Category Archives: Rainwater Harvesting Education

Do You Want to Learn About Rainwater Harvesting?

Ken Blair Seattle Home Show
Ken Blair, RainBank, presents an educational seminar at the Seattle Home Show

RainBank’s president, Ken Blair, offers educational rainwater harvesting seminars to schools, community groups, engineering and architectural firms.  Do you want to learn about rainwater harvesting?

Your group or organization can learn about laws, codes, and general use of harvested rainwater. Various rainwater collection techniques, methodologies, and components can be covered in RainBank’s seminars.  If your school, community organization, landscaping company, architectural or engineering firm wants to learn about rainwater harvesting, Ken will tailor the presentation to your questions and needs.

Passionate about having a positive impact on the environment and dedicated to help create grassroots solutions for rainwater collection for consumption and agriculture, Ken has more than 10 years of practical application in the Pacific Northwest designing and installing rainwater catchment systems. RainBank has designed and installed 100 potable residential systems in Washington State and is an accredited professional member of ARCSA (American Rainwater Catchment Systems Association).

Ken has taught water conservation and the natural cycle at the elementary school level. Community groups can learn how single family homes can supplement their city water usage, architects are being asked to incorporate rainwater water harvesting in residential home designs and engineers are including systems for commercial applications. Ken Blair has been a speaker at the ARCSA convention in Portland, Oregon and has been mentioned or quoted in articles from Net Zero, Commercial Builders Magazine, and was highlighted in ARCSA Accredited Professional (AP) Profiles.  Photos of RainBank’s water tank installations are featured on Washington State Department of Ecology website (look for slideshow in right hand column).

Ken’s experience, insight and ongoing education can assist your group, company or organization in making informed decisions about rainwater harvesting.

Would you like to invite Ken to conduct a seminar for your group?  Please complete the form below.

What is a First-Flush Diverter?

This post is part of the series How to Build a Simple Rainwater Collection System.

What is a First-Flush Diverter?A first-flush diverter helps keep your rainwater harvesting system clean by enabling the removal of dust, other debris, and any fecal matter that collects on your roof and in your gutters between rainfalls, so it is flushed out at the very beginning of the water collection process.

What is a First-Flush Diverter?
Click to view larger version of First Flush Diverter Diagram

The cleaner your water is as it goes into your system, the cleaner your water will be when you use it. Studies have shown a tremendous drop in fecal bacteria levels when the roof is flushed before water enters the tank. Bacteria also like to live in decaying leaves and other organic matter that collects at the bottom of the tank. A first-flush diverter “washes” the roof, so there is less rubbish on the tank’s bottom.

Do you want to see more articles about how to build a simple rainwater harvesting system? Check the “Notify me of new posts by email” button below.

Rainwater Collection Lesson For Orcas Island Students

If you think kids are only into video games, try teaching them about something they really care about – like rainwater harvesting and conservation.

Ken Blair Orcas Island School

RainBank’s Ken Blair and Craig Sanders from Island Irrigation recently spent an entire day with the students from Orcas Island School K through 6th grade, teaching rainwater collection and conservation. “I don’t know who had more fun – the children or myself. The enthusiasm of the kids kept the pace of the class going from bell to bell”, said Ken.

SandersBalloonKen taught a little history of rainwater collection, some science on the natural cycle of rain and a bit of math so the children could calculate how much rainwater they could collect from their home roofs. Each class will make rain gauges so they can monitor how much rain is available to fill their storage tank that RainBank installed last year for their garden-to-lunch program. “I think the children took away the need for them to conserve our resources and I am confident that they will go home and teach their parents. It was a great bunch of kids and I look forward to doing more of this”, adds Ken.

Read more about Orcas Island students and their lessons on rainwater collection here.

If you would like for your Seattle area school to participate in this type of learning, complete the form below to send a request to Ken Blair of RainBank Rainwater Catchment Systems.