Rain Harvesting

[grunt soldier]

i have one of the 275 gallon plastic totes. i paid 70 for mine and it was food grade. the one downside i see for them is they aren't plumbed for a over flow valve. and i have tried but its pretty hard to do (i suck at it and can't really get them water tight anyone who may want to help me out i would appreciate it as i have another one now ) and though 275 gallons sounds like a lot a simple storm will fill it quickly so if its coming off your down spouts once its full a lot of water will pool up on your foundation basically (which is why you have gutters to begin with) you can buy 80 gal rain barrels for about 80 bucks all done up with the over flow pipe and then you also run that hose out to your gardens, or another barrel, ect ect.

as far as stopping the mosquito breeding grounds i put a super fine screen on mine to filter out debris and hopefully keep the mosquito's out but who knows. if you buy one already done up it comes all set up for ya.

its a good principle either way because if something goes down you have a good amount of water on hand for flushing toilets, washing clothes ect. and you can always filter/boil to drink and cook with it if need be

 

[dom1104]

i have one of the 275 gallon plastic totes. i paid 70 for mine and it was food grade. the one downside i see for them is they aren't plumbed for a over flow valve. and i have tried but its pretty hard to do (i suck at it and can't really get them water tight anyone who may want to help me out i would appreciate it as i have another one now ) and though 275 gallons sounds like a lot a simple storm will fill it quickly so if its coming off your down spouts once its full a lot of water will pool up on your foundation basically (which is why you have gutters to begin with) you can buy 80 gal rain barrels for about 80 bucks all done up with the over flow pipe and then you also run that hose out to your gardens, or another barrel, ect ect.

as far as stopping the mosquito breeding grounds i put a super fine screen on mine to filter out debris and hopefully keep the mosquito's out but who knows. if you buy one already done up it comes all set up for ya.

its a good principle either way because if something goes down you have a good amount of water on hand for flushing toilets, washing clothes ect. and you can always filter/boil to drink and cook with it if need be

I honestly dont know what you mean, overflow is a function of your diverter, or at least, you cant figure out how to make a hose run down from the top of your tank out away from your foundation? I am lost. I dont understand your issue.

This is the divertor I use for my two tanks.

RainReserve Rain Barrel Diverter Kit/Rain Diverter Kit

 

[nate1865]

I do have electricity close by, so conceivably I could heat it with electricity enough that it would not freeze. Hm.

Of course that introduces the cost and energy factor which is what I'm trying to avoid in the first place. lol

 

[J man]

If you do not need to use the water in the winter, I would not worry about the freezing. Just drain down to 1/2 or 3/4 and you should not have to worry about your container splitting.

 

[grunt soldier]

I honestly dont know what you mean, overflow is a function of your diverter, or at least, you cant figure out how to make a hose run down from the top of your tank out away from your foundation? I am lost. I dont understand your issue.

This is the divertor I use for my two tanks.

RainReserve Rain Barrel Diverter Kit/Rain Diverter Kit

ok that thing is pretty awesome and would completely eliminate my problems. i was going to plumb a pipe in it that was open at the top so when it was full the water would run into the pipe and out into a hose that runs off in the yard but i couldn't get it to seal and it had a steady drip/leak at the bottom. that thing you posted is pretty awesome yet expensive. i will be ordering one though in the future.