Rain "Harvester" Gets Water Supply From His Roof

Rain "Harvester" Gets Water Supply From His Roof FARM HOME Miscellaneous 28-1-26 Retired master plumber Robert Foley is reaping the rewards of his economical system for storing rainwater, and he's eager to show others how to do what he's done. The Bandera, Texas man says his water tastes great and tests have shown it's cleaner than city water. Even in last year's big Texas flood, when he got more than 24 in. of rain in a month, Foley never had to compromise like others who were handicapped by broken water lines and contaminated municipal drinking water. "While other people were buying bottled water, or adding chlorine to their wells, I was able to help out my neighbors by giving them drinking water from my system," Foley says. "The flood was still a terrible experience but at least I could wake up, flush, get a shower and make coffee like any other day." When he set up his system, Foley says he knew that with the normal annual rainfall in his area of 31 in. he could collect 20,000 gal. of fresh water per year from the rooftop of his home. He had grown tired of the taste and smell of the heavily chlorinated water supplied by his municipal system. He says it was also hard with a capital "H". "Why not tap into an ongoing supply of soft, free rainwater?" he asked himself at the time. Foley was able to build his entire rain gathering system for under $2,000, using his existing rain gutters. He connected the gutters to a water line which transports the rainwater to the first of a series of eight inter-connected 120-gal. storage tanks. He was able to get the tanks for free, since they were pressure tanks that had developed small holes. Before using them, Foley patched the holes with metal epoxy and then mounted them on a concrete pad. He added a large plastic storage tank for a total capacity of 2,150 gal. All tanks are plumbed together by 1 1/4-in. PVC pipe. "I used a 1/2 hp shallow-well jet pump and a 5-gal. pressure tank set at 50 psi to pressurize the system." To get purified drinking water, Foley built a "rain washer," (which he describes in detail in a book he has published), and then added a 25-micron filter canister, a five-micron filter, a high intensity ultraviolet light to kill any remaining bacteria, and one more five-micron carbon filter. He admits the water was already clean before the last filter, but he included it just to improve the taste a touch more. This system meets all of his domestic needs. Foley's plumbing experience helped him in planning his piping system, but he says anyone could set up a similar system. To assist others that are interested in taking advantage of the free supply of rainwater, he has written the book, "It's Raining û You're Storing." "It's very explicit and has numerous illustrations, making it easy to understand," he says. For orders within the U.S., Foley charges $26 per copy, including shipping. Foreign orders are $31, including shipping. All payments must be in the form of money orders. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Robert Foley, 283 Big Rock, Bandera, Texas 78003 (ph 830 796-4878; please call before 9 a.m. Central Standard Time).

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