Don Vandervort, Head Homeboy, has written more than 30 DIY home improvement books, been a segment host on HGTV, served as MSN.com's home improvement expert and written countless magazine articles.
With a rainwater harvesting system, you must move the water from the collection system to the filtration and storage tank before you can take advantage of it. For standard roof-collecting systems, gutters are the first part of the conveyance stage.
Almost all residential systems for rely on gravity to move the water. This means that from the point where the rain lands on the collection surface to where it is deposited in the storage tank, the water must flow downhill.
The most common place to tap into a conventional gutter system is at the downspouts. From there, water can be diverted directly into a rain barrel or storage container. You can either cut the existing downspout and attach it directly to a filtering device or install downspout diverters that allow for more flexible rain barrel placement.
Once the barrel is full, excess water must be directed down and away from the house, so the system must accommodate this. A helpful product for this job, the Garden Watersaver Downspout, comes with a 7-foot hose and is designed to divert excess water when the container is full.
