Rainwater harvesting project - the finished article

[Thomzo]

Well, I've finally finished designing my rainwater collection device for my OU project. I've decided to call it the Alveus, which means deep vessel or water channel in latin.

The Alveus.jpg (29 KiB) Viewed 2887 times

It's a tall water butt with a clear funnel attached to the top to collect water. It doesn't have to be attached to a downpipe so it can be used for allotments or anywhere that doesn't have a suitable downpipe.

The top is clear so that it doesn't create too much shade.

It'll be a bit top heavy when empty so the ribs down the sides can be filled with sand or soil to add stability.

The whole thing comes apart for easy transportation and cleaning.

You can't see from this drawing but there is a filter fitted into the top of the tube to stop debris or small animals falling in.

Here is it being used in a community garden (with thanks to the Howstuffworks website for the photo).

Alveus in garden.jpg (135.91 KiB) Viewed 2887 times

So, would you buy one and, if so, how much would you pay? Would £150 be too much.

Oh, and I'm fully aware that it probably won't work very well as it won't collect enough water.

Again, I'm not interested in developing this, it's just a design project for my degree. If you are a manufacturing company that is interested in developing this, feel free to contact me.

Thanks everyone.

Zoe

[Green Aura]

That looks good, Zoe. And certainly more attractive than the old baths that invariably get used.

[Millymollymandy]

I'm not sure how big this would be in reality as if we go by the size of the children in the photos then it doesn't look like it will hold many litres of water. Also one would need an immense amount of rainfall (or continual) to collect much water from that small a collection area, but then if you had that amount of water you wouldn't need to water. It looks very stylish though I must say, and if there are no roofs anywhere then something like that could come in very handy. Well done Zoe!

[boboff]

It looks good.
You could perhaps use Pollythene as the funnel to reduce weight at the top.
Or perhaps just design the "funnel" bit to fit on a standard IPC or 220ltr Water barrel, that way you would be upcycling redundant commercial equipment, and reducing the cost of the finished article.
And if you compare the collection area to that of a say 8ft x 6ft Shed, which is what a normal water Butt would get on a Shed on an allotment you may alay fears of enough rain etc. I have an old 6ft by 3ft Freezer in the garden with no lid, and that is enough from just rain fall to keep my greenhouse watered.
Other thoughts.
A mesh at the top to stop birds and animals getting in and drowning
A head height inlet to add you comfrey or nettle Tea, double up as a hook up to a hose pipe for manual filling.
Some whacky and modern designs, or designs to blend in a bit, a muscle Adonis in his speedos with a watering can for the shades of grey ladies?
A hanging bracket to loop your watering can on so you dont have to hold it
Neon paint on the metal work to give interest at night?
paint it black and put external pots in the sides to plant up, the heat from the water keeping the plants warm at night?

Anyway, that's me blue sky thinking on the subject, it's very good! Well done you.

[dudley]

It looks good.
You could perhaps use Pollythene as the funnel to reduce weight at the top.
Or perhaps just design the "funnel" bit to fit on a standard IPC or 220ltr Water barrel, that way you would be upcycling redundant commercial equipment, and reducing the cost of the finished article.
And if you compare the collection area to that of a say 8ft x 6ft Shed, which is what a normal water Butt would get on a Shed on an allotment you may alay fears of enough rain etc. I have an old 6ft by 3ft Freezer in the garden with no lid, and that is enough from just rain fall to keep my greenhouse watered.
Other thoughts.
A mesh at the top to stop birds and animals getting in and drowning
A head height inlet to add you comfrey or nettle Tea, double up as a hook up to a hose pipe for manual filling.
Some whacky and modern designs, or designs to blend in a bit, a muscle Adonis in his speedos with a watering can for the shades of grey ladies?
A hanging bracket to loop your watering can on so you dont have to hold it
Neon paint on the metal work to give interest at night?
paint it black and put external pots in the sides to plant up, the heat from the water keeping the plants warm at night?

Anyway, that's me blue sky thinking on the subject, it's very good! Well done you.

Yes to all of the above, but I would say another reason for a mess covering the top would be to deflect leaves and other blown debris from dropping in, as a blocked bottom outlet would be a real pain. And the outet looks a bit high up from the bottom so not able to empty totally.

[Thomzo]

Brilliant, thanks everybody, some wonderful ideas here.

I agree about the mesh. The earlier design does have one but I forgot to show it in this version. It should also have an overflow pipe at the top of the water storage tank, which could double up as an inlet for the comfrey/nettle tea.

I love the ideas for decorating the outside, Bob and Dudley, and thanks also, Bob, for the info about the shed roof and the freezer. That gives me some details to work out fill rate.

This is designed with the main tank being 2m (6' 6") high (with the funnel taking it higher) and 30cm (1') diameter. This would give a storage capacity of 150 litres. The top of funnel would be about 2m (6'6") in diameter but this could be a bit big for a small garden so a range of sizes could be available. But a 2m diameter collection area is a bit more than 1.5 times Bob's freezer so the collection rate should be not too bad.

The whole thing comes apart for cleaning/transportation. Dudley, I agree about the outlet being high up and it could be lowered, but it currently allows any debris that does get in to sink to the bottom rather than blocking the tap. The instructions would recommend that it's emptied and cleaned annually.

I'm really pleased to have all your comments and suggestions, lots for me to write into my project. Please feel free to give me more comments.

Thanks
Zoe

[Zech]

Bearing in mind that this will keep rain off the area directly underneath it, I think I'd want it on the patio, with a table round it, and perhaps an even bigger collector. Maybe a three quarters round table, leaving space to get at the tap. As an elegant piece of garden furniture, £150 doesn't seem too unreasonable (but I wouldn't buy it - all my garden things are cast-offs). The trouble with this plan is that patios tend to be near houses, with rooves...

If you had a big garden it might be nice to have a seating area at the far end, with a water butt so you didn't have to traipse back to the house for watering the plants at that end. I don't have an allotment so I can't really picture it there - would there be an area that you'd be happy not to get rained on, so you could collect the water for the other bits?

[boboff]

That is good thinking, turn your brolly upside down! Inspired, I am in!

[Thomzo]

Bob, one of my early designs was exactly that, an upturned garden umbrella. I discarded the idea as I thought it would be unstable in high winds. I then started thinking about an automatic opening device so that it could be left closed when it wasn't raining and would open up on its own when it started. It all got too complicated so I went for something much simpler.

Zech, I like the idea of the table around it. I guess it would need to stand on a hard surface wherever it was sited. I was wondering if allotmenteers would club together to buy a larger version to share. I don't have an allotment either so it's not something that I would know much about.

Hmmm, Boboff, pots up the sides, strawberries, copper tape around the bottom to keep the slugs off, suddenly I see a plan coming together.

Cheers
Zoe

[Thomzo]

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