I've decided to catch the rain from the drainpipe by using barrels with a large open top, so I know that I'll be able to get the first 50 gallons of a sudden cloudburst. Well, 50 gallons per barrel if they're empty. I have some 20-gallon barrels that I'll also be connecting in the system, and figuring out how to connect them has been fun.
While I'd like to have two-inch pipe running everywhere, it looks like it will be more practical to feed the extra barrels through a garden hose and 1¼" sump pump tubing (from my overflow pipe). Obviously this will work better if the rainfall is a trickle rather than a downpour.
So I was wondering how quickly the rain falls... there was a light rainfall yesterday, so let's see what the rate was. The local National Weather Service office is in Chanhassen, Minnesota. No rainfall info. And it says "The weather observations depicted here are not official, and are not quality controlled. For the nearest official observation, check out the data from Flying Cloud Airport in Eden Prairie." Well, I can understand why the weather office's weather readings might not be official, but it just doesn't seem right. OK, off to the airport.
During that light rainfall yesterday, there was one hour with 0.14 inch of rain, one hour with 0.05, and several hours at a lesser rate. Good, that was a nice trickling rate, so collection should work fine with days like that.
When there are brief burst of sudden rain, I should be able to catch much of it also. The barrels will all be connected together at the bottom, so if the system is half full, each collection barrel can handle about 25 gallons of water at once before overflowing into the 1¼" tube. The water can then trickle into the other barrels through the bottom hose during the time between cloudbursts.
I'm hoping that will work well enough. In case I need more capacity, I will have the plumbing designed so I can add more connections.
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