[Greenbuilding] Rainbarrels

[Rob Tom]

On Sat, 05 May 2007 13:34:32 -0400, David Peabody  
<peabody_dp at earthlink.net> wrote:


>
> 1.  Will we have enough pressure to work with soaker hoses? Assuming
> not, has anyone found away around this problem? I'm thinking we may
> simply have to fashion our own by punching small holes in old hoses.

David;

I don't think that simply punching holes in old garden hoses is going to  
do you much good since the rubber tends simply to close up the holes again  
and you're back to the problem of insufficient pressure to force water  
through the closed-up holes. The holes would probably best be drilled (ie  
rubber removed from hole area) but drilling a bazillion holes using a tiny  
bit gets old really quick. (Been there, done that, got bored)

I have about the same number of rain barrels. I've found that an 18 litre  
watering can fits nicely into the mouth of the barrel for filling and it's  
really not a big chore to walk around the planting beds to give them their  
morning drink. If you're feeling robust or feel pressed for time, use two  
watering cans, one in each hand.

Hoses, schmoses. Who needs 'em  ?

>> 2.  Should we worry about algae and crud growing within the barrels?

I view any algae or crud in the rain barrels as being integral  
fertiliser... a Good Thing.
In fact, I keep a few barrels specifically for the purpose of brewing crud  
(manure and fish parts) tea for the plants.

As an aside, apparently there are some scientist-types who are looking at  
producing bio-fuel from algae.

Apparently algae likes nothing better than to gobble up CO2 and oil can be  
extracted from algae which can then be used to produce bio-fuel far more  
efficiently than bio-diesel or ethanol.

ie Greenhouse gas emissions passed through water --> algae gobbles up CO2  
--> harvest algae to make bio-fuel.






-- 
=== * ===
Rob Tom
Kanata, Ontario, Canada
< A r c h i L o g i c  at   C h a f f Y a h o o  dot  C a  >
(winnow the chaff from my edress in your reply)