On Thu, 9 Nov 2006 15:21:49 -0500, "Proctologically Violated©®"
wrote:

:Anyone do this, in barrels?
:Simple enough, in principle....
:Just wondering about tricks, logistics, using gravity vs. pumps to
:redistribute the water, how you use it (lawn only, or bring inside the
:house), etc.
:I have 10 downspouts, and could conceivably remove my water meter
:altogether, w/ a system like this.
:
:'Course, if I did install it, and disconnected my water meter, you can bet
:NY would have the longest goddamm drought in recorded history.
:Like the snow we're gonna get.... cuz my snow blower is broken....

I just last night watched a program I recorded (I think 10/21) off a PBS
station, Ask This Old House and they helped a woman install such a
system.

She had a large tree in her front yard that was drinking up most of the
water she'd apply to her garden and wondered if they could save her
water usage somehow. They got a rain barrel, which was sold by a guy who
salvages them. It has a spigot at the bottom. It was quite large. They
put it up on 3 big blocks that were leveled. They bought and installed a
special diverter that connects to the downspout. This senses when the
barrel is full and any more water is diverted to the usual place, away
from the foundation. It does this entirely low-tech - the water backs up
to the level of diversion when the barrel is full. It's entirely simple
and would be cheap. Of course, you could use multiple barrels or a large
tank if you wanted. They showed a system that filters out particles from
the runoff. I don't think you want to consider drinking water that runs
off your roof, certainly not without some kind of sophisticated
filtering system.

They had a trickle watering system connected to the barrel to irrigate
the woman's garden.

Dan