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jaransont3
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# Posted: 14 Jul 2013 17:19 - Edited by: jaransont3
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If you have followed along in our project thread, you know that we are planning to collect rain water instead of put in a well at our cabin. We got our 300 gallon cistern buried last week and some of the plumbing done.
The plan is to get the gutters and plumbing to the cistern done the next trip back. One of the things we will need is a couple of first flow diverters, one for each downspout on the cabin. I decided to try make one myself from some PVC fittings and a 5 gallon bucket. This is what I came up with...
It works great with the garden house here at home. The tennis ball makes a very effective cut-off ball float valve. I still need to figure out a weep hole drain system for the bucket since we won't be there to empty after each rain.
I also plan to build a wooden (cedar) barrel to go over it and hide all the green and white plastic.
Less than $30 in PVC fitting and such including the bucket.
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MO Cabin
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# Posted: 14 Jul 2013 18:28
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Looks great. But would the fuzz on the tennis ball get coated in funk and be hard to rinse off. I am thinking about the tennis balls that I leave in the yard for my dogs. A plastic or rubber ball may be a better way to reduce cross contamination.
Depending on the size of your roof 5 gallons may be a lot. Most of the ones you can bye look to be less than that. If your roof has a small footprint instead of drilling holes in part with the ball put a solid piece of pipe 2-4 feet long, put a ball inside and put and end cap on the pipe then drill a small hole in the end cap. But if you have a large roof the 5 gallon bucket will work perfect.
I do like the simplistic design with PVC and I believe I will be stealing your design.
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jaransont3
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# Posted: 14 Jul 2013 20:53
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Thanks. Might be right about the tennis ball. Nice thing about the buckets is I can change them out if needed or when I find a suitable replacement. As for the size of the diverter, this is what I found on the web....
Clean Roof 0.0125 gal/ft2 of collection area
Dirty Roof 0.05 gal/ft2 of collection area.
For our cabin, we will be collecting off of 440 ft2 of the roof. This yields a diverter size of between 5.5 gals and 22 gals depending on whether you chose the clean or dirty roof. Ours is probably closer to the dirty side since we have overhanging trees and such. This is why I will have a 5 gal diverter on each of the two downspouts. Might make one of them a little smaller since the split between them isn't equal.
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mjmmessina
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# Posted: 16 Jul 2013 07:03 - Edited by: mjmmessina
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That will work. I recently built a system for mine using 4 in pvc pipe that serves the same purpose. Mine works great! Maybe try a rubber street hockey ball if you are worrying about the tennis ball falling apart.
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jaransont3
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# Posted: 16 Jul 2013 08:15
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Great suggestion on the street hockey ball. Was looking in the toy store at plastic balls, but almost all of them were not sealed completely. Will hit up the sporting goods store today.
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optimistic
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# Posted: 16 Jul 2013 09:01
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I will also have a rain collection system soon. I will follow this guy design for first flush diverting. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QS14RgLXWyA
Good thinking with the 5 gallon bucket. Where did you find those figures for the dirty roof? That is very interesting.
It makes me think if my roof is even big enough to be used for rain collection actually. My cabin is 12' by 12'...
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jaransont3
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# Posted: 16 Jul 2013 12:58
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Dirty vs. Clean Roof numbers came from this website....
RainHarvest.com
These fit with the 1-2 gallons per 100 ft2 that is recommended in the Texas Rainwater Collecting Manual. Maybe even a little more conservative...but than again the rainharvest site is selling diverters.
As for the amount of water, I checked my state DNR site and found historical rainfall data and used that to determine how much water I can collect.
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mjmmessina
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# Posted: 16 Jul 2013 17:11
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Hockey ball works great on my first flush system.
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jaransont3
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# Posted: 11 Sep 2013 18:12
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I wanted to post up an a recent purchase that Jill and I made for our cabin. Our cabin is off grid and we will be collecting rainwater in a cistern and using a 12V RV on-demand pump to provide the flow and pressure. We are also using a small 1.6 gallon per minute on-demand tankless water heater. Given these constraints we needed a low-flow, high efficiency showerhead. We tried one from WaterPic that we found at Lowes for $35. It had multiple patterns and was only 1.5 gpm....but it was a really unsatisfying shower experience. Never felt rinsed off. We returned it.
