Rain Harvesting

A couple of months ago I installed a rain collection system on the tiny house. It started with gutters which fed into a "first flush diverter" and then into my 125 gallon cistern inside the shed. The overflow feeds back out of the house into a 35 gallon "BRUTE" brand rubbermaid trash can. The system is great, a good heavy rain easily filling my tanks. I am going to add another brute can tied into the supply outside as I am going to need much more water since the garden is so much bigger this year.

The system from R-L : Down Spout, 1st Flush Diverter piped into the cistern in the shed, overflow from inside out to two 35 gallon Brute garbage cans tied together w/ 1" PVC at the bottom. Not shown is the 125 gallon cistern inside and the spigot at the bottom of the barrel on the left. Total system capacity  is almost 200 gallons.

The harvesting system is made up of just a few major parts...

• Collection Area
• Gutter System
• 1st Flush Diverter (Roof Washer) 
• Holding Tanks

Here is a breakdown of each of these components function in my system...

Collection Area
  This is simply the roof. My roof is made of asphalt shingles and while this is not good for potable water, it seems to be alright for wash water. I do have plans for a metal roof (Galvalume) but time and finances have dictated that I use what I have for now. There are numerous perceived problems for using an asphalt shingle roof for rain harvesting and I have read conflicting reports pertaining to the safety of water collected from such roofs. Some studies say that the water is no more polluted than that of a wood shingle or metal roof but my gut tells me that I don't want to drink the water from up there so I don't. In any case, all water collected from a roof harvesting system needs to be filtered before drinking..no matter the material.

Gutter System
  The gutter system that I installed on my house is very simple. I bought the gutter materiel at Lowes and it simply clicks together. I spent around 50$ and had a few odds and ends left over which I saved for my next project. I have a shed roof with about 1/2 of the length being taken up by an awning. I installed a simple water break over the awning section to mover water down into the gutter which wraps around the side of the house (the shed area) and into a downspout which pours into the first part of my "Roof washer". The inlet here is just a large diameter PVC coupling with a fine mesh screen zip tied to the top of it. An angled setup that automatically rinses debris would be better but......well, hindsight.

1st Flush Diverter
  OK. The water coming off your roof is going to be nasty. Bird poop, dead bugs, grit, pollen....all of these things are going to end up in your gutters when it rains and a First Flush Diverter or Roof  Washer will help isolate all of these nasties before they hit your cistern. The diverter is simple to make. It is simply a PVC "T" with the top arms going from your gutter system to your cistern or holding tank. The bottom of the T is connected to a reducer fitting (enlarger actually, you want a larger diameter tube at the bottom) and a piece of PVC pipe to match. At the very bottom a matching 90 degree fitting and a threaded cleanout complete the shell. The magic happens inside. In the lower leg (the vertical PVC pipe) you install a rubber ball. As rain comes off the roof it pours into the vertical pipe first and as the water level rises so does the rubber ball. When the vertical pipe is full the rubber ball should be pressing against the top (the backwards reducer) effectively capping the lower pipe and allowing water to freely flow to the outlet which in turn enters your collection tank. There are numerous pictures on the net and this is a really simple project. Here is a list of items that you will need to make one exactly like mine..

• 2" PVC Pipe
• 2" PVC 90 degree (for the inlet from the gutters)
• 2" PVC "T" Fitting
• 2" to 3" (or 4") Reducer
• 3" (or 4") PVC Pipe
• 3" (or 4") 90 degree PVC Bend
• 3" (or 4") Threaded Cleanout
• PVC Purple Primer
• PVC Cement
• Hacksaw
• Fiberglass Screen (for a sediment filter)
• Large ZIP Ties (to attach sediment filter to the PVC 90 Degree)
• Rubber Ball

I will add some photo's below to try to help explain how to put this together but it's pretty simple and should cost no more than 50-60 $. Or you could buy a pre-made one here.....

You will need to figure out how many gallons you need to flush for the system to work properly as well. My roof is very small, about 200 square feet so I need to only divert the first few gallons of water (2.8 gallons I think). If you have a large roof you may need a bigger system. One option would be to add another washer in series....when the first on fills and lets water pass and the second one starts to work only allowing water to pass after both are filled. There are numerous articles online about how much water to divert but a very safe rule of thumb is 1 gallon per 100 square feet (this is actually overkill a bit). Below is a link to a calculator to figure out the volume of a cylinder. You can use this to determine how much water the vertical PVC pipe will hold....

http://www.online-calculators.co.uk/volumetric/cylindervolume.php

Don't forget to drill a pinhole in the bottom of the vertical pipe so water will slowly drain out, resetting the system between rain events...

Simple Sketch of my first flush diverter...don't forget the rubber
ball inside and the pinhole at the bottom!! 

