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Rainwater Cistern Update
With the temperature plummeting to 9 degrees Fahrenheit this morning, I was a little concerned about the submersible pump in the bottom of our cistern. Thanks to recent rains, the cistern was full, and thanks to it being black and located on the east side of the house, there was no ice buildup at all. So to refresh, we have a 500 gallon rainwater cistern that collects runoff from about 440 square feet of roof surface and a submersible pump,…
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White Deer Park Rainwater Cisterns
After several posts on my home water cistern, I thought it would be fun to share what White Deer Park in Gardner is doing with rainwater. White Deer Park was built on land with its roots in agriculture, so they chose to have their cisterns resemble silos and built structures with lean-to roofs. Their picnic shelters all have cisterns to capture runoff. I’m not sure what most of them are used for, but one of these feeds into a hand…
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Would a rainwater cistern save you money?
Once you start down the green road, it’s pretty easy to get hyped about conservation – soil, water, building supplies, energy, savings. You would assume a rainwater cistern for watering your garden would save you money. This could be true, but depending on the size of your garden, the frequency of use and the cost of your system, it might actually take a very long time to see those savings. The Biological and Agricultural Engineering Department at North Carolina State…
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Rainwater Harvesting Cistern
Last week I got an email asking if we were interested in hosting a teaching and demonstration project for a class of NCSU students, which would involve the installation of a free rainwater harvesting cistern at our house. Of course I jumped on that opportunity as Joe and I have been attempting for awhile to get a system going for the garden. Two of our downspouts feed into this 550 gallon cistern, which has a submersible pump smart enough to…
