My family uses capture rain water to supply the entire home. Due to cistern footprint, roof material, etc that's not feasible for everyone.

However. Even the most hated of HOAs and the smallest of lots have room for small gutter capture of roof water.

In the events of this past week, water like that could have at the least supplied toilet flushing water. If treated, could be water for cooking/drinking.

Just something to consider for future prep.

Been thinking of doing large scale collection but how do prep for this kind of cold where that supply doesn't freeze up too? I think even the large tanks would freeze after negative temps?

Our tank holds over 30,000 gallons. It was about 65% full when the cold weather hit. I monitored the water through a hatch on top of the cistern, no freezing of any water occurred.

Floating intake maybe helps agitate the surface a bit, but in my experience - we never lost water supply.

Have always been interested in one of these as we do a bit of gardening and it's great on the water bill.

Will be very interested to hear how some of the more popular brands held up. I'm imagining lots of burst PVC at the outlet flanges but I'm not sure.

By floating intake do you mean it has a float valve of some kind, and maybe the float bouncing around kept it from freezing up?

The intake sits on the surface of the water allowing the pump to draw in the cleanest water.

As I understand it...Any "stuff" that makes it past the first flush take clean outs is likely to sink to bottom. Best water on top.

Put in a swimming pool.

How cold did you get at your location?

barnyard1996 said:

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Put in a swimming pool.

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I have one, a full blown in ground cement pond, just like the Beverly Hillbillies. I was walking around on top of that dude yesterday. Brownwood area, we were below freezing 8 or 9 days.

FNMikey said:

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barnyard1996 said:

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Put in a swimming pool.

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I have one, a full blown in ground cement pond, just like the Beverly Hillbillies. I was walking around on top of that dude yesterday. Brownwood area, we were below freezing 8 or 9 days.

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That's crazy. Saw Dude Perfect ice skating on his pool a couple days ago.

Curious, any damage to it from the freeze?

Funny you bring this up. We are in the planning phase of likely building a new garage with a 600 sf addition on top and harvesting rainwater all day Wednesday into random containers and putting it through makeshift filters before boiling convinced me I want to put in a precast cistern while everything is dug up and do it for real.
My improvised filtering setup:

We went below 32 last week Wednesday night, and didn't break 32 until today.

We saw single digits 3 nights in a row.

That's awesome! Pond at my property was frozen over so that is why I was asking. Will research some more for sure!

How is your cistern constructed. The only ones that I have used in the past have been above ground concrete and fiberglass.

This is mine:

30000-gallon-water-storage-tanks

We built it on a sand pad, not concrete ring pad.

kappmeyer said:

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This is mine:

30000-gallon-water-storage-tanks

We built it on a sand pad, not concrete ring pad.

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Thats exactly what we have! Best damn water you can get. I'd love to see your whole setup. This was our first hard winter and learned a few things.

Thx for posting - how much rain do you need to get to your current level and what's the cost of the cistern?

TIA

chaca5151 said:

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kappmeyer said:

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This is mine:

30000-gallon-water-storage-tanks

We built it on a sand pad, not concrete ring pad.

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Thats exactly what we have! Best damn water you can get. I'd love to see your whole setup. This was our first hard winter and learned a few things.

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Yeah, how are you capturing and filling? Roof runoff into a drain? How do you deal with a week below 25 degrees? Pump to supply? Does it also interact with a well pump? How much maintenance to keep water clean and safe?

barnyard1996 said:

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FNMikey said:

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barnyard1996 said:

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Put in a swimming pool.

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I have one, a full blown in ground cement pond, just like the Beverly Hillbillies. I was walking around on top of that dude yesterday. Brownwood area, we were below freezing 8 or 9 days.

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That's crazy. Saw Dude Perfect ice skating on his pool a couple days ago.

Curious, any damage to it from the freeze?

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No, it is an old old pool, was old when we moved in 25 years ago. I always have shut down and drained pump and filter end of every season. So far have just replaced pumps, valves, etc due to age or normal wear and tear.

Roof into gutters into down spouts into trunk lines.

1" rain = 1700 gallons off our roof

I'll write up later on water treatment.

is there some reason you can't just use well water?

Wish my work had their own water supply.

