Rainwater Harvesting with Tarps

Gathering rainwater is a great way to conserve water and reduce your reliance on municipal water supplies. The collected rainwater can be used for irrigation, washing, and non-potable uses. If you add a water filter to the process, it will ensure you have access to clean drinking water in an emergency. In this blog post, we'll explore the benefits of using tarps for rainwater collection and provide some tips on calculating gallons of rainfall runoff from them. Read on to learn more!

One of the benefits of using tarps for rainwater collection is their versatility. You can determine how large or small your tarp should be by calculating the square footage needed to capture the amount of water you want to collect. To calculate how much water your tarp can collect, you'll need to know the size of the tarp, the amount of rainfall in your area, and the surface area that will be collecting water. Once you have these three pieces of information, you can use a simple formula to calculate the number of gallons collected by your tarp.

Calculate the amount of rainwater that can be collected in gallons with a simple mathematical formula.

1) Convert square footage into cubic feet by multiplying area (length x width).

    10' x 12' = 120 square feet

2) Convert inches of rainfall to feet using division (inches/12).

     1/2" of rain is (1/2)/12 or .5 divided by 12

     .5 divided by 12 = .042 feet of rain

3) Multiply the two results from Steps 1 & 2 together for total cubic feet of water.

     120 x .042 = 5.04 cubic feet of water

4) Multiply 7.5 gallons per every cubic foot result obtained in Step 3. This is your final answer!

     5.04 cubic feet x 7.5 gallons per cubic foot = 37.8 gallons

So, for every half inch of rain, you would collect 37.8 gallons with a 10' x 12' tarp!

Overall, using tarps for rainwater collection is an easy way to make sure you have access to clean drinking water in a pinch. All it takes is a little math and you can determine how much water you'll need to collect with one tarp. Plus, tarps are lightweight and easy to store so they're always ready when you need them!