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Friday, March 28, 2014

Secondary Storage of Rainwater

I have designed, but not yet implemented the secondary storage array of IBC totes for the rainwater catchment system. See illustration below


This array or "wall" is for 15 IBC totes.  Each tote has a 275 gallon capacity, so this array has a capacity of 4125 gallons.  The wall is about 20 ft. long by 12 ft. high and 4 ft. deep.  I will connect all tanks at the same level together  with a valve to not permit the water to go down to the next lower level in order to keep the water as high as possible in the array for keeping the water pressure high at ground level.

It is my hope to construct two of these walls about 12 ft. apart, running parallel with each other giving me a total capacity of 8,250 gallons for the secondary storage.  That way I can construct a roof over both and basically have a breezeway between the two for storage (I can even fit my car in that space).  I am going to have to put some sort of cover over the wall to protect the tanks from the UV light.

I will have to modify this design if I use it to allow for air to vent out of the individual tanks as the water rises, just as I have done on the primary tanks. More on this later.

I have also learned of very inexpensive water bladders that will hold 10,000 to 40,0000 gallons of water that might be considerably less expensive, not require protection from the UV light since they are opaque black, and will pressurize as they fill to give me more water pressure without having to pump the water.  More on this later.

last revised 6/17/2014

1 comment:

  1. The way I plan to plumb the array of IBC totes is going to lead to a problem. Since I am filling the tanks from the bottom valve for each tote, as the water level rises I must leave an vent for the air to leave. If I do leave a vent for air to escape, when I open the valves for the upper tier I will potentially lose water out the vents of the lower tiers. Instead, I need to plumb the water from the upper tier into the tops of the next lower tier or something like that. I have to think this through real carefully before I actually plumb it or I will have to redo it.

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