Every rural house is set up this way in Australia. Colorbond steel or similar provides the best drinking water. Never let mosquitoes get in the tanks, our tanks have fine stainless steel mesh screens.

He was my Permaculture professor at Oregon State.... He's classes are amazing, he's so insightful., and most importantly engaging ... and basically a World Boss on Permaculture. Thanks you again for being an amazing professor, Andrew. You've changed my view and perceptions on how we can make a better world. ~ A grateful former student

Im about to start my farm in iran, and i cant tell you how much your videos helped me, thanks alot✌️

Literally every house in the sertão (a dry region in Brazil) is like this. Since water can be expensive, people store rainwater for months, sometimes even years lol.

I am on 100% rain water useage in my New Mexico mountain home for 9 years now. Blue gold indeed!

If you add some steps from the German standard DIN1989 for rainwater harvesting, you’ll notice pre-filtration, calmed inlet, overflow siphon and floating suction, all great ideas to keep water in the tank clean and sludge to a minimum.

I use a water catchment here on Hawai'i island. I have a similar method to harvest water. As an extra filter to prevent fine sludge, I use two nylon knee-high stockings catch any fine dirt from entering the tank that passes by the first flush. It works to keep the USDA grade tank lining fairly clean. I use a simple toilet float to lift the house inlet flow hose. It keeps the inlet hose off the tank floor. It prevents pumping in any rubbish collected on the tank floor into the pressure tank. Next I use a filtration system that uses, rope 20u, carbon 5u, UV light, and calcite, to filter the water to drink. All at 50psi. My tank is corrugated steel covered with a black nylon mesh cover. No leaves or trees around the gutters. On long sunny days, I use a small amount of bleach to reduce algae growth. The amount of rainfall depends on the maintenance needed.

When building my new house, i incorporated flat concrete roof to catch rain and act as a roof top balcony for recreation. I also have 6 ground level storage tanks, which are all connected by underground piping, spread out around the house to more conveniently collect rainwater. The rainwater is then pumped through a pressure tower sand filter to supply water to my 3 storey house. So i am basically self sufficient. Cheers.

A swirl filter, like used in aquaponics, could be used just before the tank to replace the "first flush" and filter out all of the solids and make it easy to dump the build up. Its basically a barrel with a pipe inlet that feeds the incoming water through the side and down to the bottom of the barrel then another pipe that is pointed upward in the center of the barrel that then goes down from the very top rim of the barrel (the water level) and makes a 90 degree turn in the middle of the barrel to the outgoing water. water fills in bottom, fills up to the top where only a thin layer of the cleanest water gets through

The idea of water tanks (which are usually pretty ugly) being used for ivy and screening is one of those V8 DUH moments. Never thought of this!

Simple and easy to understand. Great video! It's crazy to think how much rainwater just flows down the streets in cities and into the sewers. Worse yet the same cities then have water restrictions when the supply is low.

I Use two 2500 Gallon storage tanks for my aquaculture operation and i just adapted a pool vacuum for cleaning the bottoms of the tanks once a year. Works very good and is dirt cheap.

I have seen/watched dozens of videos and read as many articles on rain harvesting... By Far this short video has/ IS THEE Best description of How the system works. Pure basics.. I started with twelve 55 gallon barrels not knowing the 1st clean - out, or about algae buildup from the sun...I Definitely do now. Since my first attempt with 55's, I have graduated to the IBC totes (275 gallon). Hopefully my New system will have 12 totes.

Overflow into wicking beds, natural swimming pools/ ponds, garden irrigation/swale system

Been on rainwater’s collection for 27 years. Love it

I love the idea of the drop-down tube for the inlet.

Here in Aotearoa/New Zealand collecting roof water is very common. In fact, I have never been connected to city water. I collect about 65,000 litres of water at any given time.

I have no idea about any of this but i tried to really listen and understand. I have never seen someone write and draw so neatly. You are such an intelligent person. How did you become so extremely smart. I kinda got lost in your teaching because I was admiring all the drawings. 😂. Truly incredible

Instead of a big tank I have 2 heavily mulched hugelkultur garden beds. They hold all the roof water and stay damp enough for weeks between rains.

