All posts by Ken Blair

A rainwater collection systems designer and consultant, Ken has designed and installed residential and commercial systems, primarily in the northwest United States for more than 10 years and, in 2014, began consulting and managing builds in other states. Ken is an accredited ARCSA Professional Designer / Installer and Life Member, the Northwest Regional ARCSA representative and advisor to its education committee and is available to speak about Rainwater Collection Systems design and builds. Ken is a United States Navy veteran, having served on active duty during the Vietnam War era. A career entrepreneur, Ken created a new business focus with a commercial dive company in Hawaii in the mid 1980′s to respond to and clean up oil spills, oil spill equipment training, service and maintenance for the oil co-op service industry. Ken is passionate about having a positive impact on the environment and is also a founding director of BANK-ON-RAIN (2011-2014), whose mission is to create grassroots solutions for rainwater collection for consumption and agriculture in developing areas of the planet.
Rainwater Catchment

Rainwater Saves Money in Seattle

statue-5998_640According to a press release issued by Drexel’s College of Engineering, “research by a team of Drexel University environmental engineers indicates that it rains enough in Philadelphia, New York, Seattle and Chicago that if homeowners had a way to collect and store the rain falling on their roofs, they could flush their toilets often without having to use a drop of municipal water.”

Franco Montalto, P.E., PhD, an associate professor in Drexel’s College of Engineering, and director of its Sustainable Water Resource Engineering Lab states, “Philadelphia and Seattle are the two cities where percent water savings would be greatest if residential neighborhoods were all equipped with rainwater harvesting systems.”

RainBank Rainwater Systems has been designing and constructing systems throughout the Pacific Northwest for more than 15 years. Many of our Seattle customers have included rainwater collection as part of new residential construction and retrofitted existing homes. Toilet flushing, laundry facility, and irrigation can all be supplied with non potable rainwater. Whole house usage or potable water can be achieved with proper filtration and disinfection as well.

You don’t need a lot of storage to save money. RainBank Rainwater Systems has designed and installed 3,000 gallon systems that supply an average 2,000 sq. ft. home with 60% of its household use, simply because of the amount of fall and winter rainfall.

Read more from Drexel University Engineering: Here’s Why We Should Use Rainwater to Flush Toilets

Infrastructure, Sustainability

Will Decentralized Water Systems Flow in the Wake of Flint Crisis?

Matt Grocoffwater-464953_640, a writer, speaker and recognized leader in net zero energy and living buildings asks: “What if there is a better way for Flint and other cities to harvest and deliver life-enhancing water?

We’ve talked about why decentralized water systems are important to our public safety and why rainwater collection is a simple source for decentralized water, and how it can be the answer to our aging, centralized water systems. With expected increased demand from high density development and the high cost of upgrading infrastructure to meet those demands, water is becoming a commodity.

In his February 15th post for Michigan Radio, Can Flint crisis inspire better water systems for all of us?, Grocoff goes on to say, “There is no doubt that Flint’s water crisis is an unqualified failure of democracy, but it is also a century-old failure of design and systems thinking.”

With a progressive train of thought, he asks, instead of replacing all of the pipes, how about building a better system? This practical approach has some of us scratching our heads because it makes perfect sense.

As science and technology evolve, we should adapt new practices for designing and building public water systems – for the sake of our health, longevity, sustainability and affordability.

Rainwater Catchment

Pollen Can Foul Stored Water

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dandelion-761104_640Spring is in the air. Rain and showers are expected in the Seattle area this week, keeping pollen counts down. However, as spring comes into full bloom, we can anticipate a rise in pollen counts, causing the potential for pollen to foul stored water.

Pollen is a nemesis of rainwater collection and needs to be controlled. Without control, pollen can easily foul our stored water. As pollen accumulates in cisterns in the spring and summer months, it starts to decay and along with that decay – odor is the result. Simple techniques should be applied in order to keep our stored water “sweet”.

Gutter screens should be cleaned often, as pollen accumulates on the screens themselves with the rain washing the pollen into the gutters and into the cisterns.

Vortex filters screen should be periodically inspected and cleaned as needed. If you do not have a vortex filter, I highly recommend having one installed.

If you use screen baskets in a sump box or the cistern itself, a layer of cheesecloth will catch the pollen before it enters the tank. The cheesecloth should be inspected frequently and replaced as needed.

Some extra attention to your system during pollen season will keep your stored water clean and odor free.

This article was originally published under the title An Early and Long Pollen Season at RainBank.info