Your Questions About Rain Barrels Answered

Conserving water is uncomplicated and infinitely sustainable with a rain barrel. It takes nothing but a barrel, a hose, and a spigot. Living in a rainy area is helpful, but not necessary; even in the desert, the storms during the rainy season can easily fill a 100 gallon barrel. If you have wondered whether a rain barrel would be a good investment for your house, here are the answers to a few questions you may have thought of.
Do rain barrels have any additional benefits in addition to water conservation?
The water that barrels catch and conserve is also water that does not have a chance to sink into the ground around your house and soak into the foundations, reducing long term structural damage to your house.
How big a rain barrel will I need to get started?
55 or 100 gallons is a good starter size. Many homeowners find that once they have seen what conserving rainwater does for them, they want more space, and either buy a bigger tank or link together several smaller barrels. Even larger barrels are useful for supplying bigger buildings; schools and public buildings often have tanks that can hold 2,500, 5,000, or even 15,000 gallons at a time.
What kind of containers are acceptable as rain barrels?
Any opaque and relatively nonporous material, from wood to metal to plastic, is suitable for a barrel. If you adapt a container instead of buying a commercial rain barrel, make sure the material will not leak chemicals into your water supply. For example, ornamental copper pots are a bad idea because of the extremely poisonous nature of copper "rust," or verdigris. Certain plastics shed chemicals when heated or when in contact with a substance for a long period of time, so some people are starting to look at plastics with suspicion. If you do choose to buy a plastic barrel, pick a barrel made of food grade plastic.
I live in a heavily polluted area where the rainwater is not safe to drink. Is there any point to installing a rain barrel?
Absolutely! Even if the local rainwater is undrinkable, you can still put it to a number of uses. Watering the lawn is a notoriously ungreen activity because lawn grass is so water intensive, so taking the strain off the municipal system and watering your lawn with harvested rainwater can be a significant step toward water conservation. Car washing does not need water that is clean enough to drink. You can also use undrinkable rainwater to water houseplants and to wash your floors, gardening equipment, and anything else that is not used to prepare food. If you have a green toilet system, you can even pipe the rainwater into the system.