Collecting Rainwater

I didn't want to hijack Dar's thread on this - so new topic:

how do you go about collecting rainwater if you can't use a downpipe off a roof?

When people say run it through carbon or X micron sponge - how do you set this up? e.g. do you throw an internal filter into the water & run it for a few hours?

Apologies if these are dumb questions - I used to be blessed with lovely tapwater, so I never had to learn any of this!

Thanks again,

Jim.

Hi Jim, this is my setup for the rain water

I colect the rainwater of my shed roof in 2 100L water butts then i transfer the water in the big 200L butt from the photo just outside the back door, its much closer to the room where the big tanks are, for you to colect rainwater without a down pipe is more tricky but it can be done only problem is that will not look nice and its not realy practical. You can use a big plastic sheet or pond liner on stilts and leave one part lower then the rest and place a container under the edge to colect the water.
When i do the WC i fill the tank with water from the big water butt using a pump, rainwater butt pump bought in LIDL, that pumps water through a DIY filter unit that i made

which has a 5 micron block first then a carbon block, straight in the tank. One advice dont use pure rainwater make sure you mix it with tap water to give you the ph you want

EDIT Adrian got there before me.

Jim wrote:

When people say run it through carbon or X micron sponge - how do you set this up? e.g. do you throw an internal filter into the water & run it for a few hours?quote]

I think they are referring to running the water through a sediment (rated in microns) filter and then a carbon filter.

This is basically the first 2 chambers of an RO unit which you can buy without purchasing a complete RO unit.

The first is a sediment filter to remove particles down to a certain size. You can get various sizes and they are always referred to in microns (1 micron = 0.001mm) as in the size of the pores that water and particles can travel through. The lower the micron size the less dirt will pass through. But this also means they clog more quickly and need replacing more often.
I use a double layer pre, or sediment filter on my RO unit.
The outer layer is rater at 20 microns and the inner layer is rated at 10 microns.
This prevents it blocking and i get a little longer out of them.
There is a reusable type on the market but i never used one. I will have to look for the name of them and get back to you.

Then i use a smaller micron size (5 microns) for the carbon block in the second chamber.
You could match the 10 micron size of the pre filter, but i like to reduce it a little bit more.

For every 2 pre filters i use i use 1 carbon filter. But this is on an RO unit using mains water. Collecting rain water might have more dirt particles in it so the pre filter may have to be replaced more ofter.

If you were to use this method you would probably have to use an RO pump to force the water through the 2 filter chambers.
Pumping the rain water from one barrel to another ready for re mineral, heat and use.

I have never filtered rain water so i hope this helps a little.
I think there is a member on here that uses rain water filtered through a sediment and carbon filter.
Hopefully he comes on and explains how he dose it.

Just did it before you , you should type faster

Adrien i like your pipe work in the last photo.
Is this for the rainy season?

platty252 wrote:

Adrien i like your pipe work in the last photo.
Is this for the rainy season?

Yeah,1st Jan - 31st Dec:laugh:

platty252 wrote:

Adrien

Didnt know that i'm a girl , a instead of e and yes it is

Adrien

Didnt know that i'm a girl , a instead of e and yes it is[/quote]

What's the old saying, A before E unless you have a .......

Sorry for the miss spelling missus;)

Is the pipe work a permanent spraybar or just used to simulate a rainy season?

No problem gorgeous. The spraybar is a permanent fixture if you want to simulate the rain season you just have to lower the water level in the tank by 2"-3" and it sounds like its raining, you have to see the wife and kids going to the toilets every few minutes:laugh: . Drop down and have a look;)

Cheers Adrian. That makes sense.
If i'm ever over your way i will give you a shout.

Sorry Jim for hijacking the tread.

arabu1973 wrote:

= butt pump bought in LIDL, =

whats that used for adrian?

derek wrote:

arabu1973 wrote:

= butt pump bought in LIDL, =

whats that used for adrian?

if i'm preforming a colonic irrigation in the home there is no way i'm using anything out of lidl, some times in some cases it is best to opt for quality products, you do not want that piece of equipment failing

derek wrote:

arabu1973 wrote:

= butt pump bought in LIDL, =

whats that used for adrian?

Hi Derek, i use the pump to transfer the water from the butt to the tank and because it has a tap i can do it as slow /fast i want and it has the power to push the rainwater through the micron+carbon blocks. It looks like this pump www.greenfingers.com/superstore/product....200405&pf_id=LS0021D

@Darren - no worries, it's all useful info to me.

@Derek - I think you get these in "specialist" shops!

Here is one of the reusable sediment filters.
You just hose the dirt from it.