Rainwater Harvesting Systems, Inc.

Did you know it requires a minimum of 13 gallons of water per day to meet basic human needs?  However, Americans use at least 50 gallons per day on average to meet our current lifestyle.  If you include irrigation water in this calculation, it quickly doubles to over 100 gallons of water per day.  Yet, across America and across the globe, water supplies are increasingly coming under severe stress.

You must ask yourself, "What will I do when- not if - the tap goes dry?"  Being left high and dry without water from a municipal grid is a serious situation that borders on crisis.

Take a moment to imagine and answer this question. Where is the nearest fresh water source you could use for drinking water?  A pond at the local golf course?  Who knows if it's safe to drink?  Would you buy all of your water in bottles from the grocery store?  That could get expensive.  Water delivery?  Where would you put it?  Maybe collect the rain? Now you're thinking!

Independent, sustainable water supplies utilizing rainwater harvesting are the way of the future.  They are safe, easy to maintain and simply smart!  Rainwater is free of chlorine and pollutants commonly found in municipal water grids.  Did you know that a sampling program in the 1990s found 30 different pharmaceuticals and related chemicals in surface water samples (Ternes, 1998) in the U.S.?  These chemicals enter our drinking water supplies when they are flushed down the toilet and they are compounding in our water systems because they never get filtered out!

Take your water future into your own hands.  Start collecting rainwater now!  It's yours, it's free, it's clean and you need lots of it!

There are three questions that I would like to ask you about your water supply, which on the surface seem easy to answer, but can reveal a great deal about how we have come to take our water for granted.  Here they are:

1. Where exactly does your water come from?

2. About how much water do you use per month (gallons)?

3. How safe is your drinking water supply?

Can you answer any three of these questions with great certainty?  My guess is that you have some idea about where you water comes from in general, but how much do you know about the quality of the source, the methods used to treat your water and who makes decisions regarding the pricing and restrictions placed on your water supply?

Most likely, you also know about how much you pay every month for your water, but it is uncommon for me to find someone who knows how many gallons they use on a monthly basis.  I find this fascinating.   Please take the time to look at your water bill to determine your monthly water consumption.  For reference purposes, my personal monthly water usage is around 1,500 gallons. What's yours?

You may have heard about recent reports published by the Associated Press citing hundreds of examples of pharmaceuticals showing up in the public water supplies of over 40 million Americans.  Are you one of the millions of Americans consuming drug-laden water from a public supply?  Is your water chlorinated and fluorinated?  Are these chemicals safe to consume over the long term?  Now is the time to seriously consider these questions.

See the 5 questions that I hear nearly every day regarding rainwater harvesting.  >

1. By collecting, storing and using water where it falls, you will be contributing to the wise management of water on this planet. 
2. More importantly, you will have a private reserve of the most precious resource on earth.
3. You'll love watching water collect into your tank and the feeling of pleasure that you've made the right choice.
4. Yes, rainwater harvesting is a viable alternative to drilling a well and buying water from municipal grids.
5. Yes, your plants will grow, flower, and fruit better with rainwater.
6. Yes, rainwater can absolutely be made safe to drink.
7. Yes, it provides you, your family and your landscape with the highest quality of water available and puts you in control of your water future.
8. Yes, now is the time to start collecting water.

Start Collecting Now!

There are five main questions that I hear nearly every day regarding rainwater harvesting, some of which you may be thinking right now.  Let's get right to them.

1. How much does it cost?

We all know that the cost of water varies greatly, usually with some relationship to the quality of water being purchased.  For instance, while your monthly water bill may cost you $50 for 3,000 gallons of usage, two cases of high-end drinking water would cost you about the same amount.  On the spectrum of water purity, with contaminated groundwater on the far left end and pristine untapped aquifers on the far right end, rainwater is very close to, if not the best source of water available to the general public.  If you compare the real cost per gallon of various water sources, including the initial up-front investment to build a rainwater system, the cost to collect rainwater is at the low end of the spectrum over the long term and is considered the least energy-intensive way to provide water to users.

You wanted the numbers though, right?  A well-designed and professionally installed rainwater system is an investment of around $5,000 for a complete system that provides water for gardening and outdoor use, $10,000 for a larger automated system that automatically collects, filters, stores and delivers water for multiple uses, and $15,000+ for a complete independent water source that is large enough to have a constant reserve of water, even during extended droughts.  The cost for commercial systems can vary significantly, but often cost around $1.50 per installed gallon.

2. Can I drink rainwater?

Yes, rainwater can absolutely be made safe to drink with a combination of essential components like a roof washer, ozone treatment, sediment and carbon filters and UV sterilization.  Is rainwater 100% pure as it falls from the sky?  No.  Is rainwater a reliably high-quality water?  Yes. 

3. How much space will it take up?

For many of us, it is difficult to visualize the physical space that the water we use occupies.  For instance, do you know how much water would fit inside a 10' x 10' room with a 10' ceiling?  

A. 500 gallons

B. 3,500 gallons

C. 7,500 gallons

D. 10,000 gallons

Very simply: 10' x 10' x 10' = 1,000 cubic feet.  In US Gallons, that is equivalent to 7,470 gallons.  So now we know about how much water would fit in your dining room.  Which begs the question: How long would it take one person to consume that much water?  As a very rough estimate, the average American consumes 50 gallons of water per day.  

7,470 gallons / 50 gallons per day = ~150 days or 5 months of water!  In your dining room!

4. Won't it breed mosquitoes?

A well-designed rainwater system will be free of mosquitoes. Fortunately the days of poorly designed and constructed rainwater systems are coming to an end.  A competent rainwater installation company is certified by ARCSA (the national rainwater organization), offers a warranty on their entire system, and can design a system that meets local codes and industry standards, which always include adequate barriers to vectors like mosquitoes and vermin.  

5. How long will it take to return my investment?

Let's say you have a complete independent rainwater system the provides all of your water needs for home and garden.  If your roof area is 2,000 square feet and you have 10,000 gallons of storage, this system may cost around $15,000.  If your average rainfall is 40 inches per year, then your system can potentially collect around 50,000 gallons of water per year.  To allow us to calculate the pay-off duration, let's value your rainwater at 5 cents per gallon- which is far, far less than the cost of other purified water of similar quality, but let's be conservative.  By this method, 50,000 gallons of water at $0.05 per gallon is $2,500 per year.  So, this particular system would take approximately 6 years to pay off.  From that point forward, your rainwater system will be collecting water for free.  Of course there are maintenance costs, but typically those run less than $200 per year for filter and UV lamp replacements.  

As you read more and more about rainwater harvesting, you may be inspired to start a rainwater project of your own. >

Or, you may be interested to hear my story about how I learned to harvest rainwater. >