Former Roy-Fisher landscape designer, Bill Chambers, devised a rain water collection system at his company’s, Chamber & Sons Landscaping, headquarters in Peoria, Illinois. The inspiration came when he wanted to cultivate plants but could not, due to the lack of water infrastructure on the property. He began by purchasing two standard sized garbage cans from the local home improvement store to setup as a test system. He used PVC pipes and fittings to connect the two. One can had the downspout from the building’s roof empty into it. The test system turned out to be a success, and it was time to expand.
A local plumbing company (C.L. O’Brien Plumbing, Inc.) gave Bill several old water softener tanks to use as more rain barrels. But these aren’t standard garbage cans, these are much larger. With these new barrels the system went from a capacity of 64 gallons to 1,200+ gallons.
Bill spent several weeks perfecting the rain barrel system. He installed a lower patio for the larger barrels and individual pedestals for each of the smaller containers to make sure the control water level would fill up 100% of each barrel and utilize 100% of the water collected by each barrel. The first barrel (one of the original two garbage cans) that the downspout empties into has screen filters that the water must pass through before entering the other barrels. All the barrels are connected with PVC pipe and fittings and waterproofed using large rubber washers. He installed a hose bib to the largest barrel and a 560 GPH submersible pump resides inside the large barrel as well. A drip irrigation hose was attached to the hose bib which also has an easy to clean out filter.
It rained for a couple of hours on Sunday, September 20th, 2009, which was more than enough to fill the entire system to the brim.
Any questions or comments are greatly appreciated as this is an experimental rain collection system. Thus far it seems to be working wonderfully, but any ideas on how to improve it are greatly appreciated.
3 comments:
Please give an update! Is the system still working? How many plants have been cultivated?
The original 560 GPH submersible pump was not powerful enough to sustain a large nursery crop. So, adjustments were made and a 1 ½ horsepower centrifugal pump was installed. The pump is connected to the largest barrel by a 1 ½ inch PVC intake pipe. This now feeds the nursery area. A combination of drip irrigation and 15 foot Rainbird spray heads now water the crops.
A 1 to 1 ½ inch rain provides enough water to fill the system. When full, the system can provide 30 minutes of watering. A groundwater source has been located elsewhere on the property and in times of drought can be pumped up to the system.
Several plants have been grown with the system and installed on various residential and commercial jobs around the area. This includes Day Lilies (Hemerocallis), Hostas , Sedums, Purple Coneflowers (Echinacea), Black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia), Little Bluestem Grasses (Schizachyrium scoparium), Tickseeds (Coreopsis), Coralbells (Heuchera), and Astilbes to name a few.
The system is drained and disassembled before the first freeze of the winter and reassembled the beginning of spring.
Visit www.chambers-landscping.com for information on the type of work done at Chambers and Sons Landscaping in Peoria, Illinois.
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