The Brain Dump

There are several ways to connect multiple rain barrels to a downspout.  We acquired 2 blue & 1 white recycled soda barrels from our local water shed education program when they offered a course about rain barrels.  2 of the barrels were closed with 2 intact threaded plugs per barrel and 1 barrel had the lid cut off. Without any other openings or spigots, the barrels could not be used for worthwhile rain water collection because there was no way of getting water in or out easily. Using some cheap plastic rated spray paint we painted the barrels to better blend in to our unfenced yard. I found that each lid had 2 threaded plugs.  They screwed into the lid of the barrel (note that one is fine thread and the other is course thread).  I read on the Net that the plugs are threaded for a 3/4 inch connection so I drilled a hole (Someone on the Net stated that you could just screw a 3/4 inch metal pipe down until the end cap popped off) in the course threaded plug to accept a 3/4&

We recently purchased 3 rain barrels from a local warehouse club.  They were approximately $75 each for roughly 65 gallons of water capacity. Although they were not exactly impulse purchases, they are certainly not something you buy to save money.  In our area, water costs roughly 1 cent per gallon from the water company and if you add up the cost of the barrels, cement blocks for raising them off the ground, plumbing parts, hoses and downspout diverters the payback could literally be several years in the future (we will be saving about $3-6 per month in water with our water capacity).  We did acquire 3 additional 50 gallon barrels at $20 each from another source to increase our storage capacity because we discovered that each barrel is drained fairly quickly. 3 65 gallon barrels @ $75 = $225 3 50 gallon barrels @$20 = $60 4 downspout diverters @$11 = $44 Misc plumbing and downspout parts = $50 Total = $379 Approximate savings per month in water = ~$4.50 Payback = ~7 years