Rainwater Storage

It all sounds so simple - buy a water barrel connect it to your guttering down pipes and save money and water - not necessarily true. Before rushing out and buying a barrel think about the following factors:

How much rain water comes from the guttering?

How much is the barrel going to cost?

What else do you need to buy before it is all up and running?

Over what period do you want to recover the cost?

How long will the barrel(s) last?

One not so obvious benefit of using rainwater to water garden plants is they seem to like it better than tap water. Providing it is clean it can also be used for washing the car. In order to use rainwater for washing the car I installed a fine filter in the water inlet and made sure the barrels were clean inside, this removes any grit in the water. One downside of installing this type of filter is that it tends to clog which means regular cleaning. The advantage is that in the winter when very little water is needed in the gardenit is being used for washing the car.

Whilst saving rainwater is the right thing to do it may to cost a bit more than the saving in water cost over a reasonable payback period of say 3 years.

The example costs give an example costing for this type of installation.