Simple Rainwater Harvesting Rig (Upycled and DiY)
We've had a 55 gallon drum for half a year and never made a rain water catchment system... until this weekend!
And of course now the rain has stopped!!!
I wanted this post to be in response to @offgrid-online's Off-Grid Contest... but I have been so busy preparing our move off-grid, that I unfortunately missed the deadline!!!! Oh well maybe next time... go ahead and check out the reslults, you may get inspired to enter the next one too!
Here's what I did:
1. I cleared the tiny gutters (u-channel on the roof of the RV) from debris.
2. Made a funnel out of a plastic bottle by cutting the bottom out.
Then, I realized the funnel needed to be smaller than the irrigation tubing I was going to use (We have about a hundred feet of it laying around from the previous owners. Score!). For the flow of water, it is best to always think about how to minimize leakage. The top piece should slip into the bottom piece, gravity and flow will keep liquids from leaking at those seams.
I got a water bottle with a smaller mouth piece thay fit nicely into the opening of the tubing.
3. I used tulle as a screen for debris on top of the funnel. The tulle was left over scrap from our DiY wedding back in 2012. Oooh we're starting to pack on the years there!
4. The niple of the bottle had something, I decided to cut out of the way of the flow. I'm not really surw what it's for, maybe just reinforcement?
5. Using gorilla tape (that's really the new and improved duct tape... I do everythong with that stuff, when i can! It also helps working in the movie industry where half used up rolles of tape get thrown out and I collect!), I taped up the seams and the funnel, with it's tubing to the RV, right under the tiny gutter.
6. Once that was all set in place and looked good enough to hold at least through the next couple of weeks, I placed the blue 55 gallon drum (also salvaged from the dumpster of a film set!) Approximately where I wanted it, to dry fit the tubing length.
7. I slipped the irrigation tubing through a rubber band, then through a hole I cut out of the center of a small square of tulle.
8. While keeping the tulle and rubber nand from sliding off I fed the tubing into the barrel, stretched the tool over the hole and attached it by slipping the tight rubber band just under the threads where the hole is.
9. Using my trustes gorrilla tape, I taped the tulle to the tubbing and exammined the finished product!
Here's a quick video:
Steem On and until next time....
In the End, it Always works out
Up-Vote, Re-Steem and Reply. Your comments are very welcome! Don't forget… #DreamsComeTrue!
Very nifty work, that Gorilla tape is awesome eh? I use it too, after I tape something with it, I always run a lighter or torch over it to get the glue warm and an even better grip. ;)
Oh, I never tried to heat it up before! Thanks for the tip. But yeah it's pretty awesome stuf.
Thank you!
A bit small funnel maybe?
Yeah I agree, it's a lkttle small but the spout of the gutter is really small too... I may change it than next time we're up there. Good point
Funny when you cut the extra plastic out of the nipple. You never know why things are there until you remove them. Then I usually get an ugly surprise lol. But looks safe to remove in this case.
Lol, yes the truth sometimes only comes out when remove what's in the way...good or bad!!!!
It was fine and it's integrity stayed strong. I am thinking about making a better funnel next time.
I use a trimmed down plastic bottle on a sink drain - don't ask...but I have found there are a lot of different plastic bottle types out there lol many different designs to choose from
Haha, no worries I won't ask and I won't tell about my two trash cans full of plastic bottles...
Nice and simple! i may have missed you say in the post but is this collection just for grey water i assume as there is minimal filtration?
Im on and off living in my van in the uk and rainwater collection is something i really want to setup in my current build. I have similar guttering on the van so i was going to run a pipe in to a holding tank then into one of these fancy filters https://berkey-waterfilters.co.uk/
i think it should work fine as long as i keep the gutters and roof clean of bird poo and debris!
Hello @robali123, converted transit van is it?
The berkey filter is very good and I have a friend who drinks his collected rain water through one of those filters in Puerto Rico. I'm not sure if it's enough. There are systems that run through a couple charcoal (and other stuff I think) filters and than one UV filter before drinking. I've seen that in a couple converted horse boxes.
I also want to turn our system to feed our holding tank that is in the camper, so soon enough we will research deep into it! For now that water we are collectingnwould be partially for dishes but mostly gardening! And if we absolutely need to drink it we can always boil it first.
Thanks for visiting and great question by the way.
Its an iveco daily im currently converting,my 2nd one now. Thats good to know about the filter. I live in bristol where its rather polluted so id probably boil the water as well before using it. I figured the extra time and effort to filter it is still going to be less than driving to a water point to fill up every few days as before.
Compost loo is also on my to research list!
Oh going full on, in the van! Loads of travelers in thr UK should be able to help you with the compost loos. Google "loveable loos" it's a man from the US who's used them for over 30 years and wrote a book on it. Anyways on his web site you can find his book to read for free and free plans to build the box.
We had an Iveco Daily years ago! Good little buses or vans to convert for sure!