Rainwater collection systems help to conserve precious water resources.

Rainwater collection systems used to be common across North America, but since municipal water treatment facilities have become universally available, they have fallen out of use. In more recent times, with water conservation becoming an increasingly important issue, rain water collection is again coming to the attention of homeowners who are concerned about using precious environmental resources wisely and efficiently.

Setting up a rainwater harvesting system at home.

Setting up a system for collecting rainwater at home really is as simple as it sounds. Literally anyone with a roof can do it very easily and for very little expense. The roof serves as a catchment for the rainwater, which runs down the down pipe and is collected in a rainwater barrel, and stored for later use. You can obtain a rain barrel from a variety of sources. They’re very easy to buy complete from an online vendor, or from your local hardware or home improvement store. Otherwise, you could make a rainwater barrel yourself from a food or whiskey barrel, or any other suitable barrel which has not been used to store toxic chemicals. The rainwater barrel will need a snug fitting lid to prevent evaporation. You should be able to obtain one from food processing plants, restaurants, or specialist recycled barrel importers. Once you have your rainwater barrel, it’s a simple matter of drilling a hole in the top to attach to the down pipe, and attaching a faucet at the bottom.

You can use the rainwater you have collected for watering the lawn and garden, or for washing. If you plan to use the collected rainwater as drinking water, some kind of purification system will be necessary.