Harvesting rain water ideas

TheNorthStar

We’re currently boiling tap water for our indoor plants, which isn’t very energy efficient or environmentally friendly. The boiled water sits in jugs until it’s cool, usually used the next day.

I’d like to switch to rainwater, but it needs to be completely free from insects and debris. Ideally, I’d like a ready made solution about the size of a bucket, with a tap for easy pouring and a fine mesh filter to keep bugs out.

I know there are water butt systems that connect to roof downpipes, but I don’t need to collect large amounts of water. What I’m after is something small, freestanding, and easy to use. Bit of a long shot, but do any keen gardeners know of a suitable option? I've searched Google expecting to find a wealth of results but drawn a bit of a blank. If anybody's previously made something like this, I'd welcome your feedback.

QrizB

How much water do you need?

If you see my reply to this thread:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6632245/what-size-of-water-butt-do-i-buy

... you'll see that a square metre of ground might see 1000 litres of rain per year.

If you scale that down to a bucket like this:

https://www.screwfix.com/p/plastic-builders-bucket-14ltr/64253#product_additional_details_container

It's 33cm across, which gives an area of 0.085 square metres. You'll be catching 85 litres a year. Rather less than two litres a week, less than that once you allow for evaporation from an open bucket.

And if you're on a brown area on the map, it's less again.

Is that going to be enough?

QrizB

Also, why are you boiling the water? If it's just to remove residual chlorine, you can achieve much the same result by leaving it in an open container (like a bucket) indoors for a day or two.

Brie

As mentioned on another thread - check to see if your water company will give you at water butt for free - assuming that is something that will suit your situation.  Otherwise - look at gray water - that from showers, sinks, washing up if it doesn't include a lot of soap/food debris.  

twopenny

If you make an elasticated cover to fit over a bucket you could slowly gather rainwater but it's going to take a long time.

I use large, 3 litre mixing jugs to collect water when I run the hot tap, strain clear cooking water and such then store it in an old fashioned dustbin. I collect half a bucket full a day sometimes more.

No bugs or chlorine.

Tap water is rainwater that has been already passed through filters 

fatbelly

It's relatively easy to set up a water butt taking its supply from a downpipe. I think I got mine from Lidl but it looks exactly the same as this one from B&M at £20

https://www.bmstores.co.uk/products/slimline-water-butt-set-with-stand-and-filler-100l-349106

My own solution is to use the water from my dehumidifiers on my indoor plants. I don't think boiling water is a great idea ws it de-oxygenates it and actually concentrates minerals

TheNorthStar

QrizB said:

Also, why are you boiling the water? If it's just to remove residual chlorine, you can achieve much the same result by leaving it in an open container (like a bucket) indoors for a day or two.

Boiling kills bacteria, and other pathogens in the water and helps to remove calcium deposits. We have a lot of orchids and ferns. 

QrizB

TheNorthStar said:

QrizB said:

Also, why are you boiling the water? If it's just to remove residual chlorine, you can achieve much the same result by leaving it in an open container (like a bucket) indoors for a day or two.

Boiling kills bacteria, and other pathogens in the water ...

UK tap water is essentially sterile. There should be no bacteria or pathogens in it.

TheNorthStar said:

..  and helps to remove calcium deposits.

Boiling does very little to remove calcium or other minerals. Are you n a hard water area?

Where did you get this poor advice?

TheNorthStar

fatbelly said:

It's relatively easy to set up a water butt taking its supply from a downpipe. I think I got mine from Lidl but it looks exactly the same as this one from B&M at £20

https://www.bmstores.co.uk/products/slimline-water-butt-set-with-stand-and-filler-100l-349106

My own solution is to use the water from my dehumidifiers on my indoor plants. I don't think boiling water is a great idea ws it de-oxygenates it and actually concentrates minerals

I’ve heard about using dehumidifier water too, but most advice I’ve seen is to avoid it for houseplants like plants like orchids.

With boiling, the main aim is just to let the chlorine dissipate. Once the water cools it re-absorbs oxygen from the air, so it isn’t really lacking by the time it’s used. It also doesn’t concentrate minerals unless you’re actually boiling it down, like reducing stock in cooking.

TheNorthStar

QrizB said:

TheNorthStar said:

QrizB said:

Also, why are you boiling the water? If it's just to remove residual chlorine, you can achieve much the same result by leaving it in an open container (like a bucket) indoors for a day or two.

Boiling kills bacteria, and other pathogens in the water ...

UK tap water is essentially sterile. There should be no bacteria or pathogens in it.

TheNorthStar said:

..  and helps to remove calcium deposits.

Boiling does very little to remove calcium or other minerals. Are you n a hard water area?

Where did you get this poor advice?

We are in a hard water area, and the tap water here has a really strong chlorine smell. Since boiling and cooling it before use the plants especially the orchids have been thriving, so it does seem to make a difference for us. I know it doesn’t reduce hardness, but it definitely takes the edge off the chlorine, which is what I was aiming for.

QrizB

TheNorthStar said:

QrizB said:

TheNorthStar said:

QrizB said:

Also, why are you boiling the water? If it's just to remove residual chlorine, you can achieve much the same result by leaving it in an open container (like a bucket) indoors for a day or two.

Boiling kills bacteria, and other pathogens in the water ...

UK tap water is essentially sterile. There should be no bacteria or pathogens in it.

TheNorthStar said:

..  and helps to remove calcium deposits.

Boiling does very little to remove calcium or other minerals. Are you n a hard water area?

Where did you get this poor advice?

We are in a hard water area, and the tap water here has a really strong chlorine smell. Since boiling and cooling it before use the plants especially the orchids have been thriving, so it does seem to make a difference for us. I know it doesn’t reduce hardness, but it definitely takes the edge off the chlorine, which is what I was aiming for.

Leaving it in an open container for 24h will fix the chlorine problem.

Edit: a wide shallow one, like an ice cream tub or a bucket. Not a narrow deep one like a pop bottle.