FREE water forever. LEGALLY!!!!
7,429,720
Published 2023-10-10
My Primary website here:
SuburbanBiology.com
Some folks have asked in the comments what welder I am using. Here is a link to the little portable red welder you see in the pump house scene and the retaining wall scene. It has served me well for many projects due to its portability.
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I installed a 30k gallon metal tank in my backyard so that I can run my entire house on rainwater. Often called a rainwater catchment or rainwater collection system; this has allowed me to avoid using city water and to catch free water from the sky instead. Think of it as a pool-sized rain barrel crammed into my backyard.
If you would like to contact the installer I used (Jeff Sergent) in the central Texas region you can find his contact info at : suburbanbiology.com/
If you enjoyed this content and want to support my mission of spreading the message of suburban resiliency consider supporting me on Patreon: www.patreon.com/suburbanbiology
I also please consider becoming a youtube channel member if you are a super-fan of this type of work. My channel membership is currently under review but I will update this once it's live.
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ROUGH COST OF THIS PROJECT:
30,000 GALLON TANK- $16,000 USD
PVC pipes and fittings and gutter works - $4,000 USD (very rough estimate)
My time and labor- hard to quantify. The steel for the retaining wall was probably around $1,000 USD.
Tractor purchased used probably still retains 90% of it's value
Other tools and welders obviously cost money.
Sand and rocks- About $1,000 all said
Refurbished pump- $500
Backflow preventers and other fittings- $1,000
Labor to the contractor varies widely based on how much work you do yourself. These are very rough numbers and probably vary from region to region. The cost of drilling a well in my area would have been on par or slightly more than the above tank cost. The pumps and filters would have been required for either.
All Comments (21)
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Thank you for showing us your journey on this beautiful water system you've created. Shows us the important of water and how much we don't value it when we are in abundance, but when tragic events happen like yours, it really shows us the importance! Thank you again!
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step 1: own land
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its crazy that doing this in some states is illegal. Collecting rain water should never be illegal.
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Amazes me how much free stuff costs these days .
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"A hedge against drought, zombies, and climate change." Man's got his priorities straight, that's for sure!
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As an australian It stuns me that people around the world don’t have rainwater as an option
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I work in the office for a company that installs these rainwater systems. Here in The Netherlands we build them underground. That way the water temperature stays constant, no algae in the water, and it can't freeze in winter.
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1) buy suitable land 2) construct this tank so it's underground 3) build something over the top of it, planters/ grow house/ storage/ garage or living space with solar on top if possible
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This has been in my mind for years. To use the house we live in as a complete rain catcher complete with water cleaner. My family and everyone around me has the same mindset, a good job means you're successful and no other thing makes you a success. All the while I've had this in mind. For me to learn knowledge like this, that instead of working for someone else to make money to pay the water bills, I'd work to learn how to collect water, clean and disinfect the water, and how to harvest the water for use. Same with electricity. I don't want to work to pay the electricity bill, I want to learn how to generate, direct, and use the electricity. Not just for myself, but for my kids and for all my descendants forever. This will be massive in the next couple of years. Good on you for creating this! It looks amazing!
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Technical/engineering skills will never go out of fashion. Absolutely brilliant!
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I work in water filtration, rain water is fantastic. Just a few things for other people to keep in mind: - Keep a clean roof, install gutter protectors, use a first flush diverter to dump debris in first run-off - If you live near farmland, there may be pesticide/herbicide overspray, if that's the case you need carbon filtration which adsorbs a range of chemicals - Protozoa, cryptosporidium, giardia, cyclospora are always a risk with tank water, I'd recommend a minimum 1 micron nominal silver impregnated carbon block filtration on drinking water to deal with them - If there are factors which make bacteria or viruses a concern (dirty roof, lots of birds/bats, decaying organic matter), install an ultraviolet steriliser for all water coming in. UV will also take care of protozoa, cyst parasites. - If you use UV sterilisation, you will need a minimum 5 micron nominal sediment filter before it to remove particulates pathogens can hide behind. Forgot to memtion -- acidity can be an issue. Rainwater is naturally acidic and when it sits on plastic it stays acidic. If it is low, it can damage copper water lines, causing pinhole leaks. The copper also enters the water potentially posing a health risk. It can also introduce lead into your water from brass fittings. Test your water's acidity and if it is below 6.2-6.4 or so, consider installing a calcite or calcite/corosex system to buffer the pH back up. If you ever see green/blue staining in your bathroom, it is acidic water stripping copper off your water lines.
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Probably the most educationally valuable video I’ve ever watched on YouTube.
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Thank you for showing this.....Some people just don't understand how precious ''Liquid Gold ''is..And so many take advantage of it till there's NO MORE!!
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Have you considered sending your excess solar energy into your water tank to create ozone and purify the water?
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"It's that easy" that looked insanely hard!!
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This is amazing. The discussions bring light to how much I know!
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Thousands of us live on water catchment that collects rain from our roof tops. We've been living like this for over 50 years. Awesome video!!
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I have been involved in the water treatment industry for 39 years and before retiring was once in charge of a large municipal water system in Maryland. I currently work for an organization that helps small rural communities with water and wastewater issues. One of the topics we cover is rain water harvesting and I am very impressed with the system you have designed. I am working with some folks in the US Virgin Islands on rainwater harvesting as there are a few of those islands that have no useable fresh water sources. Thank you for sharing your wonderful video and I am currently living in south Texas as well.
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I just found out about your channel from my older brother and i'm loving it! You've got my subscription all the way from Addis Abeba, Ethiopia(east Africa). cheers 👍
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the amount of work from research, to construction, to video production. it's just incredible
