W TX Refugee said:

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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.

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Dripping rainwater did our install and we are located in San Marocs. Total cost was $28k and it included the following

30k gal rain collection tank and pad
Custom fiber glass first filter box with extra inlet for our custom home in a few years.
Seamless Gutters
250ft Trenching for 4in pipe around the house with two clean outs. In solid rock.
1 hp pump
2 filters
1 UV light
Pump house

I'll try and get pictures tomorrow.

kappmeyer said:

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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.

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Thats strange our insurance even mapped the closet fire station and we qualified. If it came down to my house burning and it collaping my tank I will hand them a waver.

We have a 5k gal buffer on our tank and I think we our 6 months with no rain. My wife has a spreadsheet and everything, makes me measure the level every Monday.

For those looking for a bit of reading on the subject here's the two most thorough resources I've found so far.
https://extension.psu.edu/rainwater-cisterns-design-construction-and-treatment

https://www.rainbrothers.com/post/2016-1-20-how-to-filter-rainwater-for-drinking
(These guys have a lot of good educational blog posts but this is the one I started with)

Our treatment is similar to this:

https://viqua.com/product/ihs22-d4/

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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I'm interested in something like this for our next home. I'm curious, why don't they invert the roof of the structure so it can also gather rain water?

I don't think you'd capture all that much, and I don't know how you'd first flush/filter basket the water. How could you access a basket/filter in the middle of a big tank like that?