Rainwater Harvesting

[marcelo]

Guys, do you have any experience with this?

I would want it to save rainwater to use to clean down after lambings etc. Logistically how hard is it? Bury a tank and fit a pump? Do I need access to the tank or could it (hypothetically) go under a concrete floor?

 

[steptoe]

This has actually been discussed before,

Did

@Apache ever do it,? 

 

[Lurch]

It would need to be accessible, but it would only need a manhole cover over it. We used to do the same for the tanks on farms for septic tanks and rainwater. Literally a concrete box with a manhole buried/built underground somewhere.

 

[phil d]

We have a massive tank at my mates farm, it's about 30 feet tall and about 10 feet in diameter, it takes all the water off the roof of one of the big sheds, that has an access hatch in the side, although obviously it needs to be empty to open it.Which ever method you use just be aware of the hazards of entering a confined space, If anything noxious was to enter the tank, then a person entering it could be overcome by the fumes.

 

[Marvo]

It's no more complicated than a tank and a pump but you need a big tank to make it worthwhile....okay...you're in the UK so maybe not so big but even to have a single powerful hose to wash down an area you could work on 30 litres / minute consumption so for 20 minutes of wash-down every day you'd need a thousand litre tank and that's assuming the rain is refilling it daily. If you only get good rain once every 3 or 4 days you'd need 2 or 3 thousand litres of storage. Surface HDPE tanks are fairly cheap but most of then don't have sufficient structural integrity to be buried. Underground tanks are less of an eyesore but more capital outlay.