Yesterday,
as it was pouring, I thought it’d be the perfect opportunity to check out the
possibility of harvesting rainwater from my roof.
A
lot of rainwater gets washed away straight into the sewers, sliding right over
our concrete and asphalt roads, instead of being absorbed into the soil and
sinking into the waterbed.
Why
not recycle or reclaim this water, and use it to irrigate my own plants?
So,
I went out in the rain to check out my gutters and downspouts.
I
found that on one side of the house, the downspouts didn’t spit out any water
at all:
 |
| Nothing's coming out here. |
 |
| Nor here. |
In
fact, I spotted a large leak in the gutter:
 |
| You can see the rain pouring out of that one area. |
This caused all the water that should have gone
out the spout to all fall into one specific location directly on the pavement, in
an area about 2 ft across:
 |
| Ugh. Those trash bags again. |
On the other side of the house, on the other
hand, the downspouts seem to be working well:
 |
| That screen needs to be fixed. |
And
the downspout in the backyard worked too:
Now
that I know where the rainwater falls out, I’ll be in a better position to
collect it.
What
really makes me curious is the neighbor’s downspout, which is very active:
Wow,
what a powerful gush of water! I’ll have to ask them about whether I can
collect it.