Sir you are a blessing to humanity and a genius, at some point i would love to invite you to himachal pradesh in india for a little awareness help 🙏

Raise the storage elevation for gravity flowing. Search for storing the rainwater at ceiling level to benefit gravity flowing, as well as coping with winterizing.

One of the best and most informative videos on KZfaq on rainwater harvesting

That's a lot of extra work drawing like you did. It's a very nice illustration of what your talking about.

Your channel is gold for me...

My system just collects water off the roof into a 600 gallon tank which is only used for watering the trees and plants in the garden. people often ask how much water i get its easy to work out, rule of thumb take the footprint of your collection roof and divide in half that will give you gallons per inch of rain. so 1000 sq foot roof footprint will get you about 500 gallons at 4.5L per gallon per inch of rain, where i live we can get that in one rain storm in june/july so it fills fast.

Isn't it easier to just have covered gutters that keep things like leaves from the gutters? The one I had installed, 5 years ago, works great and I am surrounded by a dozen 100 year old trees (oaks, maple and and two pines) in an 1/3 acre lot. The water collected in barrels seems just fine. Will be adding the same to my separate cottage, since we just went through a rare severe drought. Much of the state is still under severe or extreme. Glad I just ran into this channel., while watching the current episode.

This should be MANDATED into EVERY NEW house build. It is up to municipalities to institute such a program. The harvested water could be used for landscaping watering ... and other uses. I would think it would cost at least 8 to 9 grand to set up a system for each house.

Incrrdibly helpful. Thank you!

Working on my rainwater catchment on our 576 sf house in Tennessee! We’re designing all of our 5 acre farm from that starting point. Everything above the exit point of the totes will be food forest. Everything below it will be our gravity-fed drip irrigation annual vegetable beds for personal and commercial use, as well as nursery and greenhouse. Trying to make everything as passive as possible!

I came for the art (and the backwards writing) , but I stayed for the awesome information.

Been nomading with my bf for three years now. Have gotten pretty efficient at it. Packing the car for another excursion and watching this to empower me with the knowledge to build a sustainable little abode one day. Not that I’m bored of traveling AT ALL, it’s just my life has just been much much more empowering and better for my self sufficiency than I could ever imagine. Feels like we can do anything. Yay to life skills!

What a great method for presenting information. This is the first video (and of yours) Ive seen like this and am looking forward to more. Love the drawing techniques and callouts. Looks like engineering drawings. Thanks Andrew!

Andrew, I love your channel! I've learned so much from you. Hope you continue teaching folks for a long time.

You're a really good teacher Andrew Millison! Thank-you for these videos 👏 🙏🙏

My well water recycling plan. Permaculture Ponds. Hydroloop for Grey Water. BioRock for Sewage.

Andrew, I love your presentation style and the information you are sharing! Thank you for doing this great work! 👍🙏❤️😊

Thanks - helps me explain this concept to others!

Love what you do! --Mother Earth-- Not a resource--She is the Source of All Life. Respect.

Hi Dear Andrew Millison your presentation (video) is always the best Thank you

Good luck to you, Andrew. We're monts away from building our rainwater harvesting system, and your info has been very useful. Cheers from northern Spain.

You should take a look at Green Dream Project’s videos! They did a giant earthbag cistern and one of the first things they built on their land was an awesome rainwater harvesting system. I’ll be building out in Colorado soon myself and I’m looking forward to putting some the methods I’ve seen in your videos to the test. Found your channel through Paani’s “Drought to Prosperity” video - I’ve been fantasizing about seeing these kind of watershed development projects happen across the Southwest (AZ/NM/CO) ever since.

Something important to consider is that even if your system is perfect and keeps out all infectants like bugs or anything like dirt, you'll still need to both PURIFY AND FILTER your water before drinking, as rainwater is not safe to drink even straight out of the sky anymore because of "forever chemicals" that stay in your body and build up, causing cancer and other issues later in life.

Absolutely superb, Andrew, thank you! I will be doing this (my wife and I have been discussing doing so for months) and sharing your video far and wide.

