Find a Good Spot for your Rain Barrel
Rain barrels offer a great way to save rainwater for later use. In fact rainwater can be used for a variety of different things: watering your garden, washing your car, household cleaning, washing the dog, letting the kids play in the pool. Assuming you've already chosen to buy and install a rain barrel, you're going to need to find a good spot for your rain barrel. While finding a spot to install a rain barrel isn't complicated, the following tips will give a good idea where to install a rain barrel so that you don't have to do it twice! Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
1. Most people will install a rain barrel underneath a downspout. This makes a lot of sense because it takes advantage of your roof as a large rainwater collection system. Installing a rain barrel underneath the down spout is easy with a rainwater diverter, but where you use the rainwater might not be next to the house.
2. Because many people use rainwater to water their garden you may want to consider placing the rain barrel near or in a garden. While you won't collect rainwater nearly as fast as if it were connected to your downspout, you'll still be able to collect rainwater out in the open. This has the advantage of being close to the point of use
3. If you are watering your garden, you'll need to elevate the rain barrel so that the water pressure in the rain barrel will allow you to just turn on the spigot to begin watering. It won't have the same pressure as the house water, but it will allow you connect a hose to the rain barrel instead of having to fill a watering can time after time.
4. If you do elevate your rain barrel, make sure to use a very sturdy platform. Full rain barrels can weigh in excess of 500 pounds! For that reason make sure that the platform is strong and level. Concrete blocks make a convenient and inexpensive rain barrel platform.
Tags: rain barrel, rain barrel, install rain, install rain barrel, barrel that