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Rainwater Harvesting - will this work?

con95a

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Messages
112
Location
Midlands
I'm hoping to set up a collection system so I can make use of mostly rain to cover my water needs (don't need an awful lot).

Anyway my idea is to set up a tank slightly raised as an initial collection tank, then allow gravity to take that through DI vessel (or two) into a final storage tank that should just contain pure.

As per diagram really.

Would plan to fit a tap before DI so I can allow first tank to fill up a good way first to help with the gravity feeding, and perhaps a non return valve on entry to second tank.

Will the physics of this work or no go?
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I have a rainwater gutter collector I fitted on the back of my big shed roof as it is a big single sloped one

That tops up my ibc when it rains as i use ro also

Never bothered to di it.. comes off the roof at around 4-7 ppm and will always leave a spot free finish .. rainwater is awesome to clean with

I'm pretty sure you need some sort of pressure to force the water through the di also as when I disconnect mine from the ro it makes a big hiss as the pressure escapes

 
I have a rainwater gutter collector I fitted on the back of my big shed roof as it is a big single sloped one
That tops up my ibc when it rains as i use ro also
Never bothered to di it.. comes off the roof at around 4-7 ppm and will always leave a spot free finish .. rainwater is awesome to clean with
I'm pretty sure you need some sort of pressure to force the water through the di also as when I disconnect mine from the ro it makes a big hiss as the pressure escapes
Unfortunately the roof that I'll be able to use is off a large barn, which isn't the cleanest, and due to nature/size not really something I could clean myself. I tested some water collected off the roof into a bin and it was about 50ppm (granted I don't know how long it'd been sat there) which obviously would need further purifying. Reason I'm looking into it is hard water area (300ppm+) and it's a large roof area so would get quite a lot of rain water.

Shame I thought water would just trickle through DI. In that case, would it be ok to pump water through a DI using a sub pump, that pumps approx 170lpm? Or is that too quick?

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It may be ok using gravity.. I would try asking someone like @spruce who may know

Sub pump would be too fast.. 

Ideally you want to pass water through quite slow 

 
It seems I am wrong about gravity reading this thread
 
That sounds promising, the reason I was hoping to go gravity fed was I'd heard slower the better with resin. Also could leave it to purify nice and steady, with a shutoff once the 2nd tank is full.

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If you narrow the hose it won't flow as fast as say a normal hose pipe so once you reduce it to the white tubing to di surely this would be adequate. I'm not 100% sure though. Again spruce is your man to ask

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You need to look at some YouTube videos on rain water harvesting and see which could apply to your situation.There a some designs that allow for the first flush of water off the roof to be directed to the drain as it will be dirty. There are some very good diy concepts recorded.

 
Spruce is right, some people have rainwater collection down to an art, it's interesting stuff. Some sort of filter is needed so you don't clog your DI or pump.

Do you use a van mount or barrels and trolley? With a van mount I'd just put the DI in the van and carry rainwater in the van tank.

 
I put a sock on the end of the down pipe with a cup of resin in it. Give me 0-2ppm from down pipe and stops the dirt coming through. Change it every month.

 
Regarding slower & better. That could well be true, I once thought the same, we use two di vessels. used to use a smaller diameter hosepipe & the resin seemed to last that much longer. It was slower filling mind.


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You need to look at some YouTube videos on rain water harvesting and see which could apply to your situation.There a some designs that allow for the first flush of water off the roof to be directed to the drain as it will be dirty. There are some very good diy concepts recorded.
I have had a look at a few vids, some great ideas. I was struggling to find anything directly related to gravity feeding a DI vessel, so I knew I was bound to get some advice on here [emoji16]

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Spruce is right, some people have rainwater collection down to an art, it's interesting stuff. Some sort of filter is needed so you don't clog your DI or pump.
 
Do you use a van mount or barrels and trolley? With a van mount I'd just put the DI in the van and carry rainwater in the van tank.
Yeah got loads of ideas to keep out the muck, some off here too, which I'll try implement.

I'm only capable of using trolley and barrels for the time being, so everything needs to be pure going into the barrels... well, I did muse about fitting a smallish DI on the trolley so I could but rainwater straight into barrels and purify on demand, which would have the benefit of using stored rainwater from willing customers if need be (noticed quite a few have water buts brimming), but the extra weight is a put off. Like the idea though

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I put a sock on the end of the down pipe with a cup of resin in it. Give me 0-2ppm from down pipe and stops the dirt coming through. Change it every month.
I've thought about something like that, but my concern is it's such a large roof, so potentially could burn through a small amount of resin quickly. Not sure how frequently it would need changing.

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Regarding slower & better. That could well be true, I once thought the same, we use two di vessels. used to use a smaller diameter hosepipe & the resin seemed to last that much longer. It was slower filling mind.


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I've tried to get a solid answer but not found one as yet; if resin can purify more water if the water passing through is slower, or if it has a fixed capacity regardless of how quickly water passes through. In my head, slower should mean longer life. I wanted to set up the system so as it rains it's purifying more or less instantly and being stored ready for use whenever, because I think rain collection is a steady process.

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If your running a van mount, surely you could just run the Di in the van, so you don't need to worry about it? If not then you could just buy a small pump for boats to push it through the Di vessels

 
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