Rainwater Harvesting: The Ultimate Guide to Capturing Rainwater
Rainwater is an incredible resource for gardens, but many people don’t know how to harvest and capture it. In this guide, we’ll show you how to capture rainwater in your garden with a rain capture system. Even if you don’t have a system as big as ours, you can still make a difference by using something like a rain barrel.
To begin, we need to look at the roof. The first thing to consider is the type of roof you have and how much water it can capture. If you have a 1,000 square foot roof and receive an inch of rain, you can collect 600 gallons of water. We recommend using any sort of gutter system to capture rainwater, and we used copper gutters in our system.
The contraption we used in our system is called a filter system. It has a gutter, a leaf filter, and a first flush filter. The leaf filter expands the pipe, and the mesh will collect all the large debris. The first flush filter captures finer particulate dirt and dust, which can then be purged through a valve. This valve will remove dirty water so that the next time it rains, the filter will fill up again.
After the filters, the water goes into a tank. We recommend using a barrel that won’t overflow too quickly based on the square footage of your roof. We used a 250-gallon barrel in our system. Most cities offer a rain barrel program to help mitigate the cost of the barrel. Make sure the barrel has an overflow valve, just in case it does overflow.
Our 5,000-gallon cistern is the ultimate rainwater capture system. Gravity-fed rainwater capture systems like this one use gravity to move the water from the roof to the cistern. Our gutter system drops water from our entire roof into the same system we used for the rain barrel. Once the water reaches the first flush level, it drops down into the cistern.
Capturing rainwater can be beneficial to the environment, and it’s easy to do. The more you capture, the less water you’ll need to use from other sources. Not only will you save water, but you’ll also save money on your water bill.
In conclusion, harvesting rainwater is an easy and effective way to help conserve water. You don’t need a large system like ours; a simple rain barrel can make a big difference. With the information provided in this guide, you can start capturing rainwater today and contribute to a greener future.
—–
Full system install: https://growepic.co/3X5Ni4F With drought cascading across the country, making good use of one of nature’s BEST resources – rainwater – is more important than ever. Here’s a breakdown of my system here at the Epic Homestead.
IN THIS VIDEO
→
SUPPORT EPIC GARDENING
→ Shop: https://growepic.co/shop
LEARN MORE
→ All Our Channels: https://growepic.co/youtube
→ Blog: https://growepic.co/blog
→ Podcast: https://growepic.co/podcasts
→ Discord: https://growepic.co/discord
→ Instagram: https://growepic.co/insta
→ TikTok: https://growepic.co/tiktok
→ Pinterest: https://growepic.co/pinterest
→ Twitter: https://growepic.co/twitter
→ Facebook: https://growepic.co/facebook
→ FB Group: https://growepic.co/fbgroup
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 – Intro
00:31 – How Much Water Can You Capture
01:10 – Filter System
02:17 – Barrel Size
03:42 – Roof Flush
04:21 – 5000 Gallon Cistern
05:27 – Cistern Pump
05:48 – Hose System
06:32 – Why Rainwater
DISCLAIMER
Epic Gardening occasionally links to goods or services offered by vendors to help you find the best products to care for plants. Some of these may be affiliate links, meaning we earn a small commission if items are purchased. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. More info on our process: https://www.epicgardening.com/disclaimer/
The full install video is on our second channel, Epic Homesteading: https://growepic.co/3X5Ni4F
It's not your water. It belongs to the government. Do you need another reeducation session?
the most San Diego umbrella ever
Wondering if you chose copper for a reason other than esthetics ? ( I've heard copper and water can interact in a good way )
Where would be the best place to look into a rain water filtration system or swt up? Ive always wanted to do something like this
The best
Can u show us too when it's time for maintaining the barrel? eg. cleaning them up. Thanks!
What is rain
Interesting fact about rainwater. 98% of rainwater is contaminated with PFAs before it even falls.
Leading from the front! How did you end up using last year's catchment water in your garden?
In my area, it is kind of illegal to harvest rainwater. I am guessing that it is because since I live to close to the major city (metropolitian) the rainwater is more acidic than water. I wish I could collect it because my plants could use it when winter is over.
Up here in Québec we rarely have a year without much rain, but a lot of government grants for rain-barrels. I’m researching which one to get for next year and really appreciate this video in particular. Thanks very much Kevin!
You have to be sure to check with your city and county first! Some places it's actually illegal to make a rain capture system. I was considering it years ago, but I was told I could NOT.
I would love to use copper guttering! This is very inspiring!
Thanks to your arm and your thumbnail I thought you were harvesting "Brainwater" …. LOL I would have watched eventually but totally clicked because I was confused about the brainwater capture.
In my future home I want to use and reuse as much nature and stuff already on my property. I am saving this video for that.
This is amazing I love the way your channel has grown
Would love to have gutters and rain barrels soon!
I worked in water harvesting, could have used better bulkheads and prepped the tank pad better, otherwise decent install.
I really hope you put some Elephant Ear at the top of your pond, or at least somewhere around it. It is one of my favorite plants around my pond. Looks amazing during the summer and fall. The leaves fill with water when it rains, tilt over to pour it out, and bounce right back up. Lastly they provide nice shade for the fish.
In liberal states it’s illegal to catch rainwater
Where did you find contractors to do that work? I’m up north in Orange County and wouldn’t go as far as you did, but want to get quotes on some of that type of work.
What about contaminates from the shingles getting into the barrels with the water? Wouldn't that make any food grown from the water to be unsafe?
I think the easy part is rain collection, the harder part is what to do with your water. There's surprisingly little info on using pumps or whatever to create pressurized water for watering. I have a capacity of about 1500 gallons, and have tried various strategies to get the water into use in the garden, with mediocre results. I don't think you can just hook up your cistern to your irrigation system, for instance. Hopefully, Epic G will give us more detail about their pump system.
Uk is sodden & soaking at present but next year there will still be all the usual panics over ‘unprecedented’ drought and threats of hosepipe bans 🙁
Any concerns about arsenic and other contaminants for many of us with asphalt roofs? We just installed a rain barrel and will probably only use the water for ornamentals because of this concern. Thanks, :J