Advice on Rain Barrels?
I’m considering diverting water from my roof gutter’s down spout into a rain barrel, since the drain outside my garden door (which is connected to a pipe running under the house to the street and then into the city’s sewer system) regularly overflows (such as during Tuesday’s heavy rain storm), causing flooding in my basement….
I’m considering diverting water from my roof gutter’s down spout into a rain barrel, since the drain outside my garden door (which is connected to a pipe running under the house to the street and then into the city’s sewer system) regularly overflows (such as during Tuesday’s heavy rain storm), causing flooding in my basement.
Has anyone tried this? If so, any tips? Thanks!!
Rain Barrel is a good option for free water and for a “Green” garden. It will not come close to addressing flooding during torrential downpours.
The only thing I can think of for a small yard would be a deep drywell that can absorb a large volume of water in a short time period. This is also probably a more expensive option than simnply installing a rain barrel, but still not prohibitive in terms of the damage caused by water invading your home.
In addition to my ingenious design mentioned above (and trapped in my head), I think they do my “closed” rain barrels where the downspout goes in one side and fills the barrel, then if it’s full it continues out the other side in a pipe to the sewer. Like the overflow hole in a bathroom sink. The only real difference from the photo above is that the downspout would be “fitted” (i.e., sealed) at the top of the barrel and there would be a relief downspout coming out of the side — at the top of the barrel.
The closed design wouldn’t require mosquito prevention…
Take a look at these http://rainwaterhog.com/
I’m thinking of installing them in my backyard. You can set up more than one and there is an overflow possibility.
The rain barrel isn’t going to help with the flooding etc, BUT it is a good idea. No reason to use tap water if you can collect perfectly good rain water. Here are my tips:
(1) Perhaps you can just divert *some* of the water… like a second, smaller path from the gutter to the barrel. So, light rain would go down a narrower hose or tube/conduit first and heavier rain would go down both… but mostly down the sewer. I have a beautiful design in my head.
(2) Make sure your barrel has a screen over the hole to keep out mosquitoes! It also keeps out other debris too that would fill up the barrel.
(3) As a second defense against mosquitoes, pour about a cup of vegetable or mineral oil into the barrel after there’s some water in it. This will float on top and create a protective layer…. and if you empty the barrel, it won’t hurt your plants.
(4) Don’t be discourage… this is a good idea!
I think the formula is something like this:
1000 sq. feet X 1″ (1/12th of a foot) = 83 Cubic feet of water per inch of rain.
7.48 gallons per cubic foot = 623 gallons of water per every inch of rain on a 1000 sq. foot roof.
1 Rain Barrel = 60 Gallons
Rainfall rate of 2″ per hour (Downpour) = 60/1,248 gallons per hour = .048 hours to fill up 60 gallon Barrel. .048 hours is 2.88 minutes!
Wow! I had no idea about the volume of water. The barrel shown holds about 60 gallons. Would that really fill up so quickly? Of course, that also explains the basement flooding. The drain leading to the sewer is just outside my garden door, so when the system backs up, the water has nowhere to go but inside my house, which is why I’m looking for some way to divert it. Any other suggestions? In fact, I *don’t* have a big backyard, so I guess I can’t assume the garden can absorb all the water.
BTW – That rain barrel in the picture would fill up in about 3 minutes in a downpour like Tuesday’s…
Rain Barrel as a solution to excess water is not viable due to the volume of water noted above.
Maybe try diverting some of the down spout flow to a dry well. Ours is 4X4 which holds something like 600-800 gallons and is great for relieving a lot of the water stressing our sewer lines.
You have to connect the overflow of the barrel back into the drainage system or as Mr. Invisible says, start swimming! I have seen some barrels that once full cut off and revert back to the downspout.