I live on a dirt road and catch rainwater to shower with. Something I never thought I'd say and certainly not something I thought I'd enjoy. Several folks have asked me about how exactly this works, so here goes..
Our rental house in Hawaii runs on a cachement system, meaning that rainwater is collected, stored and used as the sole source for water in the house. Although the area I live in gets over 200 inches of rain per year, homes are built over relatively "young" (we're talking geological years here) soil that is primarily hardened lava. It's not exactly easy to drill for water, and with so much rain, there is no sense in doing so.
Water is collected via gutters lining the roof - just like houses everywhere else except instead of being routed somewhere in the yard, the water is routed underground through a plastic pipe that eventually goes through a filter (to get out big stuff like leaves and other debris) and flows into a large holding tank in the back yard. As needed, it's pumped back into the house for use showering, cooking, washing dishes, etc. With appropriate filters, this can also serve as drinking water. We've gone eau naturel without the filter and get our drinking water from the nearby village water spigot, which is another adventure in itself.
In addition to the plus of no water bills, being great for Mother Earth, I've found the natural water to be easy on my hair.
Last weekend, I had a 3 hour layover in the Minneapolis airport. Since I'm no longer ATL (Attached To Laptop) I browsed a couple stores and whipped up this drawing of my house and how this all works. Enjoy!
~ Rachel
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| Amateur attempt at drawing cachement system - not to scale :) |
