....so last night I received a massive downpour at the house. I got 1/2" of rain in a very short period of time and really put the screws to the rain harvesting system. My inlet from the gutters is 2" PVC and my overflow outlet to the outside barrels is 1" pipe. The rain came so heavy last night that the overflow could not keep up with the rain coming off the roof. Luckily I was there to divert the gutter water away from the system, keeping the main storage tank from overflowing but If I had not been home it would have been a huge mess in the shed. Today I plan to go to Lowe's and get a 2" bulkhead fitting and the rest of the bits to make my overflow the same size as my inlet.....or maybe I could arrest the water coming into the pipe to slow it down. A 1" reducer after the 1st flush diverter may work.....I need to do some thinking.
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| The problem is the small pipe going into the barrel on the right. This comes out of my cistern as overflow. Water was pouring in so fast last night that the smaller diameter pipe was not letting enough into the overflow to keep up.. |
The good news is that 1/2" inch of heavy rain topped off my cistern and would have easily filled my outside barrels. With 70 gallons outside to water the garden I should be able to last 8-10 days with no rain (more like 8). I may tie 1 more rain barrel in, giving me an outside capacity of 100 gallons....that would be nice.
So the Moral of the story is that the overflow pipe needs to be the same diameter as the inlet pipe on your rain system or a very heavy rain will overflow the cistern. That's not a big deal if your cistern is outside but mine is in the shed/bathroom. Not Good.
Hope this helps.....
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