Rainwater Harvesting as the Primary Water Supply for Your Home

Water for the Home

Have you ever considered the water that comes out of your kitchen faucet? Where does it come from? Is it good water? Is it bad water? Does it come from the local city utility? From a well?

When you start to think about the water in your home, it can be an eye-opening process.

Did you know that you can have your own personal water utility using rainwater harvesting?

Really? Rainwater Harvesting as the Total Water Supply?

Yes!

Rainwater harvesting is a common water source in Europe and Australia, the United States simply hasn’t adopted this self-sufficient water source at a large-scale. We have many customers who have been living with rainwater harvesting as their sole-water supply for many years – and they love it.

At first blush, a rainwater harvesting system can seem unreliable or complicated. But, the more you learn about a properly designed system, the more you will start to realize how robust and practical a personal water source can be!

What to Consider Regarding the Water in Your Home?

Again, thinking about the water in your home may not be a daily consideration, but it quickly grows in importance if your water is coming out brown, or has a strong odor, or your shower is spraying at a dribble, or the water has stopped flowing and you can’t flush your toilet.  

Chances are, you have experienced some form of one of these common water issues – so let’s talk about it.  

Water Quality

If you are using city water, there are three primary water quality issues of which you should be concerned: Water hardness, chlorine, and drinking water contaminants.

Water Hardness: This varies greatly across water municipalities in the U.S., but in most areas, some amount of water hardness is present, and the negative effects of hard water are brought along with it.

Chlorine: This is meant as a placeholder for whatever type of disinfectant is used in the disinfection process at the water utility – oftentimes a chemical called chloramine is used. These disinfectant chemicals are toxic and should be removed before coming in contact with your body or for drinking.

Drinking-Water Contaminants: This includes all organic and inorganic contaminants, heavy metals, pharmaceuticals, and other toxins.

If you are using well water, the contaminants increase to also include iron, sulfur, ph issues, sediment, and a few others which will need to be addressed.

When it comes to rainwater harvesting, the water is naturally soft! No softener needed. It is also free of disinfectant chemicals. And lastly, it is extremely low in TDS (total dissolved solids), free of the drinking water contaminants mentioned above.

Water Availability / Reliability

While this may seem to apply solely to well water, but we have had many customers who have experienced unavailable/unreliable utility water, especially in rural communities. This could be caused by being up on a mountain, old pipes, or several other variables. And wells can run dry or change in water quality.

Rainwater harvesting puts the water storage on your property! Using 100-year rainfall data, we can determine with extreme accuracy what amount of water will be on hand every month of the year.

Water Pressure and Flow Rate

This is a vital part of enjoying the water in your home, there are things you can do with city water and well water to increase the pressure, sometimes increasing the water flow is the hard part.  

The great thing about rainwater harvesting is you have complete control over both factors! It’s your own private water utility district!