Hello and welcome to another blog post about building things! The project is actually to build a rain catchment/solar water heater/hand washing station, but that title was just too long 😊 We are at an exciting point in the homestead/blog journey in that I’ve given updates on all the big projects that were completed before the blog existed. The flashback posts are nice, but they rely on my memory to tell you a good story…and I’ve always wished my memory is better than it actually is 😁 Too many times I’ve worked on a project thinking I’ll remember all the details forever. Fast forward a mere couple of weeks, and even the important details seem like a distant memory. If you couldn’t tell from my previous blog posts, I like to tell long and detailed stories with lots of build up. I’m even doing it right now 😊 I love it all. The spark of an idea, the planning/concept phase, the questions/concerns of the unknown, seeing the end goal achieved, and most importantly (to me anyways) the emotions that were felt throughout the process. To me it is all crucial to the immersive experience that is a story, which is why I am excited to get to these blog posts while I am working on projects rather than well after they were completed.
With that I will be attempting a nice little project to build a rain catchment/solar water heater/ hand washing station. These are important concepts for self sufficiency, plus I’ve wanted to play around with them for a while now. It also highlights the blueprint for the homestead: try something new on a smaller scale where the stakes are lower, make mistakes/learn from them, and apply the lessons learned on the larger scale versions.
When I first started designing this I was planning to have it sit in the open area ~100 feet from the outhouse. I wanted it there so it would have full sun exposure outside of the woods, and therefore be best for the solar water heater. With this location though, I would have to build a whole new “roof” structure for collecting the rain. We already have two roofs near the outhouse (the sleeping shack and outhouse), but it is very shaded by the trees so the solar water heater becomes a little trickier. I like using the roofs that are already there, and the added challenge of the solar water heater in the woods should lead to a good learning opportunity! I’m thinking I will need some sort of holding tank attached at the top of a near by tree to get enough sunlight to heat the water. The water collection is the main goal and the solar water heater is more of a ‘nice to have’, so I think this is the best approach.
In terms of supplies, I actually already have most of what I need. I had purchased a utility sink last year when I had grand plans to have it installed inside the outhouse. Turns out it is hard to fit a utility sink in a 6’ X 4’ space and have any room to move around so that plan got changed very quickly 😂 I had also purchased some PVC pipe at the time, and I had received 4 plastic barrels (55 gallons) a few years back. I think I’ll use another 6’ X 4’ platform so it has a sturdy base, and I already have the roofs on the outhouse and sleeping shack. I’ll need to purchase gutters and learn how to install them. Then it should just be random fittings and transitions to connect it all together. I would also like to have a table on the platform next to the sink for washing dishes and whatnot. We have a metal patio table up there already, but I am not sure if it will fit next to the sink on the platform. Only time will tell I guess 😊
The hand washing station should be pretty straight forward, but the solar water heater will provide some challenge. Not only will I have to mount a holding tank high in the air to get some sun exposure, but I will also have to figure out how to fill it. Right now I’m mulling over a couple options. One option is to make it easy to raise/lower the holding tank. The other option is to not move the holding tank, and instead use a pump of some sort to get the water up there. A lot of this will depend on what our holding tank ends up looking like. If it is something that is easy to pump water in and out of then I will likely go that route. If that is difficult then a pulley system of some variety should get the job done. Either way this part of the project is solidly in the future Will problems category 😁
I’ll start the design with just a single 55 gallon barrel. To calculate the amount of rainfall one can capture we will use the equation:
1” of rain x 1 ft2 capture area = 0.623 gallons
FYI there are no special factors in here. Just a simple unit conversion 😊 So for every inch of rain, a square foot of a collection surface will capture 0.623 gallons of water. Based on this, and that our geographical location gets ~25 inches of rainfall annually, I would need ~3.5 ft2 of roof area to fill the 55 gallon drum in one years time. This assumes though that we are capturing ALL of the rain, and that is just plain silly. I’m also not likely to keep any water (or collect any) in the rain barrel during the winter when it will freeze and potentially break the barrel. This means that we should have plenty of room in just one barrel, but I have four total so we can adjust if necessary.
I think that is about it for the preliminary items. Now I have the fun task of learning how to install gutters…and then report back my struggles to all of you! Take care out there and drop a comment below if you have any helpful experience related to the project!