Having to go to the Blue Room and hoping the Blue Monster doesn't bite you in the butt is not fun when it's 20 degrees outside and feels like you have a jet fan blowing 0 degree air on your undercarriage.

I've never been to a blue room that had that much ventilation.

Our ground water:

- super hard
- has iron
- has sulphur

Rain water:

- perfect


Only treated with sediment filter and UV for any bacteria off roof (bird poop)

I'd choose rain water over ground water many times over. Plus, when Texas starts hammering privately owned water wells, I can give em the middle finger.

House I grew up in first 10 years or so of my life was supplied with only rain water off the roof. If cisterns went dry I remember daddy hauling water. We were pretty poor. But I do remember family coming over would always remark about how good our water tasted.

shiftyandquick said:

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is there some reason you can't just use well water?

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I agree with kappmeyer on this one, the cost to drill a well in the hill country was more than the cost of rain collection by about 6k and there was no guarantee they would hit water. If they don't hit water at 600ft they keep going and your budgeted cost increases also.

I can't tell the difference between our rain water and RO system.

Tell us about roof material. Can you collect for consumption off a composite shingle roof? I was told years ago this was a no-go. So does that leave metal roofing systems only for water that will be consumed? Thx.

We are in the process of planning a build with water catchment and currently planning on a 16,000 Pioneer tank. This week has got me concerned about freezing up so your experience is helpful. We are in north Texas and got down to -2 this week. Any problem keeping your outlet pipes thawed. Our pump house will be in the barn part of the barndo so that should help on that end, I am concerned about getting the water from the tank to the pump house without freezing.

W TX Refugee said:

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We are in the process of planning a build with water catchment and currently planning on a 16,000 Pioneer tank. This week has got me concerned about freezing up so your experience is helpful. We are in north Texas and got down to -2 this week. Any problem keeping your outlet pipes thawed. Our pump house will be in the barn part of the barndo so that should help on that end, I am concerned about getting the water from the tank to the pump house without freezing.

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My water froze in the pump house, my pipe from the tank to the pump house is underground so that might have helped and same from the pump house to our house.

I will be buying these and adding to our water lines, bigger project but will be worth it.
https://www.lowes.com/pd/EasyHeat-AHB-24-ft-168-Watt-Pipe-Heat-Cable/1065635

Also check the cost difference between 16k and up usually when you get that big going a little bigger isn't that much more. The company who installed mine quoted me for a 20k gal tank, he made the mistake of telling that the cost to go bigger isn't much more. I asked them to give me the 30k gal tank lat cost which only $750 more for 10k gal.

Also adding a fire hydrant hook up to your tank will reduce your homeowners insurance!

dr_boogs said:

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Tell us about roof material. Can you collect for consumption off a composite shingle roof? I was told years ago this was a no-go. So does that leave metal roofing systems only for water that will be consumed? Thx.

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I know you wanted Kappmeyer to answer, but I found this if you are interested regarding roofing, because I had the same question:
https://www.bluebarrelsystems.com/blog/roofing-materials-for-rainwater-harvesting/

Thanks for the reply. Great info in that link!

Appreciate the info, especially on the incremental cost. What part of the state are you in and who did you use to install if you don't mind me asking.

I actually called ever FD and VFD in the area and they all told me they would not use a hook up on my rain tank for fear of collapsing the tank. They said policy was to not allow pump truck to use "unknown source". My insurance quote did not change based off having/not having an inlet, so I took the above of the local FD and did not do one.

I'd be happy to get any photos or price info. We love the rain water. Never a spot on a glass or shower glass. Tastes amazing. And if you've got a metal roof, which many do, you're set up for success.

We do have a ground well, which is plumped to exterior hose bibs. So we never waste a drop of captured rain water on turf or plant watering.

Based off our average monthly use, the 30k gallons would get us to almost 8 months. Prob longer as our conservation would increase drastically if we ever went nearly that long without rain.

Been years since I put in my well but you can either have 10' of casing and a pad that most people ignorantly install their pressure switch and tank on in the middle of the yard. Hard to insulate and big pressure drop to home.
Instead have a 20' casing and minimal wellhead above ground. Using 1.5" pvc elbows to 180, union and bury 12" deep right into garage or home, than install pressure switch and tank. Mucho better water flow and easier to insulate and protect from freezing.