Water is critical to life. As the saying goes, “you never miss the water until the well runs dry”. And the well is going to run dry. Our large aquifer underlying Champaign County and its surroundings has dropped 80 feet in depth since overuse began a few decades ago. Water wells are now drilled in the west side of the county because water has receded from the eastern portion of the aquifer. Although water in many regions has the appearance of being inexpensive, it is a resource to be carefully managed in order to provide sufficient amounts of this precious resource to future generations.
Equinox House is designed to operate on the water that falls on its roof. Newell Instruments designed and constructed the rainwater collection system installed on Equinox House. Specialized downspouts incorporate diverters that catch roof debris (bird poop, bugs, dust, etc) during the initial rainfall, and then diverts the remaining rainwater to the cistern. The 1700 gallon cistern is buried in the backyard with connecting pipes located below the freeze level in our region. A pumping station with sediment filter is located in the garage of Equinox House where temperatures will always remain above freezing. The pumping station includes a remote monitoring system for measuring the cistern water level. If the water level drops to too low of a level, potable (city) water can be added to the cistern in a manner approved by the Illinois State Department of Public Health that avoids cross-contamination of potable water.
Current approval by the Illinois State Department of Public Health allows Equinox House to only use water for toilets. A number of commercial buildings in Illinois also have rainwater supplied to toilets. We are one of the first private residences (maybe the first?) in an Illinois municipality to receive this approval.
Equinox House rainwater collection system is designed to be able to meet all of its water needs. The plumbing in Equinox has been designed such that a single piping branch will switch laundry and shower water to rainwater in the future, which should cover 80% of our water needs. Toilets (low flow, 1.28 gallons per flush) are estimated to require about 25% of our water usage. We plan to keep all sinks, an estimated 20% of the remaining house water use, on city water.
A plot showing the water level in the cistern indicates that since last September when the downspouts were connected to the cistern, the tank has remained nearly full. Eight rainfalls have occurred since September in which rain overflowed from the cistern to the adjacent rain garden. The low water months for our region are December, January and February. December, 2010 proved to be an unusual one, setting an all time snowfall record (20 inches) and was the third coldest December on record. Our cistern has continued operating throughout this extreme weather as seen in the plot.
A second attached plot shows our rainwater consumption. From September to mid-November, all rainwater usage was for the garden areas, with nearly 2000 gallons of water used to establish a small patch of grass in the front yard and some isolated plants in other areas (river oats, cardinal flower, little bluestem and other prairie grasses, barberry, boxwood, sedum, beautyberry, and a Japanese Snowbelle tree). Since mid-November when final building inspections occurred and our rainwater system was approved, all toilet water usage is rainwater. Some significant spikes in toilet usage occurred during Thanksgiving when relatives visited. We had 14 people in Equinox House for a few day period, and definitely noticed that toilet flushing and beer consumption are related (about 300 to 400 flushes over 5 days!).
Living on rainwater transforms your outlook. Ty grew up on rainwater in a rural part of Missouri (Ballard, Missouri….a wonderful place with wonderful people) where the well really did go dry. Like farmers raising our food, you become thankful for rain.
