Collecting rainwater is a simple but effective way to be more eco-friendly and save yourself a bit of cash at the same time. People don’t tend to think about the amount of water they use, but you’re probably wasting money on something that falls readily from the sky.
There are a couple of ways to collect rainwater and use it around the house. If you live somewhere with a wet climate and you are serious about being self-sufficient, you could invest in a collection tank and a filtration system to pump rainwater into your home and then clean it to be used for showering and drinking etc. However, if you don’t want to do that, there are still ways you can make use of rainwater.
With a simple water butt in the garden, you can collect quite a lot of water. The only question now is, what do you do with it?
Water Your Garden
How much water do you use to water your lawn and the plants in your garden? If you have a big garden, this probably makes up a big percentage of your water bill during the summer. Why pay for it when you can just use rainwater instead? In fact, it’s actually better for your plants because they prefer natural rainwater over tap water that has a lot of minerals that might upset the soil pH. Not all plants will die from tap water but there are some particularly fragile ones that should always be watered with rainwater. So, you’ll end up with a healthier garden and save money at the same time.
Wash Your Car
Washing your car is another activity that wastes a lot of water. Rinsing it off takes buckets and buckets, so you should consider using rainwater instead. However, be aware that there could be small pieces of dirt and debris in there that might damage your car, so you should filter it first. You don’t need an advanced filtration system that makes it safe to drink, you just need something to take out the big pieces of dirt so they don’t scratch the paintwork.
Use It In The Toilet
Unless you have a proper filtration system, you can’t use rainwater for showering or drinking. However, you can still use it for flushing the toilet and this saves a lot of water. If you want to do this, you will need to plumb the toilet into a waste water tank and use a Grundfos pressure pump to pump the water through and fill the cistern. This might sound like a lot of work but it’s actually relatively cheap and easy to set up. Once you have the system running, it will save you a lot of money, so it’s worth doing.
Wash Your Pets
You might not like to shower in rainwater, but your pets probably won’t mind. Again, you should filter out any big bits of dirt but once you’ve done that, there’s no reason why you can’t wash your pets in stored rainwater.
If you’re trying to be a bit better to the planet, why not get a rainwater collection tank and try out some of these simple uses?
