Posted on 09/08/2014 6:05:27 PM PDT by MeshugeMikey
Some students just want their science fair projects to earn a little extra credit. Steven McDowell wants his “water fence” to change the way people irrigate their yards.
“I wanted to solve the drought,” said McDowell, a 15-year-old sophomore at Rohnert Park’s Technology High School.
McDowell’s model of a fence that stores rainwater won him the top awards for his category last March at Sonoma County and Bay Area science fairs. That motivated him to form a company with his parents, pitch his idea to investors and make plans to take a section of his soon-to-be manufactured fence next month to a green construction show month in New Orleans.
(Excerpt) Read more at pressdemocrat.com ...
rain...barrel....laws.....?
I should have guessed ,,,I guess
From 2010, could be more now in 2014
http://www.naturalnews.com/029286_rainwater_collection_water.html
Utah isn’t the only state with rainwater collection bans, either. Colorado and Washington also have rainwater collection restrictions that limit the free use of rainwater, but these restrictions vary among different areas of the states and legislators have passed some laws to help ease the restrictions.
We need a complete elimination of the full set of current politicians.
Doesn’t that have something to do with it settling into the aquifers?
Science types out there-yes or no?
And why haven’t they figured out how to collect all the city runoff in places like L. A.?
you may mean a Cubic Foot of water ?
which weighs a little over 60 lbs not 112 lbs
Water is 62.3 pounds per cubic foot and if we are talking about a six foot fence there would be 6 cubic feet of water on top of every linear foot of a fence one foot wide.
So I did make an error. That should be roughly 374 pounds per square foot of fence that must be supported by some kind of footer or foundation.
When I wrote that post for a second I thought that doesn’t seem right but I didn’t stop.
still is a fun idea to kick around. HDPE is a great plastic that is less expensive than plexiglass and also more durible.
more of a triangular shape would help stability. The wall would probably have quite a heat gain, nice for watering in cool weather.
Feezing problems would lessen w larger volumes
Many ways to combat water impurity
But 13,000 gallons is not that much water. I own a 4500 Gallon water truck that empties fast
water trucks from China
http://www.alibaba.com/showroom/water-truck.html
Shipping & Handling must be a killer.
I agree.
The average family uses 400 gallons of water per day.
This tank is supposed to be for watering a garden however.
If use drip sprinklers it might be ok. A regular soaker sprinkler loses too much to evaporation.
Oh Crazy China .....no thanks
Thinking of selling mine as the cost to keep on the road in California is ridiculous
Yes but you could lose a great deal of volume.
Depending on your soil you could perhaps have a ten foot fence with 4 feet of the fence buried below ground to provide stability. It could save on concrete and increase your storage volume at the same time.
Stainless or polly tank?
Good point
Drip eeks it out sparingly
not saying a pyrimid shape just a wider base and skinnier top could help stability butwould result in less water pressure But youre not going to get much pressure at 4/10’s pounds per verticle foot
Stainless ? who can afford thatstuff any more
polly is good see H.D.P.E products used extensively in construction
I like the idea . . . but it seems to me the wall would have to be reinforced like a battleship to hold the weight of all that water. Also, here where we live (I’m just up the road from this kid’s hometown) there is NO rain from about June to October most years. So the captured rain will only last so long. Lastly, if the wall is tall and solid and in your front yard, that’s going to be like living in a fortress. Maybe not something everyone would want.
13,000 gallons of water would be quite a flood if something were to breach such a water fence. Perhaps a falling fir tree or an earthquake would do it. Even a small leak would be a disaster because how do you plug such a leak?
Actually you do not lose any water pressure because of the shape of the tank.
The only thing that matters is the height of the water column.
You will lose water pressure more quickly however as you use water because the tank level will lower more quickly.
I do like the idea of burying part of the tank. You could probably get by with only a foot of concrete for the footer by doing that. Of course you would have to add a pump to the system to get access to the lower level water.
No telling what it would take to get a construction permit of something like this.
Every site I looked at rated weight of water per square foot at about 62 lbs.
a clear fence in a dry/drought area could start fires by acting as a magnifying glass on dry scrub grasses or trees. water in the fence itself may potentially wind up magnifying the effect.
Well it is 62.3 pounds per CUBIC foot.
And I did correct myself in post 46
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