HarvestH2o LLC

Affordable Systems  |  Scalable Systems  |  Custom Systems  |  Irrigation Systems |  Stormwater Systems |  Design and Consulting Services   |  Maintenance Services    |  About Us  | 

Featured Project

A new outdoor horse arena right next to an outdoor existing arena, meant the new structure might flood the old arena unless something was done. To reduce the visability of the new structure over 30 new trees were planted. >> more

Customer Comment: It was such a thrill to go out to my gauge this past weekend and see that my tanks are measuring 100% full..!! I can't believe my/our luck with the storms of last week. Totally satisfying, every time I turn on a spigot... Thanks so much again to you and Aydin for the good work. And many thanks, too, for the very complete, clear handbook. Really great to have and wonderful value added.

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Affordable, Entry Level Rainwater Systems

Whether it is a single small rainbarrel or a small runoff project we are happy to provide you advise, assistance or install. Most of our customers start small and grow. See several examples of these small, but effective systems.

• Deborah with barrel and rain chains >> more
• Amy with linked rain barrels and small cisterns
• Fred with drainage pond
• Will, both passive and active >> more

Read more >>

Scalable Rainwater Systems

• Doug's second home system in Santa Fe, NM >> more
• Libby and Wyck's arena and irrigation watering system >> more
• Fred with multiple buried tanks to water his new vegetable garden

Custom Rainwater Systems

• The Emerald House - The first LEED Platinum house in Santa Fe, incorporating active rainwater catchment, passive catchment and onsite storm water management >> more
• Doug's first system in Austin, TX >> more

Irrigation Systems

• Doug's first system in Austin, TX >> more
• Doug's second home system in Santa Fe, NM >> more
• Dave's wireless irrigtation system >> more

Stormwater Management Systems

• Fred's project - Fred lives on the end of a lovely cul de sac in an old downtown Santa Fe neighborhood. Unfortunately it is truly the house at the end of the street and the lowest house on the street. During heavy rainstorms runoff would flood his yard almost into his house. Problem solved by updating his current stormwater bypass, grading the drive and installing a new storm drain and conveyance system to bypass his patio and draining the water into his existing catch basin.
• Libby's project - A new outdoor horse arena right next to an outdoor existing arena, meant the new structure would flood the old arena unless something was done. >> more

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Design and Consulting Services

In addition to design and installation services, Doug and Aydin offer consulting services to oversee a project, either a homeowner or a contractor built system. Prevention of mistakes and errors typically more than pays for the services rendered.

Additionally, we offer design services directly to homeowers, installers or architects. The design services range from sizing of gutters and cistern sizing to complete system CAD drawings.

• Sample cistern sizing
• Sample gutter sizing
• Sample design sketch
• Sample CAD design

Please contact us for samples of our work and a quote.

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Maintenance Services

We offer a wide range of service and maintenance contracts. These range from one-time a year inspection to four times a year onsite service and maintenance (i.e. changing filters, cleaning gutters, winterizing the system, turning it on in in the spring, etc.).

These services ensure the investment in a rainwater system are working to peak efficiency - saving you time and money.

Please contact us for more information on our maintenance services.

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About Us

HarvestH2o specializes in consulting, designing, educating and installing small and large residential water conservation systems. The systems can be as simple as installing several large rainbarrels, berms and swales to as complex as designing and managing the installation of a large, whole-house potable water system using exclusively rainwater.

Doug Pushard at HarvestH2o has been designing and installing systems for over a decade; including at his own homes. He is on the Board of Directors of the North American Rainwater Catchment Systems Association - ARCSA - and active in the Northern New Mexico area in water conservation; including being a member of the Semi-Arid Guild and a member of the Santa Fe Water Conservation Committee. Doug lives sustainability in Santa Fe, NM and is currently one of the few ARCSA Accredited Rainwater Professionals in New Mexico.

Several of his installations have been written up in national publications or on the HarvestH2o website. Doug has designed and/or installed dozens of systems in Texas, New Mexico and around the country.

HarvestH2o and SolarH2o work jointly together to conserve water and energy. Contact us if you are interested in either water conservation or solar water heating.

