Much as I love our long dry season for all its other benefits, I know the plants adore water from the sky. It may carry with it some trace air pollutants; but at least it has no chloramine (our local version of chlorine).
This important difference made me look closely at the rainwater catchment systems being demo'd at West Coast Green last weekend. One system includes a filtration cover for your roof gutters, to eliminate some pollutants from the rain itself, or your roofing materials, before capture in a fairly standard rain barrel. Surprisingly, not many of the wide variety of commercially available rain barrels were on display. The most popular this year, displayed at the green building conference's showhouse, is called the Rainwater Hog. Unlike most cylindrical models, it looks more like a giant brick in shape, holds 50 gallons, and can be oriented one of three directions, stacked with additional units, or chained together (one barrel's overflow runs to the next). Having ruled out a rain barrel in the past for my current home, I am now very likely to rule rainwater catchment back in.
