Rainwater Collection

[NYGuns]

I am thinking about tapping into my gutter and starting collecting rainwater, but don't really know much about it. I see the kits on Amazon but haven't done it yet. Anyone here collect water? What do you do during the winter? If you have to drain it every winter, doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose of it? I have thought about picking up this https://www.amazon.com/Fiskars-Rain-Barrel-DiverterPro-Kit/dp/B00387FP5M/ and something like this https://www.amazon.com/Good-Ideas-RW50-OAK-Wizard-Barrel/dp/B0033VJ04K/ but some of the reviews have deterred me for a while.

What do you guys do?

 

[FrankenCub]

Looks like there's parts of your post I can't see.
I haven't done anything yet to collect rainwater but have watched quite a few videos on YT about it. Something I like is the use of the 110g syrup tots. You can stack them and close off certain ones when they get full. I never thought about them freezing though. I guess the videos I watched must have been in favorable climates, they never covered it. Sure need to protect against that here.

 

[spat]

The best way I can think of to deal with freezing issues is to bury whatever container you are collecting in below the frost line.
Anything else seems like it wouldn't be reliable enough in the sort of situation where you would need a backup water supply.

 

[Drinkthekoolaid]

Somewhere I heard rainwater collection is a no no in some ny municipalities.

Anyone know more about this, or if perhaps I have been mis informed?

Heck even to just water the garden it seems like a good idea

 

[Big John]

I had a neighbor that channeled his down spouts into a big galvanized tub with window screen over it. I use apple barrels.

 

[TMC]

What do you do to make the gathered water potable? or do you just collect for other reasons then drinking?

 

[Harry Hood]

I found this.
Update February 19, 2014 regarding New York: back to top Rain water harvesting is not against state law in New York, it is encouraged: http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/stormwater/rainbarrel.shtml http://www.dec.ny.gov/chemical/67714.html http://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/administration_pdf/giwebstearn.pdf (see page 13) http://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/water_pdf/csomod2012.pdf (see page 3) http://www.dec.ny.gov/chemical/59902.html “A DEC permit is required for any type of water withdrawal system having the capacity to withdraw 100,000 gallons per day [gpd] or more of surface or groundwater.” No average homeowner will ever need more that 100,000 gallons of water in one day.

I thought it was illegal as well in this state.

 

[Toecutter]

If you have the room to divert water into the basement and divert overflow it back outside . I remember seeing setups like that show about people buying off grid homes in Alaska. Burying it may work as well if you have the means to dig a big hole.

 

[camper4lyfe]

I had started looking into collecting rain water for watering flowers and plants and stuff, and came across a really cool stacked barrel setup. http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-a-3-drum-rain-collection-system-better/

One of the changes that was suggested was to slightly rotate the barrels and plumb the upper lines together, and the lower lines together, that way it's filling and venting through separate lines.

It doesn't help with preventing freezing in the winter (I had plans to simply drain mine), but it's a pretty cool setup.

 

[NYGuns]

Thanks for all the the input everyone. I'll post up after I do it, most likely after the winter.

 

[Deplorable Me]

What will you be doing with the water? Drinking, washing, toilet flushing, irrigation?

Depending on the end usage you could use lesser quality 55 gallon plastic drums. I picked up two used 55s from a pharmaceutical company, they were used to transport glycerin for making gel caps for pharmacy drugs. That's better than food quality. They were hosed out and they have no aftertaste. They could only be used once because of the pharmaceutical application. Nice drinking water use.

Some food source barrels may contain food aftertaste or be stained. No matter how strong you bleach them they still taste like the original content. Okay for potable or irrigation.

Concentrated soap barrels the taste sucks. Good for washing, irrigation or toilet flushing. These could be found at car washes. Forget wax barrels.

Cooking oil barrels might be usable.

Obviously watch out for industrial oils and chemicals.

Except for pharmacy once used (typical) barrels. Other barrels get returned to their original source for reuse. The glycerin barrels I picked up were a total lucky find. I've seen plastic barrels from time to time on Craigs List.

In a pinch, for a leaky or sub grade barrel, use a 55 gallon drum liner if the water is that important.

Lots of 5 gallon plastic cooking oil jugs out there from restaurants if those are useful. I've also picked up 5 gallon food grade jelly buckets from the local doughnut shops.