We know rainwater catchment systems are gaining in popularity as tanks are specifically built for the purpose. Some people are asking what they can count on for a household system. Here is a quote " Rainwater Harvesting Formula - For every 1” of rain and 1,000 square feet of impermeable surface (roof, driveway, etc), about 620 gallons are generated. Meaning, you can capture about . 62 gallons per sq ft. To figure out the square footage of a surface, multiply the width x length." - Calculate Rainwater Harvesting Potential & Area Needed To Absorb It – Surfrider Foundation
Additional storage information is here
https://tapwaterguide.com/how-long-can-you-store-rainwater-for-drinking/
Think about installing traps and screens https://www.rainharvest.com/rain-harvesting-pty-ddcr98-clean-rain-advanced-downspout-filter-and-diverter.asp?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI5Y6Czf7s8QIVMRh9Ch3TIAOSEAQYAyABEgIbDfD_BwE
Large tanks are now commonly available https://www.rainharvest.com/3000-gallon-above-ground-vertical-water-tank.asp?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIrN2ygf_s8QIVZAnnCh2M5QAxEAQYAiABEgJP3_D_BwE
If your looking for an off grid solution consider using a tank indoors and allow the gutters to flow into the tank inside in colder climates. The water will not freeze that way and food, fish and other things could be grown using the water during the winter inside. Solar panels could be used to power grow lights or pumps if needed.
Storage tanks can cost over $1 per gallon as you get into larger sizes 10000 Gallon Poly Water Tank - Black | Dura-Cast 910000B
Hydroponics or Aquaponics have been discussed elsewhere on the site Aquaponics . By the way many use concrete tanks to store water and its worth noting concrete is alkaline as some rainwater can be acidic eg. Acid rain. Make sure food grade plastic or fiberglass or similar approved rain water tank materials are used. Rainwater is used as drinking water and household water by many people. Consider many use a lagoon to safely dispose of human wastes after they exit the system so no septic system or city processing is needed. The wastes remain in the lagoon in this area never needing cleaned out when built properly. The sun causes evaporation and the cycle continues. Rarely but becoming more frequent people catch bath water, laundry water , sink water in a tank or system of watering pipes and reuse it for their gardens or fruit trees.
You forgot to mention a cistern. No matter where you are a tank can be deep enough where it nor the pipes going into the house would not freeze.
Also if available tapping into the aquifer with a well just solves all your problems. It would give you access to a rather large natural storage of water.
Up here in Alaska folks tank it around. I imagine the intent is to eventually tap a well but in the mean time water is cheaper than dirt so they get used to just fill up their tanks.
I’m glad you brought that up and i agree but wells have their own set of problems here. Wells are a good source of backup water or even main source of water in some locations. The problem is becoming people have used well water excessively where there is not enough in some areas. They literally have pumped the water table from a couple hundred feet deep in Kansas to over 1000 feet in some areas. Farming and other commercial business uses lots of water which is why i did not suggest it. In my area we are fortunate and the water table is close to the surface but the water is very hard eg alkaline. It ruins hot water tanks and pipes leaving thick calcium buildup over time. I think of well water like a bank account i know its there but unless im desperate im not tapping into it unless i use everything else first.
Here we have a completely reliable water table with high quality water (plenty of minerals but that’s the norm). Some people still opt to have water tanked around, cheaper than the expense of the well I suppose.
Funny enough when I bought my house it had a water softener which I ended up removing. I hate bathing with soft water, it makes your skin feels slimy or something similar to that.
Helpful topic, but 62 GALLONS per square foot?
Not from one inch of rainfall, that’s for sure.
Good thoughts! I still live with my parents but I am planning to build me a basement home in not too long, over where i am planting the fruit orchard. Totally off grid, low energy use(inground for stable ground temperature). With a basement citrus/tomato greenhouse next to it attached.
And for water I plan to, for the inside home use, a solar pump in a well.
And for the greenhouse and garden, several cisterns(year round use) and tanks(summer only), catching/storing roof water off my house and barn. At least 8,000 gal capacity.
And a backup secondary way to use cistern water for the bathroom if needed or even that might should be primary so that the solar pump doesnt have to pump as much…
And since our area has good shallow water, I might do a second well on a water windmill for filling the cisterns in time of unusual drought…
For a hot water heater, a winter attic system in the ceiling above the wood/propane heater that gets warm, and for summer just 500 ft of 1" black field pipe in the sun…
@PaulinKansas6b
Paul,
I hope you are able to go 100% off grid. I’m becoming less confident in the current infrastructure. Many things like the electric system seem like they are nearing end of life and i have seen no moves to update these things. There is no immediate threat but what about in 10-20 years. Another question is why go Ac at all? Why not wire homes as Dc? The answer is because everyone does its not more efficient unless transferring power elsewhere. Back to water in your basement home you could gravity feed water since you will be at a lower depth if you catch it at the surface. Lets say you had the need you could use plastic covering 1 acre with a pipe to catch that water channeling it down to your home and garden " One inch of rain falling on 1 acre of ground is equal to about 27,154 gallons and weighs about 113 tons."
