Thread: Harvesting Rain Water for WFP

I've thought about doing the very same thing. But then I discovered a major flaw in the plan - no rain.

I wonder how much pollution is caught in the rain as it falls through to the ground.

Some time back Marc King did a post on rainwater. I've also seen posts on the British forums about the same thing. Althought the tds of rainwater does vary by location it is usually far lower than the tap water tds. I've seen posts saying tds as low as 5.

http://robinson-solutions.blogspot.c...ter+harvesting

I accidentally put a trash barrel under a part of my roof that water drips off when it rains heavy, after a big storm it was about half full , so I checked the TDS, It was 6 and that was from a "not so clean" trash barrel, I may be wrong but at a TDS of 6 I think that can go straight on glass without DI or anything

Originally Posted by macroomboy

I accidentally put a trash barrel under a part of my roof that water drips off when it rains heavy, after a big storm it was about half full , so I checked the TDS, It was 6 and that was from a "not so clean" trash barrel, I may be wrong but at a TDS of 6 I think that can go straight on glass without DI or anything

wow...6 tds???
I think it's something that could save some serious money...I'll be playing with it and update you'll on how it goes.
It seems like it's already purified water, but running it through a DI will ensure complete pureness, thus making a DI tank last forever.
I have a 65 gallon tank, so this could be a sweet thing!

Heres a pic of a simple rainwater system, theres a valve in the pipe so that when the tank is full the water just carries on down the spout and a sponge type filter to divert leaves and other residue
Jeff Brimble has a setup so that he doesn't start to catch rain water until the rain has been going for a while , this reduces the contaminants from the roof etc

ill remember to wait til the rain wash the dirt off the roof first. the filter is a good idea as well.

so it rained tonight and thought...hmmmm why not give the rain water a little TDS checking. I haven't set anything to collect it, but found a puddle near my car and tested it.
It was in the 20's!!! That was from rain water sitting in a puddle, wow. I don't know if I'll collect rain from a roof. From doing some research, roofs have many chemicals in and on them. So just setting a large funnel that goes into a barrel will be my start. If puddle water was in the 20's, I can't wait to see what pure rain water will be...maybe around the 2-5 range.