| Exploring Rain Barrel Benefits
Water conservation is the obvious, and most important of all the rain barrel benefits. That said, conserving water has a number of benefits. When you conserve water, you are not just helping yourself, you are helping your community and the planet. Once you know the many benefits that can come from you collecting and using water in a rain water barrel, you will surely want to add one to your garden set-up. A rain water barrel is a little more complex than it sounds, it is not just a barrel sitting open to collect rain. A rain barrel is a covered barrel that is mechanically connected to your roof gutters downspout. When it rains, the water that flows off your roof into your gutters, flows down into your rain barrel. The primary advantage to using rain water over municipal water is that you are saving water and money. You can use the water you collect to take care of your garden, lawn and outdoor cleaning tasks. This means that even when your community is on a water restriction you can still water planets and your lawn because you are not using public water. What many people don't realize is that rain water is actually better for watering your lawn and garden than using water from the public supply. Public water has chemicals and chlorine in it that can be harmful to your vegetation. The water you collect in rain water barrels is more delicate. In fact, washing windows, cars and even your home exterior is safer when you use water that is chlorine free. Chlorine may fade or damage the finish on objects over time. Another one of the rain barrel benefits relates to the public sewage system. When people collect water in rain water barrels it minimizes the amount of water that flows into sewer treatment plants. With less water volume to treat, the operating expenses of the sewage treatment plants go down and there is less need to expand or build new facilities. This means that tax dollars for this can be reduced or at the very least won't be raised. It is important for people to understand that it may not seem like a lot of water is used to take care of your lawn and garden, but it does. In fact, nearly 40% of water domestic water use can be attributed to these tasks. That adds up, and each time another family starts taking advantage of the many rain barrel benefits, thousands of gallons of water are conserved.
|
