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http://www.durgan.org/URL/?SSCLP 22 March 2012 Rainwater barrels connected to downspout.

The four drums connected to the house downspout. There is a total of 200 US gallons of water. The connections are removed in the Fall and the barrels emptied to prevent freezing.

Hi Durgan.

Is that some form of flexible hose linking the downpipe to the barrels?

One problem we have here is that we need the water now, so I daren't empty the barrels in winter, even though it could still freeze at this time of year.

Zoe

Thomzo wrote:Hi Durgan.

Is that some form of flexible hose linking the downpipe to the barrels?

One problem we have here is that we need the water now, so I daren't empty the barrels in winter, even though it could still freeze at this time of year.

Zoe

The connection is a flexible plastic connector sold here to connect to the standard eves downspouts. Very convenient for my application. Hard freezing would be catastrophic for me, since the barrels would bulge and probably burst even if a little water was in the container. I may get a little freezing for the next month but not particularly damaging.

Thomzo wrote:Hi Durgan.

Is that some form of flexible hose linking the downpipe to the barrels?

One problem we have here is that we need the water now, so I daren't empty the barrels in winter, even though it could still freeze at this time of year.

Zoe

My IBCs froze solid this year, didn't seem to cause too much of a problem. May do some insulation on them this year during the summer when they'll inevitably run out and they'll be light enough to move.

Most kits have two hozes - one to connect the downspout to the barrel, then a 2nd back to the downspout so the overflow can go somewhere. Unfortunately for me, my downspout goes to a poorly designed french drain which doesn't actually drain on my clay soil - so I get flooding.

Aha, more ingredients for my Open University project on rainwater harvesting, thank you. A couple of my water butts are at the bottom of the downpipe so there is nowhere for the overflow to go. It just runs down the side of the waterbutt. On one, I've rigged up a rough overflow that takes the water away from the house.

Zoe

I have 2 linked water butts connected to the guttering on my shed. I then dug a soak away next to the 2nd one and via a piece of flexible pipe connected to a solid plastic pipe that is partially buried into the soak away. The soak away is a couple of feet deep and a couple of feet around filled with broken bricks and stones and capped with soil. This seems to work pretty well.