One can look at one's plumbing and see how difficult it would be to divert big water users like the clothes-washer and dish-washer from the existing drainage to some point where it can be used to irrigate.

If you have air conditioning, it has a built in dehumidifier. I have a gallon jug collecting the distillate from mine and don't know haw much is produced because it's always full eveytime I check.

It's certaining not enough to water the lawn or garden, but the new plants we're starting for the fall are loving it.

Back around 1980 in the California drought, I connected a barrel to one of my shower drains and used it for some of my downhill veggies. It worked ok because while it drained slowely thru a garden hose, I could move the hose around while I was doing garden tasks. A little shampoo and hand soap didn't seem to hurt anything.

The problem with the above or a rain barrel is that it is really very small. When I built a recirculating landscape pond and stream, I took the opportunity to order extra rubberized liner and used it to create an extra pond that I call my resevette. I collect the water from my french drain that protects the back of my house. It also collects the water from the back roof. I have a submersable pump in the bottom of the resevette and piping that brings water up to a convenient point where I have a secondary transfer pump that when running generates high prressure for regular garden watering. I actually use it mainly for landscape plants and the decorative pond because the vegetable garden is further away.

Because I never remember to pick up a dish pan, I use my largest stainless steel mixing bowl in the sink to catch water as I am rinsing things (dishes, vegetables) and when handwashing certain things. When the bowl fills up, I dump it into a 5 gallon bucket. I do not use a lot of soap but soap does make it into the water so I spread it around to different spots, alternating when plants get dishwater and tap water to prevent any buildup. Any extra tea or coffee also gets added to this bucket.

g'day lindy,

we use all our waer at least twice. never flush urine, pee in a bucket and add that to used water, flush toilet with available laundry water.

laundry; bath; dish you name it we use it don't ever store it use it fresh.

think about the future as it will rain sometime, put in a rainwater tank around 25k/litre a good size, we live from our tanks.

len

Here is a link that might be useful: lens permaculture essay

Sounds like you need more rain barrels. Look at Youtube for many suggestions.

I use shower water for flushing the toilet. I live alone, so toilet use isn't a big issue. I do wish I had more rain barrels, but I'm trying to get them at a better price than the $50 I paid for the first one. I've got trash barrels, pails, plastic totes and my plastic wheel barrow filled with water as well. Make sure you cover the top of your container soil with mulch where possible - it really helps.

Wow! It's been a hot summer up here too, and while not dangerously dry, I don't think we've gotten more than 30min periods of rain before last night.
Our house is making a real group effort: my upstairs neighbour has an air conditioner, my downstairs neighbour collects the water it sucks out of the air into watering cans, buckets, etc, then leaves them for me to water my plants with. Hopefully for next year we can get a rain barrel set up that will not only catch the rain, but can drain the aircon water into.
Collecting water from rinsing dishes is a great idea. I'm also an "if its yellow, let it mellow" person, and try not to use too much water on principle.
Wishing everyone rain! Lots of it.

My water bill trebled it is too hot and my plants has to drink and looks like rain abandoned us.

still don't understand the trend of rain barrels a barrel being about 40 imp/gals or 200 litres, that is not enough captured water to see anyone through a dry spell. it would take 100 barrels to conserve as much rain water as one 22 kilolitre tank. me i just don't get it. we have two 22.5k/l tanks and would like a third, also have some drums/barrels to take overflow if need be.

so guess the way we see it save enough water or let the gardens go in time of drought, and yes we do have droughts here only 3 years past the end of a 15 year drought for us. so we've had 3 good rain years good time to conserve water.

there are pic's of a tank and drum set up on our permaculture essay page.

our tanks are safe to drink out of, drums aren't.

keep in mind every 1millimeter of rain that falls onto 1sq/meter of roof = 1 litre of water, son that 1mm on 100 sq/mts(av' capture area) is 100 litres. if you have a corrugated or metal roof in times of heavy due that is more water captured, our smallish roof area gives us 2 buckets of dew on heavy dew mornings.

len

Len, I honestly do not think most are ready yet to have enough storage to get through a drought. I think rain barrels are a small step. I think governments encourage them to lessen the drain on the aquifer or whever the water comes from and are used as mainly a supplement. I think the U.S. still has a very long ways to go with water. There needs to be a greater consciouness of its use and waste and laws need to be worked on to make things more feasible. Some states have a limit as to how much water can be captured, there are also laws governing the use of gray water. Also, people will need to be willing to spend the money in housing, which is already pretty expensive. We had our house built and by the end of it all, there were so many little things that added up, spending money on a cistern would not have been feasible (although we are beginning to look into it for the future).

The rain barrels appeal to those who do not do the math. In a drought, the real sources of water are the shower, the dishwasher, and the washing machine. But if you live in the city or suburbs you really have to worry about what happens when you try to sell a house with heavily modified plumbing.
It gets worse if you have drip irrigation, as grey water is a lot grittier than regular water.

The water hog is a beautiful system for rain water collection, but waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too pricey. I would love to have a bunch of the installed under my decks and possibly on the side of the house, but they just aren't worth the cost IMO. Google it or search it in YouTube, they are pretty neat.