Water Storage
  Storing enough water is very important. Obviously. My cistern is a 125 gallon water tank located in a shed on the side of my house. The water enters from a 2" PVC pipe at the top (sealed with silicone) and there is a 1" outlet on the side, about 2" from the top (so really my tank holds about a hundred gallons). This outlet is plumbed back outside to two 35 gallon Rubbermaid brand "Brute" garbage cans which are tied together. These cans also have a small outlet near the top for overflow. I think that using a smaller (1") pipe as an overflow on the main tank was a design flaw but so far it has not rained so hard/much that the overflow could not keep up. It will be interesting to see what happens when I get that much rain though.....maybe have to re-do the overflow. Well, so far so good. A good rain fills the tank and a great rain fills the outside cisterns too. One thing to remember regarding your storage tank. Any light will cause algae growth so an opaque tank is better. My tank is not opaque but I have it housed inside a shed, in darkness. A few drops of bleach will kill algae but keeping the tank out of the sun works too....with no harsh chemicals. I live year round in my tiny cabin so another reason for the tank being inside is to keep it from freezing. This winter I plan to add a small vent and blower and heat the shed as my tank did freeze a couple of times last winter.




  I hope this post helps. Collecting water is a neat way to add a little "green" to your house without spending a bunch of green. As water sources dry up and/or get more polluted this may become a necessity. It's nice to be ahead of the curve.

You may notice the Amazon links that are going to start appearing on my pages. These are affiliate links and if you click through them to go shop on Amazon I make a little scratch. As I get more in depth in the blog I am going to try to monetize it a bit (to buy stuff to review...I don't have sponsors) and Amazon is an easy way to go. Your support is appreciated!!

Been busy!!

....It has been a busy time since my last post. I have installed the water collection system and am now enjoying 95 gallons of fresh water for every inch of rain that lands on my little roof. The system is very simple consisting of a gutter system that feeds into a first flush diverter....basically a "T" of PVC with a tube beneath it. The tube is capped at the bottom with a clean out and inside there is a rubber ball. When the rain starts the water is funneled into the diverter and the first 2.5 gallons fills up the vertical tube. Inside the rubber ball rises until it hits the top and closes off the vertical tube allowing the remaining rainwater to continue on to my cistern. The "roof washer" cost about 50$ to build and so far has worked great. I am still not getting potable water due to my roof materiel but I am getting enough for washing and watering the garden....

.....which went in this week. I have doubled the size of my beds, creating three 4x4 beds out of 2 recycled banquettes from a bar in town. I chopped the backs off of them and placed them next to each other with a 4' gap in between. I then tied them together with some scrap lumber and stapled landscape fabric to the bottoms. Inside I have a layer of cardboard and a layer of straw. The beds are filled with rich soil that I bought from the local yard (96$ for 1.5 cubic yards...ouch). It is a nice blend, dark and rich and I have high hopes for the crop this year.

   I have been picking away at the inside of the house too. The kitchen has been re-done. I added some nice shelves (the back of a banquette...waste not!) and I re-did the shower enclosure which looks much better but is much more of a pain in the butt. Going back to the drawing board on that one. I have added some trim around the sliding door and will finish trimming out soon.

...The ceiling is still not in. That's all I want to say about that. It's a mix of lazyness and the extreme PITA factor. it will get done soon. I hope.

Window screens....finally.

.....So last night I finally built screens for the two transom windows on the high side of the house ending a summer of moths, mosquito hawks, mosquitoes, and other assorted flying nightmares. It really only came to a head last weekend as a summer of constant rain gave way to sunny days and billions of tiny bloodsuckers filled the night air trying to eat me. Screen creation was pretty straightforward and cost only about 50$ using kits that I bought at Ace hardware. The screens look great and last night I enjoyed my first night of dinner and a movie without thousands of flying critters zooming around my head.

recording music in a tiny solar house.....

So a large part of my life has always been making music. For years it was how I mad my living and only recently have I not been doing anything musically. I have quite a bit of recording gear which has lived at various times in a garage, a storage unit, some dudes small studio, and most recently and aborted attempt at a community arts center. Yesterday, I retrieved all of my equipment and moved it home.....to a tiny house. It might fit. I have missed recording music so much that I have been hysterically thinking about setting it all up in the house.
  My recorder is a stand alone Korg unit with moving faders and all the bells and whistles including a guitar modeler so I would not need any outboard equipment except an 8 channel mic pre (if I want to record drums). I would not have any monitors per se but I think a 300-500 watt inverter would supply enough juice for the recorder. I could build a box that had a pop up table for under the couch (which I plan to raise anyway) and all of my mics and cables could fit beneath the recorder. Mic stands could be stored at the foot of my bed in the loft and it would take some doing but I think I could make a little music in the house.
  I also own a bunch of guitars which would have to hang on the wall which is not such a bad thing. I need to do some research on the power consumption of the recorder and any other gear and prolly add a couple of more batteries to extend recording time but I think this is doable.

Photo's

Gizmo's....

