Using Rain Barrels to Recycle Household Water

For the past month my region of the country has been a state of drought. We have not had significant rainfall in over six weeks. In addition we have been experiencing severe and unseasonably hot temperatures usually reserved for the end of July and August months. These drought conditions as with past droughts always make me and most people in my community more aware water usage. It is particularly important in our city as our municipal water supply is entirely dependent on rainfall to keep our city reservoirs filled. During long periods of drought the people of our city often are required to ration water usage.

To conserve water I have for years maintained two rain barrels that catch and provide a 50 gallon water supply each. I use this water to water outside flowers and shrubs without the guilt that might result from using the limited supply of water from the city reservoir. This supplemental water supply has been a lifesaver for plants and flowers struggling to survive under the summer sun.

After using nearly all of my 100 gallon supply of rain water I found in necessary to find ways to re-supply the water in my rain barrels in the absence of any rainfall.

My first to provide an alternate source of water was to capture the water I waste every morning as I let my bathroom faucet run until hot water, required for my morning shave, is produced . I have saved two one half gallon plastic milk bottle jugs for this purpose. My routine is to place on jug under the faucet, turn on the hot water tap and run it until the jug is filled. I then replace the full jug with an empty one and fill it. Experience has taught me that once two jugs are filled (one gallon of water) hot water will now be available at the tap. Daily I pour one gallon of water from the jugs into the rain barrel. I also will use this water to refill my cat's water bowl and to water indoor plants and flowers.

Following this success I took the next step in recycling water by using the same two jugs to capture water in the shower. Here too, the water must be run until hot water reaches the shower head and so, just as in the case of the bathroom sink, I fill two half gallon jugs just in time for the hot water to appear at the shower head. Between the bathroom sink and the shower this represents over 700 gallons of water per year that was formerly wasted . This water is now used to replenish water in my rain barrels.

My wife was so impressed with these results she agreed to follow the same water capturing techniques as she drew water for her daily bath. This resulted in an additional gallon of water per day for the rain barrel, but had the additional benefit of reducing the quantity of heated water required for the bath as formerly my wife would run additional gallons of hot water to compensate for the one gallon cold water that filled the bath tub prior to the arrival of heated water.

At this point we were now saving 3 gallons of clean water per day 1,090 gallons per year.

Next, I turned to a water source that had always been a slight irritant to me. With my central unit air conditioner running 24 hour s a day the water produced as condensate was creating relative large puddles of water where I did not want it. I began using PVC pipe to channel this water into a 5 gallon bucket and was surprised to find that on hot, humid days the bucket was collecting four to five gallons of distilled water in an eight hour period. While I would not use water collected from air conditioning condensate for drinking or for human consumption it is of equal in quality to rain water and provides an excellent source of water for outdoor plants and flowers.

Capturing this water on the warmest and most humid days added an additional 5-10 gallons per day to my rain barrels.

The recycling of condensate water while limited to the warmest and most humid summer days provided
additional water supply at the rate of eight gallons per day just at the time when it was most needed (summer). During the summer months condensate water provides 500 additional gallons of water over a four month period.

Our annual water savings now reached nearly 1,600 gallons per year and provided all the water required to meet our plant and flower watering needs. This additional supply proved to be a life saver for my outdoor plants during extreme drought conditions.

All of the above steps taken to recycle water were simple and required little effort on my family's part. We recommend that you consider some of these ideas to help conserve what is fast becoming a very limited resource......Water.