Customer Reviews

Rainwater Collection for the Mechanically Challenged

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Simple, straight forward, very useful, but lacking in the elegance that some may require. Enjoyed it throughly and recommend it.

This book will help understand some of the ways that you can collect rainwater without over powering your brain. It will also help you to think out side the box, or perhaps in it if you don't mind getting wet.

One of the clearest, funniest and most useful books on rainwater.

So I have been installing rainbarrels for a while now and now I am installing more and more cisterns with pumps and filtration. I started back in 2001 and in 2005 I started my own business. There is no apprenticeship program to do this work. It is just learn as you go. I really wish I had gotten this book back when I first started. It is packed with great info and advice. Some of it I have since learned on my journey and a quite a few bits of info were still new to me. If you are doing serious research for a paper, get the Eric Nissen- Peterson book. It is a very dense book full of great info and it has installation instructions for rainwater in less developed locations. If you want a book that will give you all of the practical info for installing a rainwater system in the US I highly recommend Rainwater Collection for the Mechanically Challenged. Art Ludwig's book is good also. Good luck.
Brad
Harvest The Sky

I am satisfied with it and I learned enough on rainwater collection systems. Pictures are in sufficient quality, but sometimes they are poor. Informations given are useful overall to whom needs drinkable water. Pasquale from Portogruaro (VE- Italy)

Excellent explanation of how to build a rooftop rain collection system, plus great writing & illustration style. The book is both comprehensive & understandable. With only 10" of annual precipitation, we would need a gigantic collection area and storage tank. Nevertheless, I count this book among the top 100 independence books in my library. Another way to have a great independent water system is known as the "Raney well" if you have wet soils near a creek/river nearby. It is basically a reverse drainfield. It collects, instead of distributing. Because the creek water is filtered, cysts and bacteria are removed. This book explains how a reverse osmosis system works. If you have to use a creek, lake or shallow well for your water supply you might consider an RO system. It might be a better choice than a deep well if the grid goes down.

After reading all the positive reviews, I bought a copy in hopes of learning how to set up a rainwater collection system for a house in Montana. While the book was entertaining and very informative on how to build and use a rainwater collection system, the information was totally geared towards mild climates with no real winter. The author, from Texas, admits she has no experience with winter climate and the only advice she gives is to drain your pipes and head for Tobago. Not exactly helpful. All the gutter drains and storage tanks in their systems are external and above ground. This is totally unworkable in a climate like mine that has below freezing weather for 5 months (or more) out of the year. I would think that a little research on her part would yield solutions for winter climate, and I can't imagine why she didn't take the time to do this. Since she didn't, the title and description should have made it clear that the book is for warm weather locales only.

This book lives up to it's name, it gives you detailed instructions clearly. This has been very helpful for me since I have no running water and must use rainwater. Highly recommended for anyone interested in conserving water

Lots of useful information. I will keep it for reference. The information could be a little better organized. It lacks a good summary of all the components that should be considered. It could use a summary of components needed only for irrigation. The focus of the book is rainwater collection for drinking. No discussion of rainwater collection in conjunction with solar panels or solar hot water.

Good, practical information with funny narrative and illustrations (Example: look at the drawings that accompany the description of (pipe) nipples). Good read...