TreeHugger Tip: Jack Johnson on Collecting Rain with Rain Barrels
by Chris Tackett, San Francisco 
on 08. 1.08
Eco Hack: Jack Johnson from susty.tv on Vimeo.
One unfortunately common misconception about "going green" is that doing so means drastically changing ones life or abolishing all luxuries. While a crucial part about living an eco-friendly lifestyle is reducing ones consumption and therefore minimizing ones waste, one thing I love most about trying to live a sustainable life is noticing how doing something the "green" way is often just the smarter way. Using rain barrels to collect rain and reuse around your house is a perfect example of this.
In this TreeHugger Tip, musician and activist Jack Johnson, talks about how he's installed a rain collection system and how he's used it to teach his children about conservation.
The Benefits of Using Rain Barrels
Rain barrels are smart for a couple reasons. They save you money by reducing the amount of clean water you have to buy from the city to water your plants. And they help the environment by reducing the demand for clean water from the city, which requires energy to process.
As you probably know, keeping a lawn requires a lot of resources. A lawn requires a massive amount of water - a third of all residential water use in the United States goes towards landscaping - and many people use gas-powered mowers to cut it. If you're not ready to turn your lawn into a garden, but do want to have a nice green yard without as much eco-guilt, using rain barrels to collect the rain water off your house will help.
We've already covered reel mowers and electric lawn mowers, which work great, save you money on gasoline and allow you to reduce your pollution while maintaining your lawn. Rain barrels are just as sensible. Collecting rain water can help you cut down on the amount of drinking water you waste on your lawn, which will not only reduce your monthly water bill saving you money, but will also help the environment by saving that clean drinking water from the city for your other water needs.
Even if you only use the rain barrel water for a percentage of the water you use around the outside of your house, doing so will help reduce your consumption.
How To Install Rain Barrels
Installing a rain barrel collection system requires little more than a container, a screen to keep out bugs and debri and some hosing to attach to the barrel for watering your lawn and plants. Place the barrel near the down spout of your gutters and run the spout into the barrel. You can be as basic or professional as you'd like with this, but that is essentially all you have to do. Attach a spout and hose near the bottom of the barrel and you'll be able to use gravity to run the water through the hose.
If you have a rain collection system you'd like to show us, take some pictures or video and send our way! If you have another TreeHugger Tip you'd like to share, send your video to video-tips@treehugger dot com
And to view all of our tips, visit the TreeHugger Videos Tips page.
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Other than watering plants, are there any other safe uses for collected rain water?
Jack Johnson is sporting a major cool t shirt in this interview. I see ones like it on at wizeguyztees.com, threadless.com, snorgtees.com, His rain barrel idea is brilliant. I just stumbled this post. What a great idea.
Irragation, wash you car and tools and equiptment,
There is a ton you can do besides water plants. Check out http://www.harvesth2o.com/, it's an online rainwater harvesting community filled with tips and suppliers.
There is a ton you can do besides water plants. Check out http://www.harvesth2o.com/, it's an online rainwater harvesting community filled with tips and suppliers.
One can use the water to wash the car, pipe it for the toilet, clothe washing, or fore the pool. Just one caution. In Europe we used these barrels a while back. One problem is mosquitoes laying eggs in placid water. We made each of our barrels into a small water circulation system using a submersible pump inside the barrel, fed with solar power. One can even make a water fountain idea.
The thermal inertia of collected rainwater can be used moderate a building's temperature.
Here is a rain harvesting system that stores 600 gallons:
http://www.rainharvester.blogspot.com
I was reading somewhere that to keep Mosquitoes and other bugs out of your rain barrel try putting a couple of goldfish in the barrel.
This way your fish will be well fed and your rain water clean!
Just don't let the barrel get TOO empty!
I was reading somewhere that to keep Mosquitoes and other bugs out of your rain barrel try putting a couple of goldfish in the barrel.
This way your fish will be well fed and your rain water clean!
Just don't let the barrel get TOO empty!
Marcie, um, goldfish may keep mosquitoes out of the water, but what do you do with all of the goldfish poop?
My rain barrels have been in place for two years, each one has a few goldfish in them; great for watering the garden (fish poo is great for plants) and they eat the bugs!! use it for watering the garden and for my hydroponics indoors.
Another great suggestion for preventing bugs, debris and overflow is a kit called rainreserve. It also comes with the parts necessary to attach to your downspout and barrel.
I saw some great suggestions for rain water use, so I would like to add that you can use it to wash your pets and boat.
Ed:
The gold fish poop is very good for the garden when you use that water. It already has nitrates and other goodies that your plants crave! I found a rain barrel unit that is pretty much an enclosed unit. It has several features that are missing on other designs. Like what happens for those of us in winter climates - we have to empty them - the 80 gallon Abe rain barrel by Aquabarrel already has a winter-summer diverter built right into it plus a debris filter that is pretty tight and not likely to allow insects to get in or out.