Capturing Rainwater in the Storm

With all this rain in California we've been thinking a lot about rainwater catchment. After the rain hits your roof, where does it go? Ours goes down the drain, literally. We live in an apartment and dream of someday capturing rain to reuse.

In our rain-obsessed hunting, we came across a really informative post over at the LA Times Pretty in Green Blog. Like us, Linda Daly (the author of the blog) wants to start capturing rain, so she's started gathering resources.

We were particularly fascinated by the link she includes to Treepeople and their tutorial on gathering rain. Did you know that you can kinda-sorta harvest rainwater just by redirecting your downspouts and drainpipes away from hard pavement and towards lawns and plants?

Oh and we also learned that, just like solar water heating systems, a rainwater catchment system can get you a fat rebate.

Do you capture rainwater?

Get more info (and that handy Treepeople link) at Pretty in Green.

(Image: Flickr member lovelihood licensed for use under Creative Commons)

Comments (4)

We got our 1st rainbarrel last spring & it collects water from 1/4 of our roof- it fills up with just a 1/4" rainstorm (very frequent in the northeast). We'll add another barrel this year as our watering needs will increase with our veggie garden needs. I'll have to check out the rebate program for rainwater collection... would love to install a rainwater system that could be used for the toilets, but alas, local building codes don't allow them.

We capture a few hundred gallons of water, which is nothing compared to what fell last week. We'll use it to water the lawn and the bougainvillea once we have a few dry days--no point in keeping it around to have it attract mosquitoes or become algae-filled.

During the rest of the year we use the barrels for greywater from the washing machine.

I have several rain barrels and buckets, but in the pacific northwest it feels redundant and silly.

Living in an apartment in San Diego, I don't have much use for rain water, but I definitely watch my water consumption in the house.

I keep a bucket in the shower to catch extra water that I use for cleaning around the house, watering indoor plants, or soaking dirty dishes before I wash them. I keep basins under the kitchen and bathroom sinks in case I'm doing something that will use a lot of water I can catch to use somewhere else in the house.