Hard to believe that we went several years without a rain water catchment system at the casita.
In May I saw a barrel catchment system at a green workshop in Bastrop, Texas that used food grade 55 gallon drums to store the water. I liked their design, but I wanted to make a few modifications to fit our needs.
Our requirments:
- Be able to fit a 5 gallon bucket under faucet.
- Stand had to be able to hold weight of (2) 55 gallon drums. 110 gallons X 8.35 lbs = 918.5 lbs.
- Keep mosquitoes out.
Our 'would-like-to-haves':
- Be as freeze-proof as possible.
- Not look like 2 crappy food grade 55 gallon drums sitting in front of the cabin.
Results:
- I built the stand out of 4X4's and 2X6's. I made half-lap joints to secure the 2X6's to the 4X4's using 3/8" lag bolts to hold everything together. Time will tell, but I believe this design will easily hold approximately 1000 lbs.
- The stand is tall enough to fit a 5 gallon bucket under the faucet.
- All the vent holes are screened with window screen that is small enough to keep mosquitoes out.
- I used 2" PVC pipes to help prevent the pipes from freezing. I'm also going to wrap the pipes with insulation.
- We had fun painting the barrels.
We still have some painting to finish on the barrels and I want to adjust some of the plumbing. It rained 3 consecutive afternoons while we were out there and we were able to collect about 35 gallons of rain water that we used to water our cactus garden.
