I too am very interested in saving water. I just took a class on
this. The first rain isn't good to measure as all the contaminants
from your roof will be included. It's best to let that *first flush*
go out and then begin your capture.
Let me know how your project is going. Cachement is big here where I
live on the Central Coast of California. Workshops are going on all
over. New businesses are starting up to provide rain cachement
systems. I visited a fellow who dug up his front lawn, put in a 7,000
gallon water retention system, and then planted native plants. It
looks great and will provide one-half his garden and yard needs plus
fire protection for one year.
Cecile
seaseal@got.net
You can never change things by fighting the existing reality.
To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model
obsolete.