elhoff

Having done the solar power thing, I've been thinking about my water usage a lot lately. I thought about installing some rain barrels recently, but I'm not really sure how helpful that is. Here are my thoughts so far:

- My household used 168,000 gallons of water in the last year. That is actually slightly less than the previous year. It is 9000 gallons more than the average for single family homes in Davis.

- Davis gets ~17 inches of rain per year. Like most of CA, most of that rain occurs between December and April. It is dry the rest of the year.

- I have about 1700 sqft of roof. With enough storage capacity, I should be able to collect about 16,000 gallons of water from my roof each year.

- Rainwater is easiest to use for landscape watering since that requires minimal treatment.

- I believe that about a third of my water usage is for landscape watering. That is 56,000 gallons just for the landscape.

- Landscape irrigation is only required during the dry months, I would have to store the entire 16,000 gallons.

If I collected 100% of the rainwater from my roof, and stored it in a 16,000 gallon tank, it would only provide about 1/4 of the water I need for landscaping, and only about 1/12 of my total water usage. So the big questions are:

- Is it worth it for 1/12 of my water usage?

- Where would I put a 16,000 gallon water tank?

Honestly, I think my money is better spent on conservation for now. Maybe rainwater collection next year after some relandscaping and plumbing updates.