Here in Seattle, we get about 40 ( one meter) of rain per year, but have a seasonal draught in the summer lasting 3-4 months. Being a frugal person, I despise pouring water on the ground and then buying citiwater. So for twenty five years or so I have collected rainwater and used zero citiwater. But being frugal, my rainwater collection system is simple and frugal as well. I have a 600 gallon steel tank I bought thirty years ago from a metal surplus junkyard for $30 or so. It originally contained an aircraft engine for shipping by the military! I also have six 50 gallon plastic barrels in my basement that I picked up for nothing over the years, and a bunch of five gallon plastic buckets used to store water as well. The barrels in the basement are filled with the best water collected during rainstorms and such. I use one downspout to fill the 600 gallon tank, and two other downspouts to fill two fifty gallon plastic barrels. Water from the downspouts goes through a window screen before emptying in the tank/barrels. First flush rain is just diverted manually onto the ground, and when it is running clean, is diverted into the barrels/tank. When full, the outdoor barrels are covered with a steel top to keep insects/sunlight out. The steel tank is covered with plywood unless it is being filled. I bring water into the house for use in five gallon buckets. If needed, I'll pour water from one bucket into another through a bath towel to filter it. So no pumping or elaborate equipment is used or desired. During the summer draught, I'll minimize clothes washing by sorting out towels and such that are dried and saved for washing until the rains return. Clothes drying is done on a clothesline. A considerable amount of water is used watering a small garden. I don't use a regular toilet, a massive water waster. I live alone, having never married or had children. So I am free to pursue my hobbies and interests as I may choose, and using rainwater is a hobby for me.

Thank you for the useful information! Greetings from Romania 🇷🇴

i remember geoff lawton said to let light get into the tank so that algae can grow, and the algae is good to keep the water clean.

Very good. New building owner must use Zisternen in germay. For garden water or toilet.

An idea would be to have 2 outlets at the bottom. One as a clean-out at the bottom, and a regular outlet a little higher for use. It's okay to have two... Geoff Lawton utilizes algae as part of his system to clean the water... The nice thing about growing vines over a tank is that it cools it as well as reduces the chance of algae if that is your goal.

Your videos are AMAZING. Thank you!

I’m very impressed by your skill of writing in reverse 👏👏

You made this video real easy to understand. Thank you for the valuable information

We've been doing that in PR since I was a young boy and before my time.

thanks, this was really useful and comprehensive. Im just designing our water harvesting system and there were many elements I had not considered. As our system is purely for watering the garden im going to place the tap at the very bottom to reduce build up of sludge

Regarding algae growth you can always do a PH alteration. For example if you use it for irrigation you can reduce the PH down to 5 and you won't have any problem with algae. Also you can protect the top from excessive heat by adding special paint or reflective metal.

I get excited when I see this channel bell notification. Mollison said to plan for water first before anything else. Love this ❤️

From experience I find that leaf screens can not handle the high flow rates here in Florida, a great deal of water deflects off the unit rather than going through the screen. The first flush unit I have is minimal in effectiveness. The ball that seals off the first flush diverter once it is full, actually is forced to the bottom of the unit. This prevents sealing off that first water coming into the system, which is the dirty water one does not want. The manufacturer of the first flush provides a slow release or slow drain device for the bottom of the vertical. I find even the largest orifice for the device plugs up with the first rain coming off a polycarbonate greenhouse roof. One should consider a secondary filtration and the use of an agent to kill any germs, pathogens, etc. As collected rain water should never be consumed without further processing.

Most clear video of basics on subject. Researching your other videos. Thank you

Thanks for the info. I'm planning to collect rainwater off the house for watering a large garden space. The initial, large tank will feed down to the center of the garden space where a solar pump setup will bring the water into a smaller tank placed on a small tower. From there, the idea is that we'll be able to gravity feed the entire garden from this center tower.

Many thanks. I've been pondering this for months, and have five 55 gallon drums ready to be set up. Ten thumbs up! If I had that many...

Swing by my house and hook one up that drip feeds the tiny vegetable garden next to the down spout. That's all I need.

Check the local building regs of where you live, as some local water companies have had local ordinances enacted that stop home owners from harvesting rainwater.

You have the best content. SO helpful. THANK YOU!

GREAT STUFF. THANKS. CHEERS FROM NYC!

Excellent speaking, word choice, presentation ,information, etc….. EXCELLENT TEACHER.

Thanks, may the good comes to you

I’m in the U.K. so please take some of our rainwater too! (We get far too much almost every day!!)🤣😂

Thank you so much for this video! You answered every question I ever had about rainwater harvesting and inspired me to create a system for my off-grid uses.

