after cleaning them out. They usually have a 2" screw off cap or tapable cap and a 2 1/4" screw off cap. (this is the type i will be showing, they can be white, blue or sometimes another color)
Plastic industrial barrels
Usually are a few varieties, but all contain chemicals that are probably not safe for your garden or lawn and especially not safe for drinking. (They look like the barrels I'm using but are can be blue or another color)
Metal barrels
Can have a variety of different goodies in them. They do not make good rain barrels because they easily will rust with water.
Make sure to check with the person you are getting them from if you are unsure of what the contents were.
You're probably also wondering where can I find a barrel or two?!? Now that's the fun part, since every city is different there are some possibilities where you can get them. Usually you can get them for free or relativity nothing.
If you have a food factory near by try them first, they usually have the pickle barrels or some sort of food barrel you could use
The next few places you could try are some smaller industry places that use a lot of cleaner. i got mine from a smaller place that uses cleaner to clean out coloring that is safe on the environment.
Craigs list in some places you can find people selling them from 10 - 100 dollars.
Now if your really getting disparate and you don't care about how much it costs you can do a Google search for them and find them for 75 - 180
If you don't want to have to do the work of creating one you can buy a ready made one also.
If I'm inaccurate in my statements please let me know. I'd like to provide correct information to everyone since it was harder to find for me.
There are a few types of barrels:
Plastic food barrels (usually pickles or olives come in them)
They have a screw on top and are usually black in color. (see picture 1)
These are also the safest if you are even thinking of using the water to drink out of. The rest should not or use caution actually drinking the water from them. I'll also talk about what I've found with types of roofs that you should be careful of.
Plastic cleaning barrels
They usually contain cleaning products for businesses since they buy them in bulk. Some may or may not wash out after cleaning them out. They usually have a 2" screw off cap or tapable cap and a 2 1/4" screw off cap. (this is the type i will be showing, they can be white, blue or sometimes another color)
Plastic industrial barrels
Usually are a few varieties, but all contain chemicals that are probably not safe for your garden or lawn and especially not safe for drinking. (They look like the barrels I'm using but are can be blue or another color)
Metal barrels
Can have a variety of different goodies in them. They do not make good rain barrels because they easily will rust with water.
Make sure to check with the person you are getting them from if you are unsure of what the contents were.
You're probably also wondering where can I find a barrel or two?!? Now that's the fun part, since every city is different there are some possibilities where you can get them. Usually you can get them for free or relativity nothing.
If you have a food factory near by try them first, they usually have the pickle barrels or some sort of food barrel you could use
The next few places you could try are some smaller industry places that use a lot of cleaner. i got mine from a smaller place that uses cleaner to clean out coloring that is safe on the environment.
Craigs list in some places you can find people selling them from 10 - 100 dollars.
Now if your really getting disparate and you don't care about how much it costs you can do a Google search for them and find them for 75 - 180
If you don't want to have to do the work of creating one you can buy a ready made one also.
If I'm inaccurate in my statements please let me know. I'd like to provide correct information to everyone since it was harder to find for me.
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Hi guy's Just a quick question, I would like to set up my rain barrel system so i can run my filtered water into my washing machine. not sure how the metering system in a washer works. Do you think gravity would work ok or do you think I would need a small sump pump to give it enough pressure to simulate street pressure.40-60 psi.thanks for any ideas other wise love the ideas you all have come up with.
You could do this with a small pump as you suggested. If you're looking for a different alternative you could go with a pressure tank and hand pump for an alternative to get the pressure but not use energy.
Not sure how else you could accomplish this at the moment, but if any one else has ideas feel free to chime in.
Good luck on your project!
I have a small pancake compresses that does the brunt of the work for general things like tires, dust abatement brads and staples. It would be nothing to hook up an aux line to a pressure tank and keep it topped off...thats a great idea thanks.
As you stated, however, if you can get an entire sealed system (meaning you can pressurize your water holding tank and all the lines to your washing machine) you could use your pancake compressor to pressurize your holding tank to 60 PSI to get water pressure. Never acutally thought about that! I have seen a few others do this.
The only issue would be adding water back into your holding tank. You would have to depressurize your system to allow water in.
Really cool project. I have been racking my brain for a filter product.....why don't you try a natural sponge (for car washing,etc); buy something big and cut to fit snuggly inside the kitty bin.
Maybe that will let the water through, and with all those thousands of internal holes; the dirt will get stuck.
Good luck
I've tossed around a few things before posting this but i'm currently gutting my house and redoing it so I haven't had time to entertain making this better.
The only problem i see with some type of material like a sponge or something like that is over time it starts to grow stuff from being in the sun, then your barrels get dirty bacteria etc, and your flow rate decreases.
Then my design would have to change to a pre barrel that could be easily cleaned that then goes to your storage.
The other problem is flow rate, if you have a good downpour can you filter that fast or do you simply say oh well I lost some (I was going for the challenge of "I want it all").
But here were some of the things I tossed around let me know if they spawn any ideas
Natural type filter with plants, sand, rocks.
A washable furnace filter (again possible the same problem as above)
A pre trap that some how self cleans then goes to another type of filter
Pressure type of filter system (but then would require solar power or something else to give it pressure)
Let me know your thoughts!
Thanks again!
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0013KGO24/ref=s9k2a_c1_at4-rfc_g1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-3&pf_rd_r=039RJTZD2CDTWGYD59VR&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=463383391&pf_rd_i=507846
It flows 132 GPH (just over 2 GPM) which is more than a lot of more expensive pumps available elsewhere.
One good idea is to use a a separate dedicated barrel and use a small pump and small copper pipe to make a floor heating system. You'll need to build a solar thermal hot water heater. On second thought, use an old hot water heater tank and hot water heater wrap to save the hot water during the day. You could easily make the system self contained. If you have the money, put a thermostat on it. Free whole house heating!
Anyway, thanks for posting the Instructable!
Oh, and about the filter. Use PVC, or aluminum if you want to (it'll heat the water), and make a pyramid shape that will fit snugly over the input (caulk it down, obviously) and another larger one for the output pipe. Wrap them in flexible filter material. Fit them snugly into place one over the other and put the pipe over the outer filter (you might want to cut a hole in the top to keep the debris from clogging it up) and viola, easy to clean filter.
Give me a minute and I'll post pics of what I'm talking about.