We decided to try one that I found online with good reviews. The high efficiency showerhead from High Sierra Showerheads was the same $35 delivered to our door. It doesn't look like much and doesn't have any settings or other fancy features, but it is an amazingly satisfying showering experience. The pressure and flow is perfect. It is the best showering experience I have every had and it is only 1.5 gpm!
Jill and I both liked it so much that we ordered a second one for the house in Dearborn. To be completely honest we have only tried it at the house in Dearborn with city water pressure and supply. We haven't got our shower and water supply system fully functional at the cabin yet. However, I have no doubt that the High Sierra showerhead will be just what we need at the cabin too.
Sometimes it is easy being green.
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creeky
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# Posted: 12 Sep 2013 08:57
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nice set up.
mjmmessina. can I ask you how you joined your barrels together. I've tried a couple of methods with limited success. eventually (minutes/hours/two years) the joints begin to leak.
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Just
Member
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# Posted: 12 Sep 2013 22:07
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turn the tanks with the threads on the bottom , fill with the unthreaded holes and seal with silicone
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creeky
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# Posted: 15 Sep 2013 20:46
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hey just. the brown / clay coloured tanks that mjmmessina is using appear to be from an olive importer. they don't have threaded holes. You have to cut holes in them and then silicone/cement. i'ma hopin' that someone has a good connector trick. I still have 3. Got a bunch for 15/each. oh those many years ago. .
not to hijack a very interesting post and set up ...
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mjmmessina
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# Posted: 15 Sep 2013 22:55
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They were olive barrels. Took me a while to get the olive smell out of them but The spin off lids are nice incase you want to treat the water with anything. I used a kit purchased online with a flex hose and gaskets that are self sealing. Has worked good so far. I thought about hard plumbing them together with 2" pvc male / female fittings bud they would be hard to disconnect for winter months. This kit makes it easy to remove
http://www.rainbarrelparts.com/product_rbpEM_RSP_linking_kit.php
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creeky
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# Posted: 16 Sep 2013 09:10
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thx mjmmessina. wish I'd had those for my last setup. I had three barrels put together with a special cement and they lasted exactly the amount of time it took me to stand them up after assembling.
that linking kit looks like just the ticket.
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mjmmessina
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# Posted: 16 Sep 2013 10:11
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Creeky, It has worked great so far. I'm sure in a few years the gaskets may need replaced but they are inexpensive and the flex lines makes it real easy to connect.
mjmmessina
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northparknewbie
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# Posted: 8 Nov 2013 11:08
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So I hope this is the right place to ask for some advice on my water holding tank. I have a 1000 gallon holding tank and I am going to have water delivered. My question is how to get it into my cabin can I just use an on-demand pump or do I need to get a pressure tank. I don't know anything about what I need or how to install it, I just know I don't have 15,000 for a well so thank God for you guys on this forum.
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Say hey
Member
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# Posted: 8 Nov 2013 11:33
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I use a Surflo 12 volt pump I bought at an RV place to pump out of my holding tank in the crawl space $80 or so
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jaransont3
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# Posted: 8 Nov 2013 18:34
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Is your holding tank above ground or buried? I only ask because the Shurflo type pumps won't lift water too high before they loose pressure.
This is why I am planning on using two pumps. A sump pump to lift the water from the buried cistern to a smaller holding tank in the cabin itself. Then the Shurflo on-demand will be used to provide the pressurized water for the fixtures.
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Say hey
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# Posted: 9 Nov 2013 17:05
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Pump to shower head is ~12 feet of lift
Has decent pressure,for a military shower
I think their. Web site tells you how high each model will pump
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jaransont3
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# Posted: 10 Sep 2014 23:47
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Thought I would give an update on our system. Our system is working great so far. The first flow diverter is doing it job. The gutters and gutter foam inserts are working good. Our cistern was full when we were there last week.
I ended up just using the single Shur-Flo pump mounted in the cabin. It simply sucks the water up from the cistern. Water pressure seems fine so far, although we do not have the shower completely hooked up yet and we haven't finished the venting for the water heater. So there are some unknowns still.
I did discovery that I have a vacuum leak on the suction side of the pump some where as it does't hold prime for very long at all. I am hoping it is at the filter housing near the pump inside the cabin and not down at the cistern. Not looking forward to digging that up for a 4th time. <G> It will have to wait until spring to get fixed.
Even if e get back at Christmas time, it won't be possible to dig up the top of the cistern with the snow and sub-zero temperatures.
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