How We Collect, Store, and Filter Rainwater For Everyday Use

How's it going, everyone? You're watching the Green Dream Project. Jim here. My wife Jessica and I live off-grid in Southeast Arizona, and we rely almost completely on rainwater. We get a lot of questions about how we keep our water safe to drink, how we filter it, and what we do with it. We're going to go over and answer all those questions.

Currently, we're in the midst of building our own earthbag house out here. It's coming along really nicely, and we'll get back to those build videos soon. However, there are a lot of pressing questions we want to address first. So, let's get to it.

First, let's talk about collection surfaces. I built this roof to provide shade and collect water. It's 2,200 square feet, and I chose metal roofing because metal is an excellent surface for collecting water. You can collect water off various surfaces, but I don't recommend chemically-laden surfaces like asphalt shingles, which can leave a lot of chemical residue in the water.

Now, let's discuss how you collect the water. When water comes off your collection surface or through your gutters, it's crucial to have every entry point into your collection system screened off to prevent bugs and debris from getting in. Keeping the water as clean as possible from the start is essential. Many people use a first flush system to handle debris or bird droppings that might get into the water initially. I recommend this system, even though we don't technically have one. We rely on screens to keep everything out, and all the water goes straight into our storage to simplify the process.

Next, 90-degree elbows are incredibly important in your collection system. These elbows keep light out of the pipes and storage containers, which is crucial because no light means no leaves, no biomatter, and no bugs. Ensure that whatever you're using to store the water is sealed and that no light gets in to prevent unwanted growth like bacteria or algae.

Collection is vital—it can't be stressed enough. If you collect the water well, it can provide clean, fresh drinking water. The quality of your storage and collection capabilities is paramount.

We also use filters as an extra precaution. We've been using our current filters for a couple of years, and they've worked well for us. Right now, while we're living in an RV during the house build, we use an inline RV water filter. We pump water from our poly tanks to the RV using these filters, which are fantastic and convenient. You just hook it up to the hose, and it goes right into the tank. Make sure to do a bit of research to get a good-quality inline filter for drinking water.

For drinking water, we run it through another filter as a final stage—our Berkey. We've been using this for a few years, and we absolutely love it. The water that comes out is crystal clear and beautiful—the best water we've ever had.

If you're wondering about all the ways we use water off-grid, it's not that different from how most people use water. We tend to be very conservative with our water use since we're limited to what we have in the tanks. We use water for drinking, doing dishes, laundry, taking showers, and general cleaning around the home. All the water used in the home goes into our graywater system, which gets reused to water a tree.

Notice we didn't mention anything about toilets—we don't have flush toilets, which helps reduce our water usage significantly. We also use water for other things, like adding moisture to our compost and providing water for our chickens and small garden. We've implemented methods to reduce water usage in the garden, such as using ollas, sunken beds, and mulch to prevent evaporation and retain moisture.

We wanted to make a quick video answering questions about how we collect, store, and filter our water and the different ways we use it off-grid. Once our house is built, we'll have a more robust filtration system, but the Berkey filter will always be part of what we do out here. If you have any more questions, feel free to leave them down below. Don't forget to give this video a big thumbs up, and we'll catch you in the next video as we continue building this house. Later, y'all!