Rainwater Collection Systems and Freedom from the City Water Supply and Saving Money
My husband's salary is decent. It's what it should be for an engineer. We did well when we 
were both working—really well. But now that we have three small children and I'm a stay at home mom—well, we're not living the life of the rich and famous. We're scraping by paycheck to paycheck it seems. Our expenses have just about tripled with the kiddos around. Our water bill is incredibly high. Between laundry, dishes, showers and baths, I'm actually surprised it's not higher. Our most recent water bill was the last straw though. It was a wakeup call for both me and my husband and that's when we started discussing rainwater collection systems.
At first it was just a random thought. We're both pretty environmentally conscious so a rain barrel to collect water and using it seemed like a good idea. For our family, we'd need several barrels—and big ones at that. It's the right thing to do. We discussed that there would be upfront costs of installing a rainwater collection system. First off, rainwater collection systems aren't cheap, not the ones we need anyway. So there's a cost up front and then there is actually installing it. But if we can reduce the amount of city water we use, it'll pay off in the coming months. Not to mention the environmental benefits as well.
So we found a website, rainharvest.com, which not only sells rain water collection systems and rain barrels, but also had all the information we needed to seal the deal and make a purchase. We learned that having a rain barrel isn't enough. We'll need filters too, and even pumps.
So we started browsing and decided to go with the RainMaster 1700-IG Rainwater Collection System. At 1700 gallons, I think it will work perfectly. It's a complete system with a child safe tank, filter, automatic pump, floating extractor, and pump connection kit. The investment wasn't that bad. It was cheaper than our solar panels we had installed two years ago. And because we budgeted for more, we were able to get the Rainwater System Controller.
My husband thinks he can dig the hole for this tank. But we'll have to get someone out here who specializes in rainwater collection systems to install. Like we said, it'll be worth it in the end. And we'll feel better about it too. I think we'll see a return on our investment within the next year. Not paying such high water bills for the city is going to save our wallets.
were both working—really well. But now that we have three small children and I'm a stay at home mom—well, we're not living the life of the rich and famous. We're scraping by paycheck to paycheck it seems. Our expenses have just about tripled with the kiddos around. Our water bill is incredibly high. Between laundry, dishes, showers and baths, I'm actually surprised it's not higher. Our most recent water bill was the last straw though. It was a wakeup call for both me and my husband and that's when we started discussing rainwater collection systems.At first it was just a random thought. We're both pretty environmentally conscious so a rain barrel to collect water and using it seemed like a good idea. For our family, we'd need several barrels—and big ones at that. It's the right thing to do. We discussed that there would be upfront costs of installing a rainwater collection system. First off, rainwater collection systems aren't cheap, not the ones we need anyway. So there's a cost up front and then there is actually installing it. But if we can reduce the amount of city water we use, it'll pay off in the coming months. Not to mention the environmental benefits as well.
So we found a website, rainharvest.com, which not only sells rain water collection systems and rain barrels, but also had all the information we needed to seal the deal and make a purchase. We learned that having a rain barrel isn't enough. We'll need filters too, and even pumps.
So we started browsing and decided to go with the RainMaster 1700-IG Rainwater Collection System. At 1700 gallons, I think it will work perfectly. It's a complete system with a child safe tank, filter, automatic pump, floating extractor, and pump connection kit. The investment wasn't that bad. It was cheaper than our solar panels we had installed two years ago. And because we budgeted for more, we were able to get the Rainwater System Controller.
My husband thinks he can dig the hole for this tank. But we'll have to get someone out here who specializes in rainwater collection systems to install. Like we said, it'll be worth it in the end. And we'll feel better about it too. I think we'll see a return on our investment within the next year. Not paying such high water bills for the city is going to save our wallets.
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