Water Butt Stands

[jansman]

And to add; proper water butt stands are designed for stability and safety. We don’t all have bricks, breeze blocks and 2x2 lying around to mackle the job.

[grenfell]

I've tried telling her that but heh teenagers...

[jansman]

I've tried telling her that but heh teenagers...

[pseudonym]

I got my two from Aldi:

https://www.aldi.co.uk/gardenline-100-l ... 3448638400

[pseudonym]

I got my two from Aldi:

https://www.aldi.co.uk/gardenline-100-l ... 3448638400

[jennyjj01]

I got my two from Aldi:

https://www.aldi.co.uk/gardenline-100-l ... 3448638400

Not currently available at ALDI, but almost identical to the £30 (all in) ones from the Water companies. I swear the price was £28 yesterday!

E.g. United Utilities offer in the North West
https://www.savewatersavemoney.co.uk/products/garden

You might think 100L is a lot, but for lawns it really isn't. I found One of these was just about enough for a single soaking of the front lawn. In the blistering summer and the absence of rain, even two was nowhere near enough to keep the lawn fit. At those prices and with the simplicity of daisy chaining them down the side of the house, I think I should buy another couple? But the lawn will have to be expendable.

[British Red]

You might think 100L is a lot, but for lawns it really isn't.

We use a lot of rainwater for livestock, garden etc. The thing to consider the most is how long you go between proper rainstorms. It's been very dry this Spring. Our longest, without rain is 7 weeks and 4 days, one light rainfall, then another 4 weeks. So 100 litres is what...3 litres a day. For everyone. For everything, cooking, flushing the toilet, washing hands, washing clothes, watering the garden at 8 litres per watering can.

An IBC tank is 1,000 litres. It lasts two hours and 20 minutes running a hosepipe at normal pressure. That 7 weeks we pumped 10 IBC tanks dry, the underground cistern that's the same amount again and pumped the well dry (It refilled overnight but the water table was wayyyy down). That was keeping our large garden alive.

Now that length of drought is unusual but for everyone with water gathering I heartily recommend monitoring the time you have between rain and how much rain you can gather in, say, four hours of heavy rain.

For us, water storage is less about how much we may use and more about how long it might have to last and how quickly we can replenish it. Even reservoirs struggle to store enough some years!

[jennyjj01]

You might think 100L is a lot, but for lawns it really isn't.

It's been very dry this Spring. Our longest, without rain is 7 weeks and 4 days, one light rainfall, then another 4 weeks. So 100 litres is what...3 litres a day. For everyone. For everything, cooking, flushing the toilet, washing hands, washing clothes, watering the garden at 8 litres per watering can.

My water butts were primarily for the intended purpose of keeping the lawns alive during hosepipe restrictions and frankly they were hopeless for that.
We surely overestimate how much rain we get to capture. Water the lawn once every seven weeks is hardly going to scratch the surface.. They will be used on the veg beds next time, but will still struggle.

The capturing efficiency was low too. An overnight downpour was not enough to fill one, in spite of half a roof worth of landing area.

I hereby confess that outside of hosepipe bans, when they were empty, I partly refilled them from a hose

[jennyjj01]

We use a lot of rainwater for livestock, garden etc.
An IBC tank is 1,000 litres. It lasts two hours and 20 minutes running a hosepipe at normal pressure. That 7 weeks we pumped 10 IBC tanks dry, the underground cistern that's the same amount again and pumped the well dry (It refilled overnight but the water table was wayyyy down). That was keeping our large garden alive.

So many questions....
You use harvested water for your livestock. Is stagnation an issue or are the critters more robust, or was it so frequently replenished that germs were not a problem. The cistern and well... Good enough to water the critters? Or did you process it?
10 LBC tanks full??? You had 10 of those already set aside??? Wow!

Is there a reason you didn't/don't use mains water for your garden? Can't imagine it's just cost as IBC tanks are not cheap. I'm not on a water meter.

For us, water storage is less about how much we may use and more about how long it might have to last and how quickly we can replenish it. Even reservoirs struggle to store enough some years!

I'm certainly rethinking my water butt strategy. I seriously overestimated the typical rainfall. E.g. harvest from both halves of the roof separately. Improve the collector design. Stock rotate that water? Maintain levels with a hose?

[British Red]

We are on a water meter and , for us, IBC tanks are fairly cheap ( about the same as a water butt). Most of the water went on the garden but the tanks are isolatable to refill quickly so I'm happy to use fresh rainwater for chickens etc. ( anyone who has kept poultry knows they will ignore drinkers of fresh water and drink from a puddle they've just ...erm...defected in).

The big thing for rainwater collection is area. We are lucky in that the IBC tanks collect off our steading ( barn etc.) so lots of roof space. But if you have additional drainpipes that don't have any collection on it, and can afford it, why not bung a water butt on that one too? It's very environmentally friendly and often better for plants ( no chemicals added). You can easily daisy chain butts with no special tools .

This is one collection area. You can see it has five IBC tanks feeding from two gutters and the tanks are all connected with regular garden hose to cross fill. We've painted the tanks black with bituminous paint to prevent algae etc.

We only need all this for growing our garden and some years it's too much ( but in dry spells it goes down FAST).

My personal belief is that water would be the last thing to fail because - well - imagine the taps running dry. However, here at least, any extended power outage will take the water out too.