Low tech irrigation from a rainbarrel. Barrel of water can last a week or more.

Rainbarrels have a fantastic capacity to irrigate and they also have huge potential as a buffer against big downpours flooding the city infrastructrue. But they only act as a buffer if they are not full.  Irrigation is better if it is slow and constant and at least semiautomatic.
If  we can combine a rain barrel with this type of slow irrigation we can have a far better "system" with a healthier city environment.
Now we can with the TCMTECH dripper irrigation system!

Step 1: How it works.

If you just poke a hole in the bottom of a barrel, the water will quickly run out at first and then slow right down or the hole will block and it will stop completely.  We need something with even and very slow flow.  There are several ways to achieve even flow but I am convinced that this method is the simplest and easiest and will prove to be the most reliable.  You simply have a float in the water in the barrelm the float is attached to or is a container,  there is a little hole in the container and there is a plastic tube leading from the float to an outlet from the barrel  This means that the barrel will empty at a constant rate as the float simply drops as the water empties slowly from the barrel.   The picture shows a float which is a glass pot lid. The water is leaking through the steam exit hole and the tube goes through the hole that I left when I removed the handle.

Comments

[Ronyon]

I like it.Even if I were using city water, this could be good.The lid offers built in weight, but i would like to use something more commonly available-any ideas?

[gaiatechnician]

Yes indeed, this is just a first step. If you are using city water, you must prevent back contamination of city waterlines and this is hard to do in a simple system. You could just quarter fill your rainbarrels every day or 2 and then if it rains, you get 3/4 rainbarrel capacity right away. The float needs to always FLOAT! so glass is out! I think it also needs a cover on top to prevent debris getting in and blocking things. The tube in the middle is just 3/16 inch diameter internally. This must be bigger! I think the first 6 inches needs to point straight down and be at least 3/8 inch diameter. I can draw up a "mark 2" design but it would be nicer if the community did it instead. Thanks for your input
Brian

[gaiatechnician]

Has anyone tried this yet? It is kind of critical to have feedback before next years spring gardening starts. People are not going to believe based just on my experience with it. You can easily try it indoors if you have a drywall or paint bucket and some silicone tubing. Thanks Brian Sunday 4th November 2012

[namnoi38]

Hello, gaiatechnician. I would like to add one improvement idea to your design. You could make the floater out of a plastic bottle, with two holes in it, one at the very bottom, and the other somewhere in the lower bottom, fill it more than half with water, and then put the cap on tight.
This way you create an air chamber inside, which will make it float, and you keep your drip line from clogging with debris.

[gaiatechnician]

I made a drywall bucket version. First I used ordinary tubing (unhappy with it because it is just too stiff). but now I am trying blue silicone airline for aquariums. Very flexible. First "float" is a round margarine container. It is not working as well as the glass lid because it simply does not have enough weight. Next, I will go down to the dollar store and try to find cheap frisbees or throwing disks and also funnels. I think a funnel might well work. I now have a decent simple way to regulate the inlet water to the float. (doesn't involve grass stems). Thanks Brian

[mycroftxxx]

Tx/Rx labs, the hackerspace in Houston, just moved into a new space with a yard. I will bring this design up when it comes time to discuss rainwater capture and usage in our gardens.

[gaiatechnician]

Thanks. Go for it. Remember, you can have up to at least 3 drippers in a rain barrel. And they can all be going at different speeds.