Wow Thats sufficient water!!! I might look in to that too!!
Yeah I agree! It will be 100% off grid, the electric is a half mile away so it would cost a lot to run plus I prefer off grid anyway! Dont need electric co spraying lines and stuff. Yes I plan to run DC 24 volt water pump, and DC for a propane refrigerator plus have a propane stove and wall heater for when I dont want to fire up the wood stove. And DC lighting plus that pipe reflector solar lighting in every room! And a DC fan that circulates air in the ground in 3" pipes for geothermal cooling when wanted, like that nebraska greenhouse guy does. And a DC blender to make persimmon smoothies and what else does one need in life lol? 
Thats really great!!! Yeah one like this just a small refrigerator is all I need!
Because I plan to get big into drying and build a huge solar dehydrator to dry lots of fruit, jerky, vegetables, even greens, and store in the deep/dry storage root cellar for winter, I plan to make 2 root cellars, one that is deeper to take advantage of stable ground temp, for dry cool storage, and the other one make higher up half out of the ground for winter colder 40sF storage of keeper apples, potatoes etc! So with that said, I dont need lots of freezer space
@PaulinKansas6b
If liquid propane is inexpensive you can go propane as well. It was $1.64 per gallon a week ago which is very expensive. Reliable Propane refrigerators or freezers as an example would be names such as Servel. What i have noticed is propane like many things is going up in price drastically.
Here is an example Servel Propane or Kerosene Refrigerator . Back to water for a minute i keep my fish in my pond where they multiply and grow instead of in my freezer. Sometimes people dont realize what needs to go in the freezer or what needs to stay out. As an example in my area people fill the freezer with beef which costs $3 or $4 per pound. I get it but it typically takes 2 years to eat a beef which fills a 23 cu feet freezer. If they ate pheasant , qual , turkeys or goats among other things and had the freezer full of seasonal items they can produce more while they wait to eat what they have. Water, food, and climate controlled shelter is hard to beat. Beef and buffalo are good items to split up among friends and family.
Exactly that is a very good point! Keep the fish in the pond and the cows in the pasture! And dehydrating is such a good option, well it is the longest used thing for storage, (and the root cellar keeps it cool), they tell me that my great grandma on my dads side who lived on the river would catch those fish and just dry them right on a clothes line for later use!
We get plenty of water in Kansas but we might get it all at once. You need to find ways to store lots because it is life here. Whoever has it stays alive. Im getting off topic a little bit but more on that here https://growingfruit.org/t/ponds-are-a-great-investment/7033
There are very sensible ways to go about it and you don’t need to go all out to be resilient.
I spent a long weekend out in Petersville gold prospecting at cache creek, far off “the grid” so to speak. You can’t tell but basically they run off generators and their electric consumption is built around that; 12v house lights, wood heating, no wasteful use of electricity.
To me in the more civilized part of town is about tapping into the cost savings of mass produced electricity while in an emergency having the reliance of not depending on it. You can’t sensibly prepare for a complete gird collapse as you still depend on getting diesel, propane, or natural gas for your ‘off the grid’ survival, but I can sensibly bunker in for a few months with my well, tri fuel generator, propane stores, and probably a cord and a half of wood for heat.
Heck when covid got started and the supermarkets were running out of stuff the only thing I ran out of was butter, that was the extend of my suck. I have been in too many hurricanes, earthquakes, and miscellaneous natural disasters to just be caught with my pants down.
So true!! Thanks for sharing !! Lots to consider! I might should put in extra cisterns too
Yeah we survived the infamous hurricane Katrina lol. My mom puts up so much jars of garden food and plus store bought dried beans etc we could live a year as it is. But the one thing I will say we should be better efficient on is water storage like Clark says yeah my parents place here needs me to put in a cistern system.
This is a good year with plenty of water but just a few years aho in 2018 this was my property and wild animals came from all over to get a drink. Many of my neighbors figured out why i built the large pond and did the same. This picture is of a row of aronias on a drought year in 2018
Wow that was super dry!!! A good reason to improve water storage for sure!!
On a wet year you can see i’m dumping over 5000 gallons per minute out of just the 15" pipe. Had to design a system for drought and excess water. It gets challenging to deal with 4" + rainfall at once. That big pond catches many acres of run off so it had to be 1 1/2 acres to handle the large volume of water that comes through there at one time. Back to rainwater catchment for the home and garden its more expensive but still a similar concept. The idea is to keep the rain water much cleaner for home use. .
