How to Use a Rain Barrel for your Home and Garden

In many parts of the United States, water comes as a premium. There is a shortage of clean water for drinking and cooking. One way, to collect and use water, is through use of a Rainwater Barrel. You can find a barrel at Lowe's or Home Depot.

Barrels can get to be very heavy when they get filled with water. You might want to add a faucet to the bottom fourth of your barrel. You can collect the water off your roof during a rainy day. Simply run your down spout into the top of your barrel. It also helps to have a lid on the top of your barrel. This keeps out unwanted insects like mosquitoes. It is also good to have an overflow hole about a fourth of the way down from the top of barrel. I have seen these with hoses attached to them. Once again, this for insect control.

One inch of rain over a 24 hour period on an average roof will produce 700 gallons of water. That is enough water for 17 baths, and 28 showers. You would still have water left over for your garden. This according to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

You can't use this water for drinking purposes. However, you can use it for watering plants, cleaning your car, patio, deck, and even livestock. You can use it for emergency flushing of your toilet, putting out fires, and helping out our ECO systems. You can easily attach a garden hose to the faucet so that it can reach your plants.

From time to time, you need to clean out your Rain Barrel to keep out bacteria. You can do this by using a couple cap fulls of Simple Green. If algae would start to build up, you can clean it out with Clorox.

Using a Rain Barrel, will save you money and not waste good clean water, that is needed for drinking and cooking by others. It is a great way to conserve water and still maintain the things that you need water for.

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Comments (1)

paul said:

	... I will be setting up a rain barrel sometime soon. It is such a good use of water.
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June 17, 2009
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