Rain Barrel Cistern Question
 

Been thinking about putting in a couple of rain barrel cisterns. Got a lot of designs and remedies to potential problems off the net, but I thought of a potential problem that I couldn't find an answer to.

Would the asphalt shingles I have pose a potential health risk to drinking the water I collect?

Was also thinking about using the old wooden barrels instead of the blue plastic ones (if it works the same, the wood would look better around the outside of the house)

Would love comments from any that have some in place.

Thanks, SilverJeep

Re: Rain Barrel Cistern Question
 

I've often wondered about metal roofing. The paint from metal roofs fades away and the paint has to go somewhere. Galvanized roofs are steel with a zinc electroplated finish, I think. Who's to say the zinc doesn't contain some lead and mercury? I doubt the concentrations of any toxins absorbed in the water collected from roofs are high enough to cause alarm, but it's probably a good idea to run drinking water through a gravity filter to remove most of the nasty stuff.

I think wooden barrels would rot out too fast.

Re: Rain Barrel Cistern Question
 

I'd use the plastic ones if you actually plan to use the water. Wood may look cooler, until you notice the green pond scum growing on the water and the insides of the barrel.

Roof collection systems I've seen use a weighted wash filtration deal....the first so many gallons of water that comes off the roof goes into a bucket, which as it fills, pulls a cord to open the roof drain to the cistern....so the first gallons, containing the most airborne contamination and bird poop don't go into storage. Even so, I'd be using a 5 micron filter and an ultraviolet light or some kind of Big Berkey type deal.

http://www.pleasanthillgrain.com/ber...e_purifier.asp

http://www.baproducts.com/rainwatr.htm

http://www.nitro-pak.com/index.php?cPath=40

Be a lot simpler to go to Tractor Supply over in JC, get a 500 gallon plastic container, put it in the back of the garage to keep light away from it ( and thus the green slime that has to have light to grow ) fill it with your ultility water, and a little bleach in it occassionally to keep it sanitary.

Re: Rain Barrel Cistern Question
 

Yeah I knew it couldn't be that simple. Not ready to go get a mega tank, or multi filtration system. Last time it rained I was watching the water pour out the spout thinking "that should be pouring into something for later use"

I wouldn't use it now at all, just wanted to have something in place "just in case".

As i keep telling my wife (re: survival), when WHATEVER happens, isn't the time to start prepping. Was proud of her, when gas dipped under $2.00 here recently, SHE suggested buying a bunch of 5 gallon tanks and storing gas. ...maybe I'm rubbing off on her a little.

Re: Rain Barrel Cistern Question
 

Just because it isn't potable doesn't mean it isn't usable.

Re: Rain Barrel Cistern Question
 

Catch it off the roof in barrels and then, as you need it, run it through a Berlkey Filter or Aqua Rain.

Re: Rain Barrel Cistern Question
 

Andy summed things up well. I want roof water in case some kind of disaster like bird flu is used for some rather long lockdown. I will hit it with chlorine, then filter that back out for our use and water food plants, if need be, with untreated water. I am not hooking it to the house city water system. We don't get enough rain to use that much water if times get that tough. Well, If I was willing to pay for a 10k gallon tank, we probably do. But I'm not willing to sink that much $ in an emergency water system just to flush toilets and take long showers. We would shift to a simple emergency septic approach and sun shower bags and use a lot less water. If the water was out the sewer might be too, anyway.

We are set up already to send our gray water to the garden. It is routed to the bamboo hedge now because I hate wasting pure drinking grade water on yards and I love the lush privacy the bamboo gives. Breeze through bamboo is a very peaceful sound. But bamboo likes water. It also has a trench around it to contain it and catch runoff from the yard in hard rains. It has prospered in a pretty dry climate without pouring drinking water on it that way. But I would move the gray water to the garden if the water went off.

I'm putting the tank inside and disguising the diversion (back of downspout and through the wall) so it is not noticable from outside. I just have a blue barrel right now, with city water and a couple of big igloos of city water. The leaf excluding gutter is in and the downspout placed for future connection, but I'm not as far along as I meant to be right now.

I have been more focused on food, medicine, and other things first, since I do have that one 55 gallon drum and the downspout in, and all the filtration gear.

Re: Rain Barrel Cistern Question
 

Would a plastic barrel fit inside a wooden one?

Best of both worlds.

E-A

Re: Rain Barrel Cistern Question
 

...don't think so. But would be cool

Re: Rain Barrel Cistern Question
 

The obvious solution for me, the finish construction guy who makes McMansions look good, is to build a wooden box around a plastic barrel. Works good, looks just fine and blends in.

I personally wouldn't drink from a wooden barrel unless I had no other choice.

Denver, circa 1870?

Re: Rain Barrel Cistern Question
 

Re: Rain Barrel Cistern Question
 

haha, okok. I wouldn't drink water from an open wooden barrel sitting in SilverJeep's back yard unless I had no other choice.

Re: Rain Barrel Cistern Question
 

Re: Rain Barrel Cistern Question
 

Now we're talking. Was the cistern a concrete pond?

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Re: Rain Barrel Cistern Question
 

When I moved here I was pretty broke and after the first kid was born it seemed like I better get used to it. We lived in a trailer I drug into the woods. No water unless it came off the roof of the trailer or was hauled in.
No electric until I got home and pulled the 57 Chevy PU up to the window and connected the two wires to the battery and wallah a 12 volt bulb to read by.
Drove my first well by hand with a fence post driver and a sand-point, took me two days to get to water and then it was a pretty murky.
Later I had one drilled and life was good. I never seen a well here that didn't have a salamander in it. I don't know maybe some of that bacteria builds a persons resistance to illness. :dontknow:
Hardest thing I ever had to give up was the outhouse. I loved that thing in the rain.

Re: Rain Barrel Cistern Question
 

It must not get cold where you live. I remember as a kid, going to the out house when it's freezing. Don't want to do that again. Cleaning slop jars is another thing I don't want to see!

Re: Rain Barrel Cistern Question
 

Well we get pretty cold, pretty close to Canada.
Maybe it was the quiet and the animals I liked. I remember sitting in there (no door) and watching a red tail hawk drop out of the sky and stomp one of my reds. Good hen too but hey, sometimes your just out matched.

Re: Rain Barrel Cistern Question
 

See why?
Not the view from my house but very close.

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Re: Rain Barrel Cistern Question
 

When I first came here I was cutting shake blocks and firewood on the mountain nearby. I was drinking from the creek all summer and around the first of November (about the last day you could get to the place for the snow) I got sick with what they call here "Beaver Fever" I wasn't pretty. You couldn't even make it to the outhouse.
From then on I only drank from the springs or very fast flowing glacier runoff creeks.
One thing about this area, you can hang your deer out in the shed for a week and cool it out nice.
There are a lot of Bear up there also (lots of blue huckleberries & wild blackberries) but they won't let you hunt with the hounds anymore. You can still run the coons but the Bobs, Cougars and Bears are out.