Subject: Re: [Shop-talk] Connecting a remote tank to main system?

From: John Innis <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 19 Oct 2015 12:57:17 -0500

Interesting question.  I have often wondered about using electric pumps in
a rainwater collection system.  From my point of view, this doesn't make
sense.  Or at least it would not make sense where I am.  I already have a
well with an electric pump that pulls filtered rainwater out of the
ground.  A rainwater collection system doesn't really buy me anything
unless I can avoid using the pump somehow.  So my system collects rainwater
off the house and stores it for drip irrigation of the garden.  100%
gravity fed, no pump at all.  This prevents me from having to run the well
pump when I want to water the garden.  But as soon as I add an electric
pump to the mix, it kind of looses the benefit for me.

On Mon, Oct 19, 2015 at 10:31 AM, Ronnie Day <[email-masked]> wrote:

> We're using rainwater collection at our place. The original setup is pretty
> straight forward, guttering off of a shed roof with several levels of
> initial filtering before the water goes into the tank farm with main
> filtering and treatment between the tanks and the feed line into the house.
> Recently we added an additional 300 square foot roof on the porch and I
> want to collect and get the water from the porch roof into the system.
>
> I'm thinking I should be able to collect this water in a decorative barrel
> or tank and pump it into the main line, preferably ahead of the first flush
> filters. This would involve pumping the water around 35 feet horizontally
> from the front of the house to the back and up maybe 12 to 15 feet.
>
> Shouldn't I be able to use a sump pump to accomplish this? Are there models
> rated for potable water. I'm doing on-line research but I thought I'd throw
> the question out to the group, too. However I accomplish this I plan on
> doing something similar on a large shop I'll have built not too far from
> the house. Collect the water in a smaller tank using a series of screening
> and filtering methods, then pump it into the main tanks.
>
> Thoughts, ideas, questions?
>
> Thanks,
> Ron
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From: Benjamin Zwissler <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 19 Oct 2015 15:30:35 -0400

I don't know about sump pumps, but there's lots of choices for potable
water "transfer" pumps.  Northern Tool has some 12V ones pretty cheap.
Head pressure was 40' or so, more than enough for what you need.  Around
here (Indiana) asphalt shingle roofs come pretreated with a fungicide, is
that something to worry about if you capture the runoff for drinking water?

Ben.....

On Mon, Oct 19, 2015 at 11:31 AM, Ronnie Day <[email-masked]> wrote:

> http://autox.team.net/mailman/options/shop-talk/[email-masked]

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From: Ronnie Day <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 19 Oct 2015 14:52:31 -0500

I probably should clarify that the rainwater collection setup is all that
we have and that both roofs are bright aluminum corrugated sheet metal. The
original system been working fine for over a year. We choose to go this
route rather than spend in the mid $20K range to have a well drilled. I am
finding more info online and there are a number of suppliers of components
and complete systems within a couple of hours of us.

Of course you can never have too much storage either. Long term I'm
planning a metal shop building not too far from the house and we'll be
collecting off of it, too. Probably will go with a 2550 gallon tank and a
complete first flush setup, then pump from that tank into the main tank
farm closer to the house as needed.

Since we're roughly 25 miles NW of College Station long term freezing
weather really isn't an issue which makes the whole thing much simpler.

RD

[email-masked]

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From: David Scheidt <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 19 Oct 2015 19:06:29 -0500

> and filtering methods, then pump it into the main tanks.

That's well within the capabilities of a sump pump (you'd size based
on the capacity in gallons per minute required; 1 inch on 300 square
feet is a bit more than 180 gallons, so an inch an hour rain would
require a pump that could do 3 gpm, which is 1/4 hp range, I think.).
Whether you can get a sump pump that's rated for potable water, I
don't know.  But this seems like it would something that's common with
rainwater systems, so if they're common where you are, it shouldn't be
too hard to find a supply house that knows what you need.

-- 
David Scheidt
[email-masked]

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