Me either, can you explain how filling from the bottom is even possible? That's 2200lbs of water when full and yet he has no pumps. I can't understand it.
Great system. I am going to copy. I have a question or two. How and where did you convert from the sewage pvc back to standard pvc? is it at the couplers your reference? As I understand it, downspout goes into pvc sewage (waste pipe as you call it) then at the other end at the top of the "Y" there appears to be another type of coupler. After that is appears to be standard (drainage) pvc. What connects the sewage pvc back to the standard drainage pvc at the "Y"? Thank you very much. I am putting this in back of my pole barn to water the garden.
One more question: I love the water level clear pvc pipe you built into the system; what connector part(s) are you using at the bottom that connects to the clear pvc tube? What is the part called - where did you get it? do you have a link? Thanks!
I got the clear pvc off of Amazon. The pieces at the bottom are just standard elbows from Lowes. Make sure you put a cap on the clear gauge. Put a small hole in the cap with screen in it. That keeps out bugs but allows air to escape as it fills. Thanks for watching!
Dude, that was a REALLY good video!! I'm going to rethink the way to plumb my set up. I'm curious, will the black plastic covering degrade as the sun eats at it?
Thanks for the compliment. My particular setup is on the north side of the barn, so it is in constant shade. I'm not sure what constant sunlight would do. They make black IBC totes, but I couldn't find any near me that were food grade and safe for irrigation
great system! 2 questions: 1. when the water comes down the downspout (assume totes are empty) what prevents it from going to the overflow side? 2. Since your system fills from the bottom do your gutters ever get backed up during a strong rainstorm - I'm wondering if the water can fill the totes fast enough to handle the downpour? thanks.
2. It only overflows the gutter if it would have anyway. In other words there are some storms so hard that the outflow of the gutter is overwhelmed regardless of the apparatus past the 4 inch outflow of the gutter
Hi mate, I have two that I'm about to set up so I'm super glad I came across your video. Could you tell me what your pressure is like when you're just using the standard hose attachment? I'm looking at running a 15m hose from mine. I'm hoping I won't need to run a pump.
Pressure is ok when they are totally full. You will need a pump for most applications unless you raise them up. Even if you raise them you won't get near tap pressure. May be ok for drip line irrigation though. Raising them requires changing how they are filled since I bottom filled them.
I understand the concept of siphoning, one container is higher than the other.I understand how Canal Locks work but what I don't understand is how water simply falling into a gutter can lift 2200 pounds of water to fill a tote. Because if you were filling from the top that would make sense but from the bottom. I can't wrap my head around it. WATER PRESSURE!
It is fluid dynamics. It isn't lifting it. It mixes in it and flows within it. It isn't solid. Again, it is a function of the height not the volume. If you have a 10 acre farm pond that is 3 feet deep and an oil drum with three feet of water and connect the bottoms with a pipe, would the pond drain out of the top of the oil drum? Of course not. The water in the pond weight thousands of times what the water in the drum weighs. It will only fill the drum up to the three foot mark and stop. If you pour water in the oil drum, it will drain back to the pond and stay the same height until you added enough to start raising the pond level. At that point, the drum would have the same depth as the pond
I have a drain valve that drains the pipes on the ground. I then shut off the main valve to the tote. In SC, we get freezing weather that would burst the pipes on the ground. It doesn't stay cold long enough to freeze the tanks.
Ok so there are no pumps right, so it's just gravity fed and you have said twice that "water seeks it's own level" I have no idea what that means. ( besides the idiom, "quality people find other quality people") Why does the weight of the water in the totes not push back and stop the in flow? Your filling from the bottom and yet you say it fills all the way to the top. I don't get it.
Water finds (seeks) its level in that when water is in two connected basins, unencumbered by external force it levels out. It is a physics principal of fluid dynamics. As long as air can escape the top, the water will fill up from the bottom and be at the same height across both bins and the in flow pipe . They level out as more water enters. It works. I have two full bins every time it rains an inch or more.
Water pressure in a static system is caused only by the height of the water column, not the volume. The water pressure at the bottom of 8 inches of water on the shore of Lake Michigan is the same as the water pressure at the bottom of a glass with 8 inches of water at the same altitude. The column of water in the in flow pipe is pushing just as hard as the water in the bins.
Water pressure is a function of water height not total volume. Water pressure 10 ft down in a small lake at sea level is the same as 10 ft down in the ocean
