Rain Harvesting (house, buying, maintenance)

[greendesert]

a couple winters ago during one of the big rains, I pumped all the water the pooled up in the backyard into the pond and was able to totally fill the pond, the only problem is that those kinds of rains are so so rare here.

[AZ Tracy]

Originally Posted by gritz

I'm interested in doing this. Has anyone had gutters and the appropriate storage combo installed at their house?

Based upon the average rainfall and the sqft of my roof it looks like I would be able to potentially harvest 12000+ gallons a year. That seems like it would be a huge saving in water that I could use for a variety of things.

I think you'd be the first! Who knows, with everyone trying to be more "green," you may start something!

[observer53]

Well, look what I found:

Arizona taxpayers who install a “water conservation system” (defined as a system to harvest rainwater and/or residential greywater) after January 1, 2007, and before January 1, 2012, may take a one-time tax credit of 25% of the cost of the system (up to a maximum of $1,000). This can be claimed over multiple tax years, but no taxpayer can receive more than a total of $1000 in credits through this program.
Builders are eligible for an income tax credit of up to $200 per residence unit constructed with a water conservation system installed.


There's an application to fill out for the credit; a Google search on rain harvesting Arizona will get you more info.


Even so, I don't see the monetary benefit for me and those like me in terms of water bills. It's a feel-good thing, but it would take a long time to recoup the cost, even with the credit.

[PaulieM]

Sheesh!! Why is it a feel good thing and not the responsible thing? It's the desert, water is always an issue in this state so when it falls from the sky we need to grab it and store it.
We monetize everything we do, there has to be a payback or it doesn't get done. Sounds familiar as in how we looked at our houses as investments and not as shelters and a place to raise a family. That turned out real well

[observer53]

For some of us who didn't go crazy in the housing boom, it's turned out just fine. I'm not a water waster to start with. I have NO grass, mostly low water use plants, and I'm a one person household.

If I don't want to have a tank dug into my yard and a bunch of gutters installed for what I suspect is enough money that getting it back at $20 (maybe, in the summer, less in the winter) a month doesn't sound inviting, I can live with that, and still feel like I'm being "responsible".

[vjsoto]

Originally Posted by greendesert

I'm thinking of doing this, but I've done my own calculations and I don't seem to remember comming up with that big of a number. 12k gallons/year is a lot and I think it's a pipe dream. My plans are to store the water in a pond that I have in front of the house. It can hold probably around 1500 gal. I have a pretty big house, but since it is a two story house, its footprint is smaller than yours, I estimated its area to about 1850 sqft. and calculated that it should be able to give me about 7000 gal. I really wish I had a bigger piece of land away from the city. It would be awesome if I could get a big underground storage tank (5000 gal or more, and set up a sloped area on the property as a rain harvesting area (on top of the roof area) ... or I could just move back to seattle and never worry about rain again.

A 10,000 gallon tank is a GIANT tank (12' by 12' typical) and very expensive. I think the way to go is to have several smaller tanks (maybe 4 1500 gallon tanks at ~$650 each brand new). Connect em to a cheap 12V water pump, light switch, and solar panel - viola, free water pumping for your tank during the day time. Total investment wouldn't be more than $3000 plus whatever it costs to excavate. Even better, hide the tanks behind a building or an exterior wall and let gravity do all the work... No pumping needed.

You would definitely want to own some land for a larger project like this. If you have a house in a cookie cutter neighborhood, you probably better off sticking with small scale water harvesting (you should be able to find reconditioned 55 gallon plastic drums for less than $50 each). Don't forget to get a permit before you dig!

[gritz]

Thank you for the vote of confidence. Right now the yard is a clean slate so we have lots of options. Just need to decide on which will be the right one for us.

For those interested in calculating their own potential collection this calculator isn't to bad.

Rain Collection Calculator

This is a "local" company that had a nice chart with common rainfall levels for the PHX area. Seems they have moved on to Tucson though.

http://azraindancers.com/Left_Nav/Calculate.html (broken link)

[Xica_da_Silva]

Originally Posted by vjsoto

If you have a house in a cookie cutter neighborhood, you probably better off sticking with small scale water harvesting (you should be able to find reconditioned 55 gallon plastic drums for less than $50 each). Don't forget to get a permit before you dig!

This topic intrigues me. As an avid gardener and frugal person in general, I always bemoan the waste of water. Every little bit helps. Last summer, when we had that crazy hail (and some heavy rain to go with it), I had the most remarkable pond of water near my backyard patio! All I could think of was, gee, I wish I had some way to capture it, and then reuse it for my fruits/veggies/flowers. Maybe it's just my imagination, but the plants seem to like the rainwater very much...perhaps less salt in it. I've heard it also helps to wash away the natural salt in the soil...better for the plants, trees.

Is DIY gutter or setting up some other rain capture method that hard? It doesn't seem like it would be, but then again I've never tried it! My house and yard are quite small, no HOA...I suppose I could just stick some large plastic bin containers or garbage cans under the eaves of my house when we get the monsoon rains.

Unfortunately, it always seems that anything that is a bit more ambitious or environmentally friendly always comes with an extreme price tag. Does it always need to be so? This applies to:

1) artificial grass (which I'd really be keen on doing but the price is so out-of-whack)
2) solar
3) rain harvesting

[observer53]

Originally Posted by Xica_da_Silva

This topic intrigues me. As an avid gardener and frugal person in general, I always bemoan the waste of water. Every little bit helps. Last summer, when we had that crazy hail (and some heavy rain to go with it), I had the most remarkable pond of water near my backyard patio! All I could think of was, gee, I wish I had some way to capture it, and then reuse it for my fruits/veggies/flowers. Maybe it's just my imagination, but the plants seem to like the rainwater very much...perhaps less salt in it. I've heard it also helps to wash away the natural salt in the soil...better for the plants, trees.

Is DIY gutter or setting up some other rain capture method that hard? It doesn't seem like it would be, but then again I've never tried it! My house and yard are quite small, no HOA...I suppose I could just stick some large plastic bin containers or garbage cans under the eaves of my house when we get the monsoon rains.

Unfortunately, it always seems that anything that is a bit more ambitious or environmentally friendly always comes with an extreme price tag. Does it always need to be so? This applies to:

1) artificial grass (which I'd really be keen on doing but the price is so out-of-whack)
2) solar
3) rain harvesting

In one of the catalogs, either Improvements or Plow and Hearth, I saw a couple of different plastic barrels that you could put under a downspout (if it ended up high enough, you might have to shorten the pipe), and then it had a hose spigot at the bottom. Both those catalogs have websites, take a look around.

[Pretzelogik]

Originally Posted by gritz

I'm interested in doing this. Has anyone had gutters and the appropriate storage combo installed at their house?

Based upon the average rainfall and the sqft of my roof it looks like I would be able to potentially harvest 12000+ gallons a year. That seems like it would be a huge saving in water that I could use for a variety of things.

What rain?