![]() The sump has to be where it is and the tanks will be about 20' away. Thanks for the reply! A lot of the things you suggested are actually what I was planning but didn't include in the original post, so many details! We're open to suggestions as we've never done this before I won't need to start collecting water seriously until the end of February so I'll have time to do some testing, etc once i get it all installed. The irrigation controller is on the way and I still need to order all the valves but we're making progress. The pumps are all here, the sump system is half installed and the large tanks are on order and due in about a month. There will also be 2 hydrant style hose connections in the garden fed from this system. Each raised bed will be its own zone and have a dedicated irrigation valve and a single 3/4" feed to be distributed in the bed via poly drip hoses. The irrigation system will be built using a wifi enabled irrigation controller that can control 16 zones. The pumps have a pressure switch and will provide more than enough flow for our needs and at a pressure of 55 psi. Both will not be used at the same time but the ability to have a ready spare is important so one will be isolated while the other is in use. On the outlet side of the tanks I will have a pair of 1 hp pumps (shallow well pumps) both isolated with valves and with spin down filters on the inlets. ![]() ![]() Each tank will have a valve/union on the outlet with flexible sch40 PVC connecting it to the "pump manifold" piping to help eliminate plumbing issues caused by flexing of the tanks. The 3 tanks are poly, 2500 gallons each and will be connected together on the bottom. There is a screen filter on the outlet of the pump (from a swimming pool pump) before the water is dumped into the first tank. The pump has an 1/8" metal screen wrapped around it for filtering the small amount of debris we get in those gutters. In the sump is a 1/2 hp sump pump with a float switch and check valve. In the 2nd position the rainwater is diverted into a sump made from a buried, plastic 55 gallon drum with the top removed and a lid fabricated. When the valve is in the 1st position the water will "bypass" being collected and run out where it currently does. That pipe that carries all the rainwater will have a diverter valve (4" septic drain field diverter) installed inline. The gutter downspouts are now all plumbed underground to a single pipe that runs out into the property behind the barn. ![]() We get an average of 52" of rain each year so we have PLENTY available to collect. According to my calculations that should gather about 750 gallons from a 1" rainstorm. We have a pole barn beside the garden location with a 1200 sq ft metal roof and gutters. The irrigation side is all off the shelf lawn irrigation parts and the plumbing will be mostly PEX and some PVC. The pumps are inexpensive and used for shallow wells and basement sumps. So we will be putting this system together with off the shelf parts normally used for other things. Second, from my research, using purpose built rainwater collection equipment for this project would bankrupt us. We want to build one that is mostly hidden and out of sight. Typically we get ZERO rain from late June to early September so our goal is to collect and save enough to get us through that period.įirst, we don't want a system that makes our property look like a jungle gym playground with overhead pipes running all over the place. The garden will be about 2500 sq ft and in the Pacific Northwest where we live we get plenty of rain *most* of the year. I've been working on the design for a bit now, including both the catchment, storage and delivery of the irrigation water. My wife and I are building a garden this winter/spring and part of it will be a fairly large rainwater catchment system.
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