Background
Outside CCAT sits a sloping glass greenhouse. Many changes have occurred in and around the structure during its time at the Campus Center for Appropriate Technology including separation from the main building, construction of a new wall using beach grass as insulation, and a floor reconstruction that's occurring concurrently with our project to build a rainwater catchment system for the greenhouse. CCAT wanted a rainwater catchment system to be built off the greenhouse to catch the rain that would just run down the building and into the ground beneath below. The water captured from the rain will ensure that the plant life at CCAT will be adequately watered when necessary.
The CCAT Greenhouse as of February 21st 2019
Problem Statement & Criteria
The greenhouse at the Campus Center for Appropriate Technology doesn't have a renewable system to ensure the flourishing of the plants inside. The objective of this project is to build a rainwater catchment system for the greenhouse at CCAT to employ the use of our local weather patterns to water the plants within and outside of the greenhouse. With this renewable source CCAT can reduce their carbon footprint and create a sustainable resource to utilize.
Below is the criteria for the greenhouse rainwater catchment system. The criteria is scaled on a 0-10 high.
Criteria | Constraints | Weight (1-10) |
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Functionality | System is expected to run efficiently and effectively | |
Safety | Must be in a secure location where it is easily accessible, also must be out of walkways, doorways, and head space | |
Aesthetics | Must be pleasing to look at and enhance the CCAT environment | |
Budget | Project will not exceed team budget | |
Durability | Must be compatible with structure | |
Adaptable/Maintenance | The structure should be able to be adjusted and mended | |
Accessibility | Filtered rainwater should be easily accessible | |
Pairability | Repair greenhouse cracks | |
Simplicity | Weight should be minimal | |
Purpose | Successfully captures and stores rainwater, educate, and be used for solar shower |
Literary Review
This Literature Review will cover aspects of our greenhouse rainwater catchment at CCAT. Including, the climate for the area, filtration types to use, CCAT background, and overall design of rainwater catchments.
Rainwater Catchment Design
Rainwater design has been worked with for millennia. Ancient civilizations in modern day India and Israel are recorded using catchment methods as early as 3000 BC and later on the Romans developed vast systems of aqueducts, gardens, and pools all fed by rainwater. Since then rainwater catchment has gone into and out of style many times as other technologies developed, but it remains the most reliable and renewable way of attaining access to water. There is no one way to catch rainwater and design varies depending on many different variables including location, weather patterns, end usage, community utilization, etc.
The main parameters for these systems are rainfall, catchment area, collection efficiency, tank volume and water demand. Systems should be tailored specifically to the community they're serving, so a good place to start you design process is on the ground with the people who will be using it.
Catchment design can be broadly categorized into active and passive systems, where active is a system that is built and maintained through human activity and passive is a system mostly in place in the environment that is initially worked on and then maintained by humans. We'll focus on active systems as the project we are working on will fall into that category. In active systems there are some fundamental components.
Component | Description |
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Catchment Surface | Where the rain is falling |
Conveyance | Transports water from catchment surface to end use |
Screens | Filters out debris |
First Flush | Diverts initial most dirty water |
Storage | Holds water til later use |
Purification | Cleans water for desired use |
End Use | Gives the system purpose! |
For each of these components there are different materials and technologies you can use.
Climate
This project takes place at CCAT located on the campus of Humboldt State University in Arcata, Californa. Arcata receives about 46 inches of annual average rainfall with a annual average temperature of about 53 degrees Fahrenheit. The city recieves its most rain during the months of November,December, January, and February. An average year in Arcata receives 175 days of sun and on average, 77 days of precipitation.
CCAT Greenhouse
The CCAT greenhouse is located outside of the CCAT building in Arcata, California at Humboldt State University. The greenhouse is constructed of a Beach Grass Clay Slip Wall and a Sturdi-Built prefabricated greenhouse structure. The frame is made of redwood, which is resistant to decay. Preventing decay in a greenhouse structure should be cheap, effective, and non-toxic to plants and animals. The highest recommended solution against wood rot is redwood stain. With the high amount of rainfall that is present in Humboldt County, it is important to ensure the structure is secure. During the Summer the greenhouse requires additional water. In addition to the greenhouse, water is needed to care for surrounding plants and crops. Agriculture is the largest consumer of freshwater. By cutting down the overall water needs for CCAT's agriculture and greenhouse, it can become a high opportunity for a positive environmental impact.
Water Filtration Systems for Purifying Rainwater Catchment Systems
1. To Catch the Rain
Filtration basics
Water Filtration is essential to the end use if for human consumption, however, many uses do not require filtration like the first flush or plant use. Filtration concerns
- Unfiltered Rainwater is not to be to be ingested by humans. Different treatment methods effect different pathogens. Many purification treatments are used in combination.
Types of Filtration
Common filtration materials include Canister filters, Activated carbon filters, Ceramic Filters, Hollow fiber membrane filters,Slow-sand filters, Bioremediation, SoDis, Solar pasteurization, Solar distillation, Boiling, Reverse Osmosis, UV, Chorination, and Electrochlorination.
Designing interpretive materials
According to To Catch the Rain,interpretive materials for rainwater filtration should include a filter, sometimes a structure to hold the filter, and a connecting storage and conveyance point.
2. Rainwater treatment in airports using slow sand filtration followed by chlorination: Efficiency and costs
Filtration basics
Rainwater catchment can be highly valuable as for non-potable settings such as airport complexes. Cost efficient, this method is valuable in this setting because of the large catching surfaces. Based out of a mid-sized airport in Brazil, this system studied the performance of slow sand filtration by chlorination and cost effectiveness. Overall, this project resulted in 60% cost efficiency compared to current water supply per cubic meter, ultimately providing chemical and biological-free water.