.......So I stumbled across a 12v ceiling fan on Ebay the other day and with a couple of bucks left in my Paypal account I pulled the trigger. The fan arrived in a box about the size of a mason jar (not a good sign) and after I put it together I was the proud new owner of a tiny ceiling fan for my tiny house....

  I mounted the fan the other day on the high side of the ceiling and hooked it up to the batteries. It moves air pretty well for being as small as it is and if you sit directly under it you can feel a slight breeze. keep in mind that it is at the high side of the ceiling, about 10'. I don't know how it will affect the batteries if left on but it is rated at 6W.....or .5 amps. I sat under it while watching a movie last night (it was a hot day) and it was pretty nice. I think in the winter it will really help keep the house more evenly heated. The downstairs is always cold and up in the loft it is a suana so a small fan circulating the hot air (pulling it down) should help a lot.

The fan cost 30.00 shipped and while small and kind of toy like there are not many options out there for 12v ceiling fans so in my book this was a score.....

here is a link to the Ebay auction..

http://www.ebay.com/itm/400409291951?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

Solar panels!

......The Renogy solar panels have been on the roof for a couple of weeks now, charging a bank of 2 6v golf cart batteries. So far things are going great. The batteries seem to be charging to within the acceptable range during the day and the fridge has stayed cold throughout. My electrical needs are simple. The fridge, an Edgestar top loader is the biggest load. There are also interior lights (two), a water pump, a small fan, a TV/VCR and a small DVD player....all 12v. The only hiccup is that the TV/VCR seems to need a higher voltage (13v) than the batteries can provide over time. The TV works fine while the sun is up and I can watch a couple of movies at night but there is no way I could do a Star wars marathon. I may be able to stretch the movie watching out by adding a couple of more 6v deep cycles which I am planning to do anyway.
  I have not had multiple days of  'no sun' so I don't really know how deep my battery backup is. The charge controller seems to go into float mode every day so when I come home the batteries are topped off. I am interested to see what a few really cloudy days does to my power....or maybe not. I will likely purchase a couple more batteries in the next few days. As it stands I am using 2 6 volt golf cart batteries wired in series to give me a 12 volt bank. The batteries are listed as having 216 Amp Hours and knowing that I never want to discharge below 75-80% that does not leave much of a reserve. 2 more  batteries (6 volt wired in series) should up my AH capacity to 432 AH giving me about 115 AH if I don't discharge over 25%.

Sizing My System

It is strange how there is so much conjecture on the internet about bank sizing. I scoured every website I could find and got a general idea of what I needed but it was (is) still part guess work. 

  My needs are simple, basically those listed above and really everything based around keeping the fridge cool. Here is a complete list that I based my system around...

• Edgestar fridge / 6 amps when running
• small fan / 2 amps when running
• living room light / 1 amp when on
• hood light over stove / 1 amp when on
• hood fan over stove / 2 amps when on
• demand water pump / 7 amps when on
• portable DVD player / 1-2 amps when on ??
• TV/VCR combo / 3 amps when on ??
• cell phone charger / 1 amp when on ??

A grand total of ......Who Knows!

These are approximations and only for when the item is being used. Standby power on the fridge , for instance, is unknown. The fridge is always on but the amp usage is higher only when the compressor cycles.

My best guess is that I use a total of  111 AH a day. Again, this is a guess. I estimated high for all of my fixtures. As you can see, 111 AH per day brings my battery bank dangerously close to the 50% discharge mark so another couple of 6v batteries is in order.

I also plan to add some things....

• 12 volt ceiling fan
• 24" 12v LCD TV/DVD
• more 12v lighting (LED reading lights 1 watt each)

Sizing the system is important but I did not want to overspend. The panels should be good for 20 or so years but the lifespan of a well cared for battery can be as little as 5 years. I bought 6 volt deep cycle (true deep cycle) batteries and not Marine dual purpose batteries so that should help the lifespan but keeping the DOD (depth of discharge) as low as possible is important too. You don't want too few batteries because they will get discharged too deep but buying too many is just a waste of money. There are good calculators on the net and spending some time evaluating your needs will save hundreds in the long run.. maybe thousands.

   Another note...I have been thinking about this system for a long time and have been accumulating 12v appliances. The only thing that runs off an inverter is my laptop (to charge) and that is only a 100 watt inverter. 12 volt appliances, lighting, and fans are easy to find and you won't lose energy converting your battery power to 110V AC. Just food for thought.

Some Helpful Websites..

Here is a great solar calculator for figuring out your daily usage. I came up with about 87 AH on the high side....

http://www.advancepower.net/advcalc.htm

Here is the package that I bought.....

And here is a link to the batteries that I am using....

http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6-volt-golf-cart-electric-vehicle-deep-cycle-service-battery-115ah-autocraft-golf-cart_2100013-p#fragment-2

And some of the gizmo's that I use in the house...

I hope this information helps....