Some may not know it, but rainwater is safe at home. Harvesting rainwater also lessens your water bill since you will use what you collected instead. A simple rainwater collection system can help you utilize free water. The need for treatment or filtration will depend on the purpose of the rainwater. This article will shed light on how you can take advantage of rainwater for various uses around your home.
- Add Chlorine To Kill Bacteria
You can use rainwater to do your laundry, but there are ways to ensure it’s safe for your clothes. You can use a water filter to remove mold, dust, and pollen. But if you’re washing delicate clothes such as those for infants, it’s only natural to want to ensure that there are no bacteria. Adding chlorine can seem risky, but you can still use it without affecting your clothing.
Chlorine has a volatile nature that makes it evaporate quickly. You can add the right amount into a tank similar to the ones from The Water Tank Factory or your rainwater container and keep it open without the lid. Make sure to allow more time for the tank or container out in the open for the substance to evaporate naturally, making it cleaner.
- Boil Before Consumption
Rainwater is typically clean. But residue and bacteria tend to settle in when collected from unsensitized surfaces like roofs. You can add chlorine to make it cleaner, or when in doubt, boil the water before use. Boiling is a sure way to kill harmful microorganisms in the water.
Another method is to distill the water, which will require a distilling system. You can look into home filtration systems that directly clean rainwater for drinking. Reverse osmosis also works wherein permeable membrane filters the water and separates the impurities. Even chlorine cannot pass through this membrane.
- Use Rainwater To Wash Your Car
Whether it’s 10 or 15 liters, you can’t deny it’s still so much water. And in reality, a car owner can use wastewater for up to 35 liters for car cleaning. And that’s about the average amount of water used every time someone washes their vehicle. Whether one is using a hose or a bucket, it remains that using water can be challenging to control, especially when cleaning large vehicles.
If you’ve been collecting rainwater, it doesn’t need treatment for washing cars. You’re also saving liters of water and being kinder to the environment. Collecting rainwater reduces the number of damage rains cause to creeks because of stormwater runoffs. The trash, fertilizer, grease, and pesticides it contains goes into the body of water, wreaking havoc in its ecosystem.
- Get Rainwater Tested If You Can
Rainwater in its purest form isn’t drinkable, or the best to bathe in it is an alternative. Some state regulations will deem it not good enough or not wholesome for human consumption. Homeowners could have rainwater tested for treatment or for installing the right filtering system in this case.
Rainwater could contain chemicals or heavy metals. Various filtering systems can remove them with carbon filters and redox filters. If you live close to an industrial area, it would be necessary to start requesting a water test, as both contaminants are likely to be present. Ultraviolet filters are also available to disinfect bacteria. It uses a UV lamp that will need changing every year.
Making rainwater drinkable requires the right filter, and a whole-house system can make that possible. Still, the government clarified that additives in the water are needed, such as chlorine and fluoride, for healthy drinking water. Clean rainwater won’t contain any of the mentioned additives.
- Install Filter For Flushing Toilets
A modern toilet makes it convenient to eliminate solid waste and maintain good hygiene. But ones with a flushing mechanism encourage good water that goes down the drain a few times daily. With more than one person in a household produces monumental water waste. That’s also why the need for low-flow toilets that can help conserve water.
But if you want to use rainwater to flush your toilet instead, connect your toilet cistern to the rainwater harvesting system. Make sure to use a filtering system that removes debris from the rainwater that could otherwise collect in your toilet and block the valves. It can also cause discoloration that can ruin the aesthetic of the toilet bowl.
In Conclusion
Collecting and harvesting rainwater has benefits, such as conserving water from the main pipelines. It also makes you an ally to the environment. But it’s crucial to have the proper filtering system to use rainwater for potable purposes such as drinking, bathing, washing clothes, and toilet flushing. Rainwater can still have contaminants. Have it tested, if you can, to ensure that you can safely consume the collected water.
