Rain Barrels

[Avadrea]

My grandparents had one of these on their farm when I was a kid. Wasting natural water was silly we used it to water the plants and the dogs. Its a simple barrel left out to collect natural rain water. Perhaps if you implement weather this would be a good idea. Or a simple barrel that fills with so many liters of water every day.

[JustasJ]

We could build those as additions to houses since they would collect the water that had fallen on the roof of the building. And, of course, I can't wait until rains begin to fall.

[kaka]

I like it.
We even have one at home, plus one at our summer place. :)

[niltrias]

I like the idea fine, especially with how it ties in with jorbs recent posts about snow and what not.

But damn...I grew up in the sticks, and I never once saw one of these. Maybe a scandanavian thing?

[sabinati]

what q is the rain?

[Peter]

what q is the rain?

Depends on the quality of the barrel and the building.

[Avadrea]

I'm from the states and grew up in Michigan so I don't think its a Scandinavian thing. My grandpa was Irish/Scottish and my grandma was French Canadian.

[Cookie]

Maybe it depends on how much rainfall they get in the area you come from? Someone from Las Vegas might have less need for a rain barrel than someone nearer to a rainy coastline.

The hard freeze hit us before we were ready this year and now our rain barrel is wintering out with this ten inch tall extruded plug of ice sticking out the top. It looks kind of cool. We shan't be able to empty it until the thaw but that's okay because there is plenty of snow to melt if we want rainwater for something anyway.

[VowOfSilence]

Maybe it depends on how much rainfall they get in the area you come from? Someone from Las Vegas might have less need for a rain barrel than someone nearer to a rainy coastline.

It's mainly a matter of living standard. Simple rainwater barrels are pretty low-tech obviously, so they are used in the countryside, poor countries, or by grandparents who are still used to doing that. In some states of the US, city buildings need to have more high-tech rainwater systems by law.

Anyway, i'd love to see rainwater barrels as well.
An early option could be to carve a stone into a rainwater collector.

[minck1]

Living in a desert, collecting and storing as much water as possible would be a good thing. Lake Mead can't support all the demands on it.