4 Advantages of Using a Rain Barrel

Having a rain barrel offers a lot of advantages. You can reduce your water bills, preserve your storm drain integrity and provide you with emergency water supply in the event of water shortage. Collecting rain water using rain barrel is easy, all you need to do is position the rain barrel below the water downspout of your roof. Rain water is useful in many ways such as washing your car, watering your lawn and other non-potable uses. Using rain water is also environmental friendly as it helps conserve precious water supply and reduce the amount of pollutants pouring into local storm water systems . Below are the 4 advantages of using a rain barrel.

1. Better Plant Watering Option

Rain water is perfect for watering your plants since it does not contain chlorine which is commonly found in tap water. Chlorine kills both good and bad bacteria which mean that useful microorganisms are also killed by chlorine. These microorganisms are useful in supporting the soil’s capability to support plant life. Furthermore, there are plants that are susceptible to chlorine and fluoride such as spider plants and dracaena. Therefore, using rain water instead of tap water makes your plants healthier, greener and more immune to various plant diseases.

2. Save on Water Bills

According to the data released by the Environmental Protection Agency,  40 percent of our water usage during the summer months are spend on watering the landscape and garden. Instead of using tap water, you can use rain water to wash your windows and car; at the same time you can also use rain water to water your plants and lawn. Using more rain water for various non-potable purposes like toilet flushing as a substitute for tap water means that you can lower your water utility bills. A big rain barrel can hold as much as 1,300 gallons of rain water.

3. Emergency Water Supply

Having stored rain water at home provides you with an emergency water supply in the event of water shortage, drought or damaged water supply line. You can also lessen the impacts of drought with collected rain water by using the precious tap water supply for essential purposes and leave the non-potable uses to rain water.

4. Preserves your Local Storm Water System

Millions of gallons of water fall when it rains and all of this water is directed into your local storm water system. Albeit storm water systems are capable of handling heavy volumes of water especially during a storm, lessening the load of rain water that goes into your storm water system prevents over-saturating the flow-target area o your storm water system – you can do this by collecting rain water using a rain barrel. Aside from easing the load of your local rain water system you can also minimize organic and synthetic spill offs, pollutants and debris from entering and damaging your local rain water system.