Oasis Water Harvesting - Sierra Vista, AZ 520-234-7681 Facebook square blue small Twitter square blue small Google+

All pictures shown on this site are the products and efforts of Oasis Water Harvesting

 

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Since 2005 Oasis has helped many hundreds of home owners set up rain water harvesting systems at their homes.  These have been any where from 65 gallons to 2,825 gallon tank(s).  The basic concept does not change on these straight forward systems using a downs spout into a tank on a level pad.  A lot of times the home owner is going to need gutters installed after the tanks were delivered.  Below I would like to highlight a few noteworthy systems that were a little more out of the ordinary in hopes that this might give the reader some ideas for other options than the simple obvious ones. Here are a few pictures of the simpler systems

The System That Started It All

 

When I first got into rain water harvesting I wanted a system that would be both efficient (strore lots of water) and something that would not distract from the aesthetics of our home.   I started with a 1,000 gallon system up at the house (5 - 200 gallon tanks linked together) but the shop building I wanted a larger system.  The biggest problem I had to figure out was how do I get water from many diffrent roof angles going in all different directions into one large tank.  I came up with the idea of using 3 smaller tanks (two 50- gallon and one 100 gallon) around the building I called surge tanks, they are linked together underground using 1.5" pvc pipe into the bottom of a 200 gallon tank with a sump pump inside capable of pumping 3,000 gallons per hour.  On my 2500 square foot shop building that means the pump could keep up  with a 2" rain event in one hour.  The pump has a float switch on it so that when it starts to rain at some point the float switch turns on the pump, as the 200 gallon tank tries to empty itself the smaller tanks start pushing water using just gravity towards the 200 gallon tank.  the pump transfers the water into a 3,000 gallon tank.  The large tank was taller than my gutters so I could not use the traditional delivery system of a downspout into the top of the tank.    After a couple of years I added a 1500 gallon tank to the system and a year or two later another 3,000 gallon tank for a total storage of 7,500 gallons.  I meter this water and have found in a year I can go through around  25,000 gallons per year on this system.                                                                              

 

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Large Patio Roof System

 

This home owner had a very large patio roof that was almost the entire lenght of the back of the house.  Combining this patio roof area with the house roof that emptied onto it made for an ideal collection surface for a nice rain water harvesting system.  The ideal spot for a large tank was nearby along the side of the home.  The problem was that the gutter off the patio was right at about the same height of the tank, making a traditional dry or wet delivery system impossible.  So what we did was to place a 100 gallon tank off the patio with a sump pump inside.  This was able to transfer the water in a rain event into the top of the 2500 gallon tank.  The large tank also sits right under another gutter harvesting water off of an additional roof surface area.   A shallow well pump is then used to pressurize water for the garden.

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Four 500 Gallon Tanks

This system was done while the home was near completion of construction.  The home owner had a perfect area picked out for water storage but it was not deep enough for a single large round tank,  so we installed four 500 gallon tanks linked together as one system.  2,000 square feet of roof at the rear of the home empties into the top of the rear 500 gallon tank.  There was an additional 1,000 square feet of roof in the front of the home that emptied into a court yard.  To harvest this water we placed a 200 gallon tank in the courtyard with a sump pump inside.  This was possible because the concrete driveway was not poured so the 1.5" pipe went from the courtyard, in front of the 3 car garage underground, around the corner of the grage and into the top of the front 500 gallon tank.  A shallow well pump was then used to pressurize water for 2 spigots, one near the pump for a future garden and a second inside the courtyard.  An overflow system was installed to get the excess water away from the home.

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Large Roof, Large Storage

 

 

This home owner had a large house roof of around 5,000 square feet, a detached sun room building of 1,000 square feet and a new garage that was being built during the time of the rain water harvesting install of aroudn 2,500 square feet.  He wanted large tanks but wanted them in an out of the way location.  We found the perfect location for the large tanks behind a small detached shop building but that put the tanks 100 feet from the house.  Our solution was to install three 205 gallon tanks, two up against the house and one up against the sun room building.  All three of those tanks are linked together with 1.5" pipe.  One of the two tanks up against the house has a sump pump in it and the one against the sun room building has a pump inside also.  Those two pumps combined can pump 6,000 gallons per hour into the large tanks.  The home owner started with two 2825 gallon tanks that are linked together with a 2" linking system.  The first large tank gets water pumped into it from the two small tanks with the sump pumps.  The second large tank gets its water from the new garage by way of a wet delivery system using two 4" pipes, one from each side of the garage.  The gutters on the garage are 12' off the ground while the large tanks are a little over 7' high, thus giving plenty of head pressure for the wet delivery system.  The following year after finishing the project the home owner added a third large tank to increase capacity.  It is linked with a 2" linking system.  This system also has an auto fill that maintains a minimun level of water in the large tanks year round.  A pump supplies pressure for irrigation.

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An Attractive Small System

 

 

The builder of this system had me come over and give him some ideas before they had laid down the large brick patio.  He wanted a somewhat small system but one that could supliment the irrigations system.  I saw the 3 scuppers that were going to dump water on the patio and came up with the idea to supply three 65 gallon tanks and link them to a 200 gallon tank we could place out of the way in the back corner of the back yard.  The 65 gallon tanks don't take up much space because they are only 20" wide but they are 4' tall which is the same as the 200 gallon tank.  This makes using these to different size tanks ideal as their overflows are all at the same height.  The 200 gallon tank is not under any kind of downspout and only gets its water from the three smaller tanks.  The 200 gallon tank was supplied with a sump pump inside that a garden hose is attached to.  The electrician installed a switch box on the wall near the 200 gallon tank to plug the pump into.  When the home owner turns on the pump they are not only drawing water from the 200 gallon tank but at the same time pulling water from the three 65 gallon tanks (water always seeks its own level).  The combined storage of this system is 395 gallons but at the same time the planting area in the courtyard is rather small.  Rain chains were used to make sure the water got into the three smaller tanks.  Oasis has developed a device used to attach rain chains to scuppers.  Everyone that has used them say they work great.   Potted plants were used around the smaller tanks on the patio to soften the vertical lines of the tanks

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A Simple and Easy Fix

 

This home owner wanted one large tank that was almost the height of the gutters on the front and back of the home.   The back corner was where they wanted the large tank, away from the picture window.  Getting water from the front gutters was simply delivering a 200 gallon tank with a sump pump inside that could be used to transfer water into the top of the large tank using 1.5" pvc pipe.  A down spout from the back gutter goes directly into the top of the 2825 gallon tank.

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