Farms: 30,000 gallon modular, underground rainwater harvesting system
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Find out more about rainwater collection at http://www.watercache.com/ Watch the entire installation process of a 30,000 gallon modular, underground rainwater collection system. These modular units are constructed onsite, wrapped with layers of geotextile fabric and a impervious liner, and then covered. This system can be stacked up to 5 units tall which is 7.5'. We installed a submersible pump in the storage volume and connected it to a pump start relay controller so the pump will only turn on when the irrigation controller signals the pump start relay. This system is collecting from roughly 10,000 square feet of collection surface and has the capacity to collect about 200,000 gallons of rainwater per year.
Comments
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Try to understand ancient rain water harvesting technique of india at Amber Palaces, Jaipur Its called stepwell. I was amazed by the beautiful structure. See the details - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECGS9RAJqrw
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that's sweet!
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Very interesting. Have you thought about running the water through a slow sand filter before it goes into the storage? A slow sand filter requires very little maintenance, and no chemicals to operate. 99.99 percent microbe removal. A small solar powered recirculation pump can also be used to keep the filter alive during dry spells. Google slow sand water filter. Lots of info available. Even with a small slow sand filter and moderate flow, 30,000 gallons would not take long to fill. Maybe 2 or 3 weeks.
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round here we dig a pond.
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I would worry about the longevity and the cost per gallon over time. It only takes a tiny hole in that plastic to lose 3.7 crap tonnes of water. Plus water is $1.50 for 1000 gallons. That's right I said 1000 gallons. That's means a complete bottom to top fill for this thing would be $45 of tap water. At $65000 would have to fill it 1444 times (43.3 million gallons) to break even. This doesn't include maintenance. Not to mention there is no way to repair it if it develops a leak.
If you absolutely HAVE to have an underground rainwater tank I think an underground fiberglass cylinder tank or a concrete tank with a polymer liner coating would be cheaper and would be patchable from the inside of it developed a leak. -
Do you have a estimate of how much this cost?
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I saw one of these installed at a school I was wroking on. The system was build under where the bus drop off\pickup was. The first rain came one night and the next morning there was a large crater in the ground. The whole thing collapsed. The whole thing was monitored while being constructed. The architect did everything he could to blame the company that installed it. I was cafefully dug up to find out what they did wrong. Absulutely nothing. The soil testing guy had called his boss the morning after the collapse and his boss told him, no surprize,they colapse all the time. The were lucky it was not blacktopped and had buses driving on it when it failed
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Can I have more details about the crates, how the water are filters and the load capacity, etc.
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The amount of plastic you guys are using causes much more damage to the environment...
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great video. if you could add a final image with grass on top the idea would sink in much better
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how does such a system behave below freezing?
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just use milk crates or 2 liter bottle holders
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Check out the GRAF EcoBloc product. Minimal assembly required. www.barrplastics.com
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Coming from a cold climate, heating is my idea. Another potential use for this is as a thermal battery. Water is an excellent heat retainer. If you look at communities like drake landing in Alberta (google it, very interesting concept) they use thermal solar community heating and compare the cost of drilling boreholes in rock as a thermal battery to using a much smaller pool of water it might make it possible to do things like drake landing in areas without perfect underground rock like they have there. Water holds heat 4X better than rock, but if you insulate the pool as well, as the bore holes arn't insulated, accounting for heat losses a cost comparison might be close, but better yet it makes things like drake landing possible anywhere, you don;t need great underground rock structures and water table isn't an issue so much. Something to look into......
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Cost per gallon of storage please.
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There is a drinking water standard- NSF 61.
Chemicals leaching from the plastic- not good. Especially if the rain is acidic or contaminated with bird poo, etc
Even if one does not use this system for drinking or showering- lining and crates are still able to deposit harmful chemicals, lead, plasticizers, etc into your soil when watering it and transferred to your lawn, vegetables, your skin and lungs by the wind action and rain splash blowing dust in the air.
Maybe good for firefighting if you live in the woods, but you'd better off creating a pond lined with clay- probably cheaper too.
Not even taking in consideration the pitfalls of install: it will leak eventually if it is good, or soon after if it is bad install : freeze/thaw cycle, contaminants which will leak through (oils, gas, etc), acids and microbial action in the soil will deteriorate the lining -
RAUSIKKO BOXes are better solution than this, u can even wash them if dirt came in,
tipe in youtube RAUSIKKO and ul see -
What about the quality of stored water because it is stored underground without aeration? How long water is stored in this system? What about the stability of the external load on this material (men, material, vehicles etc)
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I'd love to hear +Engineer775 opinion on this concept