
We've finally gotten the business up and running and are very excited to be offering you an amazingly functional, yet beautiful product that will enhance the appearance of your landscape while fulfilling an environmentally sound purpose.
The ability to harvest your own wonderfully soft rain water in order to benefit your lawn and gardens is only part of what you will love. That's not all, if you get city water, you will love the fact that you are saving money on your water (and sewer) bills. If you live outside the city water system, you will love the fact that you will save on your well, on your well pump and on the power/electricity taken to run the pump. All that taken into account, your rain barrel will pay for itself...who won't LOVE that?! So, you see, it's a love-love situation. How much more could you ask from one simple purchase?
- If you have “city water” and pay by the meter, gather your water bills over the past 12 months. Water is generally measured in CCF, with the first “C” indicating 100, and the next “CF” standing for Cubic Feet.
o One CCF=100cubic feet of water OR 748 gallons
o Determine your annual usage of water (ie…100CCF per year=748 gallons x 100, OR 74,800 gallons of water for that year)
- If you do not have your water bills, you can estimate your indoor water use by using a gallon bucket. Time how long it takes to fill up the bucket from your showerhead. If it takes 45 seconds, you know you’re using about 1 ¼ gallons of water per minute for the shower. Do the same for the tub spout. Estimate how long the shower or faucet is run each day to get an idea of how much water is being used.
- Check your toilet’s water usage by turning off the water valve on the toilet, then flush it. Use a full gallon pitcher to refill the toilet tank, and this will tell you how much water is used each time the toilet is flushed.
- If you have well-water, you may have a well meter already installed on your supply line. If not, you will need to estimate your water usage. You can use the above techniques for estimating, or you can listen how long your pump runs each day and how many gallons per minute (GPM) it pumps (your pump documentation/brochure will give you that information). Multiply the number of GPM x the number of total minutes the pump runs per day (ie…if your pump runs for 10 minutes a day at 50 GPM, you’re using 500 gallons of water per day X 365 days per year=182,500 gallons per year.
By using these calculations, you'll see how critical water conservation is. Not only is it good for the environment and saving our natural resources, but it could also mean a significant impact on your water and sewer bills, on your own well, well pump and electric bills.
As an added piece of information, it is estimated that lawn and garden watering makes up nearly 40% of total household water use in the summer months. Letting Mother Nature help conserve on your water usage makes $en$e.