How Can I Use Rainwater?
Benefits to Homeowners and Small Businesses
Ecovie Rainwater Collection Systems provide tangible benefits to homeowners, small businesses and the environment.
Outdoor
The EPA estimates that we use approximately 25 to 95 gallons per day per person outdoors. That means a typical family of four may use 140,000 gallons per year outdoors. This would be equivalent to approximately 60% of their total water usage.
Since outdoor applications are the easiest way to use rainwater, this is the first place ECOVIE will look to estimate your water consumption when designing your rainwater collection system. Because your actual use can vary significantly from the EPA's estimates, we will estimate just how much you need and then design a system to meet your needs.
Tuning Up Your Irrigation System:
Before we estimate your outdoor watering needs, however, we'll inspect your irrigation system to determine whether it's working as efficiently as possible. We'll check for leaks and make sure that its sprays are going directly to the plants and areas intended.
Since irrigation systems are notorious water wasters, a first step toward designing a rainwater system is to optimize your irrigation system and convert as much as possible to drip irrigation. Drip irrigation uses 40-60% less water than standard spray irrigation and hydrates plants more efficiently. At ECOVIE, we'll optimize your irrigation system to make sure you are only using water where it is needed.
Estimating Your Outdoor Watering Needs:
Next we'll determine how much you really need to water your lawn and garden. This is actually a fairly complicated question to answer because it depends on the types of plants and grass you have, the amount of shade they receive, and the weather. In addition, the efficiency of irrigation systems in getting water where it's needed is a big factor. But, in general the amount of rain we receive is not enough to supply optimal watering for plants to thrive. Using collected rainwater can make up this gap with clean, chlorine-free water that reduces demand on municipal water supplies and can save you hundreds of dollars per year.
Other Outdoor Uses:
Other outdoor uses of collected rainwater include pool filling, car washing, and power washing which typically represent a much smaller but collectively significant amount -- adding up to hundreds of gallons per month in the summer.
Rainwater harvesting is perfect for outdoor water use. Check out the next section to find how easy is for indoor uses as well!