Rooftop Rain Collection Barrels

The community garden 2 blocks from campus installed 4 rain collection barrels last spring. Each is a 55-gallon drum connected to the gutter downspouts on a tool shed roof. Over the summer, they collected enough water to irrigate the entire plot through August without touching the city supply. Each barrel has a spigot at the bottom and a mesh screen on top to keep out debris and mosquitoes. The system cost about $200 total for all 4 barrels, the PVC connectors, and the overflow pipe that channels excess water into a gravel bed. Most people walk past without noticing. But the garden coordinator told me those barrels saved the group roughly $340 in water bills over one growing season. The design isn't elegant in any conventional sense. They're repurposed food-grade plastic drums painted dark green to absorb heat and discourage algae growth. But the principle of capturing a resource that literally falls from the sky and using it exactly where it's needed feels almost too obvious. That's probably why more places don't do it. I want a system like this for the house I hope to rent next year.