I just took home a new free rain barrel from the city, courtesy of the DEP and my NY State Assembly Member Robert Carroll (44th Brooklyn).

While I was picking it up, I had questions, and also heard many other questions from people coming to get theirs.

Here are some tips I learned and initial questions answered from my first hour with a new rain barrel.

Q: How do I get it home?

A: A cart helps, but a grandma shopping cart will be too small…but can ride on top.

Q: How much does it hold?  

A: 55 gallons

• 55 gallons sounds like a lot. But when you consider how much rain can collect and come off a small rooftop in NYC, it is actually not that big.

• A 18×50 building roof can collect 350-500 gallons of water in a 1 inch rain storm (more below).

• That needs somewhere to go. And if more people in NYC had rain barrels, that would reduce the flooding from overwhelmed sewers.

Q: How much rain will come off my roof in a 1 inch of water storm?

A: There is a basic formula for that.

1. Estimate your roof size

   Using an example of Brooklyn townhouse room that might be 18×50 foot roof which = 900 sq feet.

2. Multiply your roof size x 0.56 to calculate your total water potential per average rain storm

   In this example, 900 × 0.56 = 504 gallons/per inch of rain PER STORM

   Why? 0.56 is the rain fall amount of a typical storm per sq foot according to Greywater Action. It is fair to use 1 inch as some storms more and some less , but according to GrowNYC.org most rain events are 1 inch or less. Note: The city sewers are designed to accommodate 1.5-2 inches per hour capacity of our sewer system, but Hurricane Ida for example was it’s peak of 3.15 inches of rain per hour. Source: NYC Mayors Office “The New Normal.”

3. To account for leakage and inefficiency, multiply that by .75

   In this example 504 × 0.75 = 378 gallons

So…an 18x50 foot townhouse can have ~378 gallons of water coming off the roof in 1 inch of rain. A 55 gallon barrel might seem a bit big, but the job is big. That said, the city give-away barrels come with a water “diverter” so it wont overflow (see below).

Q: Uh-oh, why is there a hole in the bottom of my barrel?

A: It’s okay, that is to place a spigot and/or hose.

• I had the same concern and thought maybe mine was damaged….but it is by design. Read on…

Q: What are the pieces I connect to the rain barrel?

A: Various pieces, aka ”the connection kit” 

• The city rain barrels come with the connection kit so you can start to use it without having to run to your local hardware store.

• It is about 20 pieces and a little intimidating…but after a few minutes I got my bearings.

Q: Was there an “a-ha”moment?

A: Yes. The white box is for connecting to the downspout and diverts water to go into the rain barrel…and when that barrel is full, instead of overflowing the rain barrel there is a valve that closes and sends the water back down into the bottom of downspout as it normally would go BEFORE.

• That was an “a-ha” moment for me.

• Also there are different pre-cut lines to fit different types of downspouts.

  

• Figuring out how to connect to the downspout seems to be the most technical part.

• Once that is done, the rest seems fairly straight-forward.

• NOTE: this feels like a good small business opportunity for local gardeners or landscapers who have the tools and can help you figure it out.

» What is your experience getting your rain barrel set up? We would like to hear your story and what you learned….email us at [email protected] 

Q: Where is a website for more detail and videos on directions?

A: Here.

• The company that supplies the connection kit for the NYC DEP rain barrels is BestDownspoutDiverter.com

• They have helpful videos like this one:

Q: Did you get it all done in 1 hour?  

A: No, but I got it home and wrapped my head around it in an hour :-)

• I will share more on my experience in a future newsletter.

Helpful links:

NYC DEP Rain Barrel Give-away Program Page (Official NYC site)

Another Installation Video (Rainbarrel.ca):

This Old House:

Advantages of Rain Water Harvesting

Did you find this helpful? If so, please share this newsletter with others (and comment below if you are on the web page version). Thank you!