Rainwater Harvesting

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Rainwater Harvesting

• A presentation
• by
• Rainwater System, Inc.
• Salem, VA

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A renewed interest in this time honored approach
to collecting rainwater has emerged due to

• Increased demand on water supplies
• Increased cost of water
• Water quality concerns
• Water restrictions
• Terrorist threats

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Is rainwater harvesting for you?

• Rainwater harvesting as a partial or total source
• Innovative approaches to both effective
  affordable systems
• Source of soft, high quality water, reduce
  reliance on wells other water sources
• Serves as a storm water management alternative by
  reducing volume, velocity, peak flows of storm
  water runoff
• Energy cost savings
• Systems can range in size from 55 gal. rain
  barrels to 10,000 gal. below ground systems

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Advantages of
Rainwater Harvesting
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• Rainwater.
• One of the purest, soft, water available
• Quality almost always exceeds that of ground or
  surface waters
• Can significantly reduce the quantity of
  detergents needed for cleaning
• You are promoting self sufficiency helping to
  foster an appreciation for this essential
  precious resource
• Collection conserves ground waters also saves
  energy
• Harvesting lessens storm water runoff by
  lessening runoff, we lessen pollutants to streams
  ground waters

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Yield Usage Need

• 3,200 showers or,
• 1,000 loads of laundry or,
• 10,000 commode flushes or,
• 250 1 waterings of a 1/4 acre lawn or,
• any combination of the above water uses

• 1,200 sq. ft. of roof 1 of rainfall yields 720
  gal. of water
• Va.s average annual rainfall 42.70
• In one year, 32,000 gal. of rain runs off a 1,200
  sq. ft. roof

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Where do you begin?

• Determine your needs
• Portable
• Non Portable
• Sizing a rainwater system
• local rainfall data
• size type roof collection area
• consumption rates (people)
• placement of storage tanks (above or below
  ground)
• cost savings

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Components of a Rainwater Harvesting System

• Systems
• Roof
• Gutter
• Filtering
• (roofwater floating filter)
• Tank or storage unit

Optional Components In line filters - 20
micron cartridge - micron carbon Pump
pressure tank Disinfecting system
(ultraviolet light), or chemical treatment
Neutralizing water (baking soda, limestone)
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Filtering Roofwasher

• Filtering roofwasher collects rainwater from the
  down spouts - this filters the water before it
  enters the tank
• The first dirtiest water enters the roofwasher,
  larger debris is removed by screens in the leaf
  catcher compartments
• The first water is collected held in the bottom
  qerte chamber
• Additional uncovering water begins passing
  through the filtering element and into the tank
• A small weep hole in the overflow/ clean-out
  pipe discards the dirty water allows the quite
  chamber to drain between rains

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Benefit

• Adds years between cleaning improves quality
  of water in tank!!

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Environmentally Responsible

• Financially Smart
• A system that pays for itself while it saves you
  money!