Everything off grid; power, water, self-sufficiency; whether you're doing it or aspiring.
For mobile forms of off-grid living, consider taking a look at:
It's an 80l trash can.
The inverted lid has small holes drilled in them and act as the rain collector.
Two more pairs of holes, at the edge of the lid and into the container, together with some string keep the lid from blowing away.
Are you woried about microplastics getting into your drinking water from using a plastic container?
I've actually graduated to macroplastics.
Just started unspooling my 3d print filament straight into my mouth.
Rainwater already contains plenty of microplastics. What's a few more? 🥺
I don't worry about that, no
Whatcha gonna use for? Irrigation?
I use rainwater for everything. From drinking to washing.
How do you keep it clean so it’s potable?
For cleaning/washing dishes/etc I use it as is.
For washing myself, cooking and drinking, I filter it. First through a fine cloth, then through a commercial, activated carbon based, filter.
Thanks!
That is not removing pathogens? I think you should consider boiling it too!
Obviously the point is to be off grid but many places restrict how much rain water can be collected, due to its impact on the ecosystem. One bin like this usually isn’t gonna cause a problem but rainwater runoff is vitally important for local flora and fauna, as well as the health and wellbeing of the rivers, lakes, and streams nearby.
Also definitely should boil the water, or at least filter it further if it’s to be used as potable water.
It's always bugged me that cities use this excuse but then they pave roadways and parking lots with drainage basins that shoot that water directly into the nearest river as fast as possible creating more impact than if every household had ten of these barrels.
Plus a lot of the time people collect rainwater to water their gardens instead of using city water so it's just delaying the input of the water into the system.
If you were lucky enough to get a very heavy rain say three inches you would have three inches of water in that can. For it to work enough to be practical you need a large surface area that diverts the rain water into the can. A roof with a downspout is a good example
You're spot on about surface area. A 1000 sq ft roof can collect about 600 gallons of water from just 1 inch of rain, compared to maybe 5-10 gallons from that trash can lid. I started with a similar setup and quckly realized I needed to connect to my gutters to make it worthwhile.
I mean, you could just leave the lid off…
Of course. But I'd rather keep the lid on, as it keeps debris such as leaves, branches, etc out.
Don't want mosquitoes getting in there either, lid is a must.
And the holes in the lid need to be smaller than a mosquito. Maybe some fine meshed screen would be helpful. I can’t really tell how big the holes are without a banana, for scale.
but the protein :(
The lid will get clogged pretty regularly with that debris.
I think it's there to minimize debris in the water.