The process wherein water is harvested during rain shower is actually called rain water collection. This is practiced for already a thousand years whether you believe it or not. In this modern world, there are lots of people who are still doing it and even made their own inputs to make the system more efficient.

 

There are many different purposes in which the harvested water can be utilize such as domestic use, drinking water, land irrigation and many more. A lot of people have opted to make use of rainwater into their day to day lives because it's free. The only expense that they have to make is for the installation of rain water collection system. In addition to that, lots of people actually prefer using it instead of ground water as rain water is sodium-free and soft.

 

People started developing a more complex Rain Water Collection system in an effort to achieve a much more effective way of filtering and capturing the rain due to the high demand for such system. Even though these systems are produced by different companies, all of it has in common including:

 

Catchment surface - this is where the rain hits throughout the downpour. A lot of people are using it in their roofs for this specific purpose. However, there are others who are building pole barns. The material that is put into used to the roof is extremely important. Any other material that has a smooth surface will do; but most of the time, property owners are taking advantage of alloy coated sheet steel. Keep this in mind, the smoother the surface of the roof, the more efficient the collection system is going to be. Read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainwater_harvesting for more information about rainwater harvesting.

 

Downspouts/Gutters - these said components are the place where rain water would be directed from catchment surface. The rainwater will be passing through the gutters and through other parts of the system. It is very important to take into account the proper installation of gutters to capture more rain water. Lead shouldn't be used in any part of gutter as rain actually has the ability to dissolve such material. It will contaminate the water with other toxic substances sooner or later.

 

Leaf Screens from www.bluebarrelsystems.com this serves as the preliminary filter for flowing water from gutter just before it reach the tanks. Leaf screens can be installed with the gutter as well; this is done to block the debris that may possibly be carried in the water such as sticks, leaves, rocks or anything that is present on the roof.

 

First Flush Diverters - this is another filter type but they are working on the smaller particles that have skipped through leaf screens including sand, dust, pollen and even feces of animals from rats or birds.