Rainwater harvesting.

jfh

HI All,

looking into the possibility of collecting rainwater from shed roofs, this would be piped to a very large tank situated on a hill-top.

i would hope to pipe this around the farm for drinking so it will need to be filtered & for the usual power washing of sheds.

i would need a smaller tank at the base of the shed to collect & filter the water before pumping it up to a larger tank.

worried about algae & frost, should the tank be underground?

anyone on here do anything similar?

Green&Red

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058269252/rainwater-harvesting

I'd say the department would want this treated

davidk1394

Run the rain water through a blue light to kill any bacteria. Filtering out leaves will be the biggest issue

cute geoge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058269252/rainwater-harvesting

I think that is a great idea but no one seems to have done anything like it so you will probably make a few mistakes along the way .would a solar pump work for pumping it up ro the big tank .I guess the big tank would need to be 4000 or 5000 gallons .Would an old stainless co op cremary do that job .

If I were you I would start off small by rain harvesting for suppling the winter housing .This could be done cheap with a few ibc ..simply just attach upside down y wavin joiner to eve shoot and pipe to ibc .You could try and fit strainer for leaves/debrid in the y wavin joiner .I am just thinking out loud here but throw up a few snaps if you get going

blue5000

BB are asking about it in their carbon footprint survey. How clean does it have to be for cattle? I suppose next year's survey will be asking is the water charcoal filtered.

Have a large concrete trough (1000 gal) under a shed gutter here. Gold fish used to do a good job keeping it clean, but you need to prevent them swimming up a mains pipe and jamming a ball cock somewhere else. Past tense as the water got really low one summer and crows or something ate them, they actually grew fairly big.

jfh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119800305#Comment_119800305

Hi Davidk1394, is this easily done, just wondering about the size of the task, is there any company that deal with this?

Green&Red

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119800520#Comment_119800520

I use rainwater for washing the parlour, have two IBCs linked, avoids the need for a filter, water fills into tank 1 which has a link to tank 2 maybe a foot off the ground. Tank 2 has a ball cock below this link pipe. So when its dry you shut off the link pipe and use mains

cute geoge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119800825#Comment_119800825

Fair dues ,throw up a snap if you get a chance nothing like keeping it simple!!

kevthegaff

I set up a acid barrell with a flytrap on top with a pipe going into it from a stream. This then feeds an old oil tank which flows down the hilland fills 20 500 gallon troughs at one side of the hill. At the other side of the hill(v shaped valley) I had a booster pump from the yard going up another hill across the road. I then connected this pipe to other side of road when gravity gets short. I switched off booster pump a few weeks back and now the gravity is feeding its side of the road and then flowing across the road and up the other side and filling troughs on the other hill. I only need water now for milking parlour and house from well.