Rainwater
Harvesting Digest
- Solution to Offgrid Living
- Technology and Systems
5 August 2008
Rain Gardens are an infiltration technique - water is captured in a garden shaped like a basin that uses native plants......
An alternate which allows infiltration is the use of driveway products that allow vehicle movement but do not compact the ground, and allow growth of grass...>> Read More.
In
January 1996 we installed a rainwater catchment system to capture Oregon's abundant
rainfall. Portland receives between 3 and 4 feet of rainfall annually. During a gentle
rain a typical Oregon downspout sheds several gallons per minute. Our twelve hundred
square foot roof captures on average 3600 cubic feet (27,000 gallons) of water per year...
>> Read More.
It's a straw bale house, which means the
outside walls are constructed of bales of straw pinned together with steel rods. The straw
is then covered with chicken wire and a stucco coating is then applied. This coating keeps
the straw from getting wet and increases the fire protection. A straw bale house
constructed this way has a better fire rating than a normal wood frame house... >> Read more.
The project,
which commenced last week(01.21.08), is to use large rainwater tanks built atop of
Parliament House, the State Library and Sydney Hospital. These hold 60,000 litres each,
but the water will be fed into St James Lake, which is really an old unused railway tunnel
under the city. About 1km long, 10m wide and 5m deep, it’s expected to hold over 17
million litres of water, that will in time be pressed into service for the city’s
gardens and toilets, instead of using vital drinking water..... >> Read More.
I didn't have municipal
water at all and 3 months of the year my open well my only source of water ran dry. I had
to find a solution, so built a 20,000litre tank to catch water. I also landscaped my
semi-urban plotto get every drop literally into the ground aquifer to increase the ground water under my plot and also to stop erosion.... >> Read More.
# rainwater component system, # water quality & treatment, # water balance & system sizing, # rainwater harvesting guidelines, # cost estimation, # financial & other incentives, # references, #case-studies etc.
The 88 page (2.4MB PDF document) manual is complete DIY information along with examples, data and illustrations. Also it is free to download... >>Download
Rainbarrel
Tutorial: How to make a rain barrelIn 5 easy steps one can assemble rainbarrel for roof top rainwater harvesting... << Read More.
Rain barrel design by John E Carter.....Includes a parts list and resources... >> Read More ...>> [ PDF Format ]
Thailand: In less than five years (in the 1980s), more than
10 million 2cum concrete tanks for rainwater storage were constructed in the North East of
Thailand. << Read MoreJumbo Thai jar in Portland, OR: Although Brad Crowley has installed rainwater collection systems all over the Portland area, he had never built a Thai Jar until Portland Parks & Recreation asked him to install one at the Woodlawn Community Garden...>> Read More
Why make compost: Compost is one of
nature's best mulches and soil amendments, and you can use it instead of commercial
fertilizers. Best of all, compost is cheap. You can make it without spending a cent. Using
compost improves soil structure, texture, and aeration and increases the soil's
water-holding capacity. >>Read more
In I live
in Seattle and have been harvesting rain for just over 2 years now and I use it through a
simple gravity feed method to flush my downstairs toilet.This cost me less than $100 to
set up and hopefully will help you utilize your rain barrels more. -Paul Michael, Seattle, WA. >> Read More
Paul system is great in that it doesn't use any energy, looks great and is very well documented.- John E Carter.
The literature on health aspects of RWH is
surprisingly sporadic, even in countries where RWH use is widespread and of long standing.
We are interested in the mineral quality of roof run-off, in its bacteriological quality,
in the connections between RWH and the breeding of disease vectors (especially mosquitoes)
... >> Read More.