EXCELLENT instruction.....the best I've seen yet.

Outstanding Video, this was exactly what I was looking for. Thank you...

Fantastic. Thank you for this wonderful tutorial.

Be honest, this video is just a major flex of your drawing/presentation skills?

Where do I even start!!! I'm so excited to find this kind of content with the level of knowledge, articulation, and artistry. I'm a builder by trade, specializing in off grid, and sustainable construction. Strawbale, Rammed Earth, Shipping container, ect. Your videos are concise, informative, artistic and articulate. You are camera and audio aware ( which unfortunately is rare on KZfaq). I'm excited to watch the rest of your content. Super cool use of the "reverse" white board. I've never seen that before. Thanks for all your hard work on these videos and I look forward to the next one. Cheers Cappie

Love your videos. Permaculture quick and simple. About the lightproofing though. I watched an old course with Bill Mollison and Geoff Lawton. Especially Geoff thinks that algae can have positive effects on the water and do not necessarily reduce the quality. However it is important to have the outlet connect to the middle of the tank and never to the surface of the water, so no algae are pulled out with the water. Just to give a perspective, everything else would have been done the same of course.

On Hawaii's Big Island people have been collecting rain water for eons. Thats how we got our water for years. Really drives home the message DONT WASTE WATER.

whatever you do, get a really really large collection tank. when it pours it'll still fill up fast and sometimes droughts last quite a while..

Super inspired by this channel. Thanks for the good work and sharing.

As always, your videos are super informative and insightful! I'm new to permaculture design and your content is tremendously beneficial!

This is an excellent video on the subject. Very clear and interesting explanation. Thank you Andrew. I'm looking forward stopping paying for water and collecting and using roof water for my house.

Wow! I am amazed by the quality of both idea and presentation. This is a really nicely done work, sir.

Thank you for sharing this valuable information that I can now supplement on my future rain catchment system.

Why is everyone talking like this is some amazing new concept? It's been happening for ever in rural Australia.

While _well_ out of work, and yet confronted by an overgrown North London garden (with ALL the tools one needed buried within it), I discovered the magical properties of a _large_ rain-water butt. Chopping down my original border covering of COMFREY, I stuffed it into both my composting site, and also the rainwater butt. This produced 'comfrey tea' which smelled like goat's piss but was the elixir of life to my salads, pulses, and root crops flourishing in the orchard. The lowpoint in the garden became a pond which filled itself in late spring with around 10,000 froglets, each the size of a 5p piece. The pond stood beneath a plum tree which broke all its main branches under the weight of the fruit it bore.

Entertaining and informative, I think you touched all the bases and did a wonderful job of it. Thanks for the video! Play through

OMG!! you're amazing!! Thank you Andrew for making this video!

Best video ever! Your a very good instructor

I live in Rural Kentucky and while my water comes from a hill side spring this helps a lot. A first flush should help clean out the fine sediment. The rest I got right so far. My overflow feeds my pond and animals. overflow after that goes back into the brook where the spring originally fed. So just borrowing water as needed basically. I have a 2 stage filter and a UV light to make it potable. My next off grid house I will use rain water though, so again this helps greatly. Thanks so much for this video.

For a small cost you could dump the water first into a smaller tank with a pump pulling the water out going into a filter system. The storage tank could hold cleaner water which can be further filtered as the water is used.

You have done it. Best explained and to the point

Another awesome video! Thanks very much for sharing, Andrew.

Such a creative video! Good job. Thanks!

Hi. You can also use a swimming pool cleaner some times.

In Brazil a non-profit created a rainwater catchment cistern for our semi-arid region that was so successful that it became a government program. Almost a million were built in the last 20 years.

This dude is awesome.

Here in Spain we put them under ground and in 3 overflow units for the best results

Superb video. Really inspiring!

"i find it really boring to talk about them" ahahaha my favorite line in all ur videos to date bc ur so perfect all the time (in a wonderful way duh but also ugh 😂)

That was a very well done explanation.

Weldone ! Good job, public come to know, how important the water to sustained life, on the earth planet, for next generation, if start havesting Rain water now,, God bless you!!!Thanks Guna Sri lanken.

Love the illustrations!!

Very clear and easy to understand. Great video on setting up a rain water harvesting system. There will be more or a desire for this in the near future