WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE - if we catch it
Rainwater is safe, easy and free to catch (even in San Diego County).
- Set up a Permasystems rainwater harvesting tank to your existing gutters (no permits are required).
- Catch and store the rainwater in your tank (the gauge tells you how much is in there).
- Use the water for landscaping when you need it (hopefully for vegetable gardens and drought-tolerant fruit trees). The water comes out of a standard garden hose connection.
How much water can i harvest?
The easy formula to figure out how much water you can catch PER INCH OF RAIN:
- .6 gallons per square foot of roof
- This converts to 600 gallons per 1000 square feet of roof
- The average home in San Diego County (2000 square roof) can catch 1200 gallons with just one inch of rain and we average about 10 inches, that is a 12,000 gallon potential!
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We provide free in-home consultations to new customers and we will do all the math for you! A data sheet summarizing your rainwater harvesting potential will be provided.
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For
most homes, rainwater hits the roof, flows into the gutters, conveys
to the streets or drains, and then diverts to cement lined channels
which dump into the ocean = WASTED WATER!!!
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The big picture - rainwater supply in san diego county
In most of San Diego County we don't get a lot of rain, BUT surprisingly in an average year we actually get enough to meet our ENTIRE county's needs, even though we import the vast majority of our water. Of course it would be impossible to put all the rainwater into storage tanks and reservoirs and we would not want to rob the soil, plants and wildlife of their water, but the potential to harvest and utilize a significant amount of water is there. Rainwater can be harvested using both passive (soil) and active (water tank) systems.
The annual rainfall in San Diego can range from only about 5 inches in the desert to well over 30 in the mountains. The average for the City of San Diego, where most people live, is about 10 inches per year.
Did you know, San Diego County receives 75,706,583,040 gallons
of water with 1 inch of rain!!!
In 2013, San Diego County used about 179,300,000,000 gallons of water (data from San Diego County Water Authority website), about half of which is for outdoor use.
If each house (just over 1,000,000 million homes as of 2013) installed a properly sized rainwater capture system, with just ONE inch of rain we could capture 1,200,000,000 gallons of water - that is 1200 gallons per household, with only ONE inch! The average house in San Diego is approximately 2,000 square feet, not to mention businesses.
The annual rainfall in San Diego can range from only about 5 inches in the desert to well over 30 in the mountains. The average for the City of San Diego, where most people live, is about 10 inches per year.
Did you know, San Diego County receives 75,706,583,040 gallons
of water with 1 inch of rain!!!
In 2013, San Diego County used about 179,300,000,000 gallons of water (data from San Diego County Water Authority website), about half of which is for outdoor use.
If each house (just over 1,000,000 million homes as of 2013) installed a properly sized rainwater capture system, with just ONE inch of rain we could capture 1,200,000,000 gallons of water - that is 1200 gallons per household, with only ONE inch! The average house in San Diego is approximately 2,000 square feet, not to mention businesses.
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San Diego County imports 80-90% of it's water! Why?
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Breakdown of numbers (from calculations above):
San Diego is 4,526 square miles,
which equals 286,640 acres,
which equals 126,177,638,400 square feet.
One inch of rain over 1 square foot can captures .6 gallons of water.
126,177,638,400 square feet multiplied by .6 gallons equals 75,706,583,040 gallons
San Diego is 4,526 square miles,
which equals 286,640 acres,
which equals 126,177,638,400 square feet.
One inch of rain over 1 square foot can captures .6 gallons of water.
126,177,638,400 square feet multiplied by .6 gallons equals 75,706,583,040 gallons