Filtration concerns
Not labeled for human consumption
Types of Filtration
Slow Sand filter following Chlorination filtration.
Conclusion
According to the Resources, Conservation, and Recycling book, 70% of the company’s non-potable water can be accounted for by this rainwater catchment and treatment system.
3. Effective removal of microbial contamination from harvested rainwater using a simple point of use filtration and UV-disinfection device
Filtration basics
Focusing towards utilizing of harvested rainwater for alternative water source on privately-owned cisterns in Arizona, this treatment uses Point of Use (POU) and UV filtration.
Filtration concerns
Originally, the untreated water contained levels of lead, Enterococci and E. coli, POC filtration sufficiently cleaned the rainwater of most contaminates.
Construction
In this section, we will be going over the construction of the the project. This will include some of the design stage, the prototypes that were created and though of, construction of the rainwater catchment system, and finally the final results.
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Mark and Jeff discussing various ideas for the rainwater catchment system design stage
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Mark asking if his ideas are making sense, they definitely were design stage
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Mark holding a bamboo stuck in place of where we were imagining the convenience prototype stage
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Mark holding bamboo in a different spot prototype stage
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The decided place for the gutter system to be placed prototype stage
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Trying different placements for the storage units prototype stage
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Different placement for the storage of the caught rainwater prototype stage
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Originally we had the storage units on a wood pallet, this didn't last because the weight of the storage proved to be too much for the integrity of the wood prototype stage
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Convaience system that was found at CCAT that we were able to reuse for this project construction
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The gutter system ending over the placement of the convenience system so the water flows directly into it construction
Timeline
Task | Description | Proposed Date | Actual Date |
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Scope out project area | Get a feel for the space, start to come up with prototype ideas | February 26th, 2019 | March 5th, 2019 |
Create prototypes | Come up with different routes to take on this project, focus on placement of rainwater system components, design for desire and function | March 12th, 2019 | March 12th, 2019 |
Meet with CCAT | Talk with them about their goals of the rainwater catchment and discover end goals of rainwater | March 26th, 2019 | March 27th, 2019 |
Weekly CCAT meetings | Attend weekly CCAT meetings to discuss project progress, improvements, and feedback | Weekly | Weekly |
Start to gather materials | Look through supplies at CCAT and find things that we can use for the catchment system | March 12th, 2019 | March 27th, 2019 |
Meet with Risk Management | Lonny ended up becoming the spokesperson when it came to facilities management and met with them on our behalf | April 1st, 2019 | Varies |
Start construction | Break ground on our project, brought in river rocks | March 26th, 2019 | April 4th, 2019 |
Continue construction | Continue to build rainwater catchment system, keep adding to system and striving for excellence | April 2nd, 2019 | April 5th, 2019 |
Meeting with Lonny | Have Lonny come look at the progress of the project and provide any feedback, feedback included getting rid of the wood pallet that the storage tanks were on | April 9th, 2019 | April 9th, 2019 |
Catch up with other groups | Get updates and progress reports, help each other if possible and learn from one another to improve everyone's projects as much as possible to ensure a positive working/learning environment | April 16th, 2019 | May 1st, 2019 |
Finish presentation and Video | Ensure that the video shows all attributes of the system and clearly communicates the project, the goal, and the design | April 30th, 2019 | May 13th, 2019 |
Work on Appropedia final draft | Make sure formatting is clean, clear, and to the point | April 30th, 2019 | May 13th, 2019 |
Wrap-up construction and finishing touches | Make sure that the project works and is completed to the best of the teams abilities | May 7th, 2019 | May 15th, 2019 |
Operation
Cost
NEEDS TO BE UPDATED
Quantity | Material | Source | Cost ($) | Total ($) |
---|---|---|---|---|
6 | PVC pipe | Ace | 7.00 | 42.60 |
1 | Storage Tank, 50 Gal | Resale store | 33.00 | 33.00 |
1 | Filter | Resale store | 5.00 | 5.00 |
2 | Gutter | Resale store | 4.00 | 8.60 |
1 | Silicon | Hamanaka Painting | Donation | Donation |
1 | Nails | Ace | 3.70 | 3.70 |
1 | Aesthetics | TBD | 50.00 | 50.00 |
Total Cost | $223.70 |
Maintenance
System should be inspected every few months to make sure that there are no leaks. If the system has any holes the water will find them and make them apparent.
Make sure that the screen over the funnel is cleaned off whenever there is a large amount of debris of leaves covering the screen. If the screen gets covered, it makes it harder for the water to make its way to the first flush, through convenience and ultimately to the storage units.
Check gutters for any plant matter, such as twigs, sticks, and leaves, to make certain that all the water you are catching can make it's way uninterrupted through the system.
Special Thanks
Thank you to Lonny for teaching an incredible class that allowed us to be exposed to such a creative and inspirational environment.
Refrences
Kinkade-Levario, Heather Design for Water: Rainwater Harvesting, Stormwater Catchment, and Alternate Water Reuse New Society Publishers, Jun 1, 2007
Grafman, Lonny To Catch The Rain Arcata. Humboldt State University Press, 2017
Mun, J.S. "Design and operational parameters of a rooftop rainwater harvesting system: Definition, sensitivity and verification" Eleviser Volume 93, Issue 1 (2012)
http://www.appropedia.org/CCAT_greenhouse/OM