jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

In some states, it's illegal to collect rainwater.

Did you know that rainwater is not pure? Like snow and hail, moisture latches onto impurities in the air and then becomes individual drops of rain. Basically, rain is the sky getting a good cleaning. Depending on where you live, rain could have lots of bad stuff in it.

https://www.familyhandyman.com/article/collecting-rain-water-in-these-states-could-be-illegal/?_cmp=diytipshintsnl&_ebid=diytipshintsnl742022&_mid=511280&ehid=73A5119F6D6B55A335D41D8BD7D8D335A74FB2CE&_PermHash=bd21b40cef185e699339cb565fc5ad1ad6a80355db458b2059b848bd83716669

Blair Shaw Jr Loc: Dunnellon,Florida

Jerry: You can still filter that rain water if you wanted to and probably be okay I would think. Just a thought.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

We recently installed sinks, so I don't have to hope for rain anymore.

Picdude Loc: Ohio

You don't hear much about it anymore, but "acid rain" was a big concern in the late '70s and '80s.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

And now we just accept it.

ecobin Loc: Paoli, PA

Purple Rain is quite good.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Black Rain was good, too (Michael Douglas).

RiJoRi Loc: Sandy Ridge, NC

Just remember that the first 20 minutes or so is your roof getting cleaned as well! (Read this back in the late '90s.)

--Rich

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

Back many years ago it was 'in' to have a rain barrel to collect water for various uses including watering your garden.

While there are some advantages to collecting rainwater (no chlorine added, no minerals, so it's soft water), watering your garden is not one of them.

Your plants need something on the order of 1" of water a week to thrive. If it rains, they get that water and the barrel is full. If it doesn't rain, the barrel is empty so it won't be there to water your plants. Also, 1" of water on your plants takes a fair amount of water. If your barrel is 50 gallons, that's about 5.9 cubic feet. Spreading that out to 1" depth you have about 70 square feet for your garden. I'm probably biased, having farmed about 5 acres, but 70 square feet is not enough space to grow much more than 2 meals.

If you're farming, 1" of water on an acre is 30,000 gallons. That's about 600 barrels. per acre.

I did not find a source of barrels that I could collect at minimal cost (plus plumbing). So I used a well. It gave me 50 gallons/minute, which was just about enough for 5 acres. In the dry season it ran continuously.

BArthur3

I recently had to close up and dispose of property in a rural area of central NY state from my dad and step mom -- technically it was my step mom's side of the union (they married in 2000). The main house was built in roughly 1900 and had a well. Also on the property was what I'd term a "bungalow" built somewhere about 1920 or '30. Included in the bungalow were two basement (below grade) cisterns (cement lined) to collect rain water, for most uses in the building -- each cistern was easily 1500 cubic feet, so 11,000 gallons. Sometime in the '60s or '70s a line was run from the main house to feed the bungalow with well water. But each time I think about it, I shudder with the thought of using the cistern water for most purposes -- although I have no definite idea whether it provided drinking/cooking water. Those were definitely the "simpler" -- maybe more accurately "naive" -- days. I'm certainly glad we've moved on!

Bunko.T Loc: Western Australia.

Well I can understand that in America, but here in Western Australia, our air is comparatively clean. Many of our dwellings install rainwater tanks & catch the water runoff from the roof. A typical tank of 1000 gallons, or whatever the metric number is. I’ve had one in most of my homes, 2 of the 3 I’ve lived in. Rainwater is great, no need for filtering. Tea made with rainwater is to die for. Much nicer than scheme water.

whfowle Loc: Tampa first, now Albuquerque

I remember when I was a boy growing up in Tampa, my mom would put a large galvanized tub under the crease of the roof and collect the rain water to do our laundry. Doing laundry was quite an operation then because the manual tub with crank wringer had to be brought into the kitchen, tubs were placed around the wash tub for first and second rinse, then the wet clothes were hauled outside to be pegged to the clothes line to air dry.

rlv567 Loc: Baguio City, Philippines

But did the residents of the houses in question survive their use of the water???

Loren - in Beautiful Baguio City

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

What happens to the dust that settles on your roof between rains? Does it just settle to the bottom of your rainwater tank? Do you have to clean the tank periodically?

Of course well water comes through dirt and rock so there's nothing inherently wrong with it, but it goes through settled materials, not things on the surface (which in your case probably includes roo poo).

And if water has a taste, it's probably due to additives.

ddgm Loc: Hamilton, Ontario & Fort Myers, FL

I grew up on water from a cistern both at home on the farm and in our 1 room school. We used to put our butter in a pail hung down the cistern to keep it cool in the summer. Still alive at 76 and all my 5 sisters are too. Oldest is 91. In rural areas here the usual method is to have your garage as the cistern, double garage 24' x 24' x 4' deep= Lots of water and most have filtering systems now.