As you may know, harvesting rainwater has been a common, practice and essential for everyday life for centuries. Even today, cisterns and other rain harvesting systems are quite common in the Europe, Australia, India, Bahamas, and countless third world countries. In fact, there are still many people around the world who still depend primarily on rainwater as their daily living water.

In addition to offering a practical solution when water supplies become limited or access becomes interrupted, rain water collection systems not only contain storm water runoff, but these systems can store water for emergency or alternative use for irrigation, flushing toilets, pressure washing, or washing cars and clothing. Harvesting rainwater can even be purified and used for drinking water. Now there are few limits to the plethora of ways a stored rainwater reserve can be used to backup your regular water supply with a variety of filtration and processing systems to choose from.

The near neutral PH of filtered and processed rainwater makes it safe for a variety of domestic and commercial applications. Rainwater is soft water, so it is healthy for appliances. Rainwater is free and so can reduce overhead for commercial enterprises, not to mention that using rainwater recycles our natural resources.

What is a Rainwater Harvesting System?
How big the system needs to be is depended on the size of the use. The rainwater collection system can be as simple as one or more rainwater cisterns, or rain water barrels connected to the downspouts of your home gutters. Or if you like, you can construct a more elaborate system like rainwater harvesting module piece by piece.

A complete rainwater collection system could include either above ground or underground storage tanks. And to tell the truth, above ground tanks more easier to install than underground harvesting tank, but they can definitely be more expensive and less attractive. While underground tanks might require some digging, but they are less prone to evaporation since they are underground and not in direct sunlight. Preventing evaporation may be extremely important- especially in drier climates-depending on how much you rely on your rainwater supply.

Install your own Rainwater Harvesting System
You may be both excited and overwhelmed at the thought of collecting rainwater and all the benefits which come along with doing so. Once you are ready to begin building your rainwater collection system, you will be ready to begin a worthwhile, rewarding endeavor.