Comments on: Rain Barrels? http://www.joshkelahan.com/myblog/2008/07/22/rain-barrels/ Whatever Sat, 24 Oct 2009 01:05:20 -0400 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Rainy Review of Rain Barrels at Jackie Koerner http://www.joshkelahan.com/myblog/2008/07/22/rain-barrels/comment-page-1/#comment-81 Rainy Review of Rain Barrels at Jackie Koerner Fri, 08 Aug 2008 14:59:11 +0000 http://www.joshkelahan.com/myblog/?p=120#comment-81 [...] of my “tree hugger” friends posted to his blog, exclaiming that rain barrels are bunk.  Above I have listed some wonderful uses for the water [...] [...] of my “tree hugger” friends posted to his blog, exclaiming that rain barrels are bunk.  Above I have listed some wonderful uses for the water [...]

]]> By: Josh http://www.joshkelahan.com/myblog/2008/07/22/rain-barrels/comment-page-1/#comment-80 Josh Fri, 25 Jul 2008 04:31:19 +0000 http://www.joshkelahan.com/myblog/?p=120#comment-80 I'm not trying to take away any business from anyone selling these things, but I don't see this as a realistic solution. Lets look at this from a purely mathematical standpoint. Assume we have an area that is one square mile (approx 640 acres) and we say its all homes and that all the homes are on a quarter acre of land. So we have 640 x 4 homes (lets ignore roads and everything else that would also block rain water from seeping into the ground. So that's 2560 homes. If it rains one inch that is the same as (according to the US geological survey) 17,378,560 gallons of water. Lets say that half of that water seeps into the ground, giving us an excess of 8,689,280 gallons of water that would need to be stored. If we divide that amount of water by the number of homes in our 1 square mile, each household would need to store 3394 gallons of water. That is a retarded amount of water. So now lets change this up a little, lets say at 90% of our one inch of water seeps into the ground in our 1sq mile area. Now we only have to deal with 10% of our one inch of rain, which is 1,737,856 gallons of water. Divide this by the number of homes and you get 678.85 gallons each household would have to store. Lets go farther, lets say that 99% of the 1 inch of rain seeps into the ground leaving only 173,785.6 gallons of water we need to deal with. Each homeowner would need to store 67.885 gallons of water. What does it cost to store this much water? Almost $300. But keep in mind we have excluded roads, parking lots, and business, which would cut down on the overall number of homes in this area. I’m not trying to take away any business from anyone selling these things, but I don’t see this as a realistic solution. Lets look at this from a purely mathematical standpoint. Assume we have an area that is one square mile (approx 640 acres) and we say its all homes and that all the homes are on a quarter acre of land. So we have 640 x 4 homes (lets ignore roads and everything else that would also block rain water from seeping into the ground. So that’s 2560 homes. If it rains one inch that is the same as (according to the US geological survey) 17,378,560 gallons of water. Lets say that half of that water seeps into the ground, giving us an excess of 8,689,280 gallons of water that would need to be stored. If we divide that amount of water by the number of homes in our 1 square mile, each household would need to store 3394 gallons of water. That is a retarded amount of water.

So now lets change this up a little, lets say at 90% of our one inch of water seeps into the ground in our 1sq mile area. Now we only have to deal with 10% of our one inch of rain, which is 1,737,856 gallons of water. Divide this by the number of homes and you get 678.85 gallons each household would have to store.

Lets go farther, lets say that 99% of the 1 inch of rain seeps into the ground leaving only 173,785.6 gallons of water we need to deal with. Each homeowner would need to store 67.885 gallons of water. What does it cost to store this much water? Almost $300. But keep in mind we have excluded roads, parking lots, and business, which would cut down on the overall number of homes in this area.

]]> By: Aquabarrel http://www.joshkelahan.com/myblog/2008/07/22/rain-barrels/comment-page-1/#comment-79 Aquabarrel Wed, 23 Jul 2008 22:38:17 +0000 http://www.joshkelahan.com/myblog/?p=120#comment-79 Josh: There is a very important aspect to rain water retention that you have overlooked. The term is storm surg - IF everyone were to retain a bit of water from an impervious surface and then release it on a dry day (when the water table can absorb it) then you will reduce the impact on the environment and on the water treatment plants. It has been proven that if more folks did this then there would be a dramatic reduction in flooding. Josh:
There is a very important aspect to rain water retention that you have overlooked. The term is storm surg – IF everyone were to retain a bit of water from an impervious surface and then release it on a dry day (when the water table can absorb it) then you will reduce the impact on the environment and on the water treatment plants. It has been proven that if more folks did this then there would be a dramatic reduction in flooding.

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