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WEEKLYPRESS.COM · UCREVIEW.COM · OCTOBER 05 · 2011


Rain Barrel Analysis P


By Rich Guffanti Community Contributor


hiladelphia faces a strategic choice when deciding how to deal


with treating storm wa- ter that overflows into our sewer system and ends up in our streams and rivers. These overflows occur after heavy rainfalls called storm events. When the rainfall in Philadelphia is average for this region, we get 66 storm events per year. (See: www.phila.gov/wa- ter/urban_water_cycle. html) To prevent this and comply with the state and federal


mandates the Philadelphia Water Dept has a multi- pronged approach (www. phi l lywatersheds.org/ what_were_doing). They have suggested ten ways of mitigating storm water contamination of our sewer system (www.phillywater- sheds.org/residents). One of the ways is for residents to install rain barrels. To that end The Office of Wa- tersheds offers free rain barrels for those attending one of their workshops (www.phillywatersheds. org/whats_in_it_for_you/ residents/rainbarrel) You can also purchase a rain barrel for $70 (trader-


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travis.biz/) Rain barrels have 2 pur- poses: 1] To water your plants, wash your car, and reduce your water bill. 2] To avoid putting sewage into the streams & rivers by flooding the sewage treatment plant.


If preventing pollution is the priority there is a maintenance problem. One needs to empty their rain barrel 48 hours after a rain. If you live in a row house, have few plants in your back yard and your car is parked in front your rain barrel will be emptied into the storm sewer.


Philadelphia’s average an- nual precipitation is 41.4 in or 0.11 in per day. A row house roof (about


Rain Captured in an average year by a row house roof


Barrels Rain Captured Rain Lost


20’x30’) will capture about 43.8 gal a day. A significant rain event (0.15 in) will fill a 55 gal barrel up in minutes. Rain barrels have a 1/2” overflow. You will have a 3” downspout empting into a 55 gal barrel with a 1/2” overflow. With a 0.6” rain- fall you will need to install a 2” overflow so 3 barrels go down the drain and not


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onto the ground. Without it you run the risk of getting water in your cellar. Which is what happened to me. Is a rain barrel worth the in- stillation and maintenance effort? To help answer this ques- tion I wanted to know how much rain would I be keeping out of the sanitary sewer. If water freezes in the rain barrel it will break. I assumed it would not be used in January and Febru- ary. So I created a spread- sheet with the rain fall for 306 days from March 1 to December 31. The calcu- lations for rain every 3, 4 and 5 days; and the barrel would be emptied every 7 days. The calculation for


every 5 days resulted in 60 overflows. This is close to the 66 rain events reported by the Water Department. The results are in the fol- lowing table. I concluded, if preventing pollution is the priority, one should consider getting more than one rain barrel. I installed two. The finances are minor. In 2011 the water dept usage charge was $5.14 per 100 cu ft of water. If you used all the water the roof collected, (watering plants, washing cars) you would save $110/ yr on your water bill. Since you only collect 14% with one rain barrel the maxi- mum you could save is $15.40 a year, two rain bar- rels would save you $31.90. Notes: August & Septem- ber 2011 had the heaviest rainfall on record (29.6” vs an average 7.3”). Anyone interested in a digital copy of this story and the spread- sheet calculation should email me at RichGuffanti@ yahoo.com


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