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Deboarah

Start where you can and then expand - that would aptly describe Deborah's approach to sustainability. Deborah is gradually greening her house in Eldorado, New Mexico. She has a solar hot water system, has fenced a garden area, upgraded her old aluminum windows, and installed a large rain barrel (i.e. 225 gallon rain barrel). The barrel is fed by a lovely rain-chain and on the out going side attaches to a low-flow soaker hose especially designed for low-pressure applications, like a rain barrel

Deborah wants to eventually install buried cisterns to feed her current garden and plant a few fruit trees. Her plan is to do something every year to reduce her footprint.

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Libby and Wyck

Libby and Wyck wanted to build an indoor horse arena in the Eldorado area. The new 7,700 square foot structure would be located adjacent to an existing outdoor arena and meant the new structure might flood the old arena unless something was done to channel the water away from both arenas. Additionally, to reduce the visibility of the new structure over 30 new trees were planted which will require water.

The owners wanted to do the right thing environmentally as well as protect their investment so they decided to install a rainwater catchment system to provide water for the new trees. To ensure little to no water left the property two rock-lined catchment ponds were installed. With the installation of this new water management system little to no rainwater will ever be wasted.

The system consists of:

2 – 1,700 gallon buried tanks with each cistern being doubled vented
2 - 1HP automatic on/off submersible pumps installed in each cistern
Frost-free hydrants, signed with non-potable drinking water warning signs
Each cistern equipped with a tank depth gauge
Downspouts are directly connected to underground conveyance to the tanks
System equipped with manual tank fill capability
Overflow for each cistern to rock-lined catchment ponds

Little of the rain catchment system is visible other than the downspouts running into the adapters going into the ground and the vent pipes and lids of the cisterns. Other than these few visible queues, nothing about the system disturbs the naturally landscaped area surrounding the new arena.

The tanks coupled with the catchment ponds of 25’ x 15 x 2’ are capable of holding nearly 10,000 gallons at full capacity. The rock-lined ponds have no weed barrier so over time the surrounding grasses will fill the basins and these depressions will become part of the surrounding native landscape.

One unique feature about this system is the method whereby the tanks can be filled manually. Auto-filling the tanks was an option, but given the tanks will normally have water (i.e., the roof will harvest more water than the tanks will hold), it was not worth the expense to install an auto-fill system. So instead, hose quick connects were installed in the downspouts on either end of the building. When the depth gauges show the tanks are low, a hose can be snapped into these connections to easily fill the tanks. These connectors were installed two feet off the ground to make them easy to access and due to their location provide much more than the required air gap from the cistern water. Caps were installed over the quick connects to ensure no bugs can access the system via the connectors. This design was very low-cost and leveraged the installed conveyance system to provide a no maintenance auto-fill capability.

This low maintenance system should provide years of water to the
surrounding landscape while keeping almost all the rainwater on the
property so not to contribute to storm runoff (e.g. road erosion, etc.)

Dave's Totally Wireless System

Some systems just do not want to be wired. Dave and Susan's house is a great example. The existing house has a 25 year-old cistern that irrigated his large lot. Once the cistern was repaired and in working order, it became apparent that his irrigation system was never designed properly - one zone fed the entire lot with the highest point being at least 50 feet above the lowest point. Neither Dave or his wife wanted an irrigation controller box located on the house and it was impossible to get one into the garage where the rest of control systems were for the house.

The irrigation system is the controller for the cistern and without it the yard would not be watered on a regular basis and would wilt badly in our summer heat.

Enter a wireless irrigation controller that can be managed remotely. Adding two new zones, for a total of three zones all managed wireless created a solution that worked for Dave and Susan.

The irrigation controller is tied to a motor relay controller and a wireless rain detector to provide a highly automated, full functional rainwater/irrigation system without wires.

Will's Passive and Active System

Every system should incorporate both both passive and active. Most active systems do due to overflow design requirements. However, system design should start with passive and not end with it.

Will’s rainwater catchment system is a great example of this. His completed system comprises both an active and several passive systems. The active system can also be used passively.

His house is approximately 1,610 square feet and can possibly capture about 12,000 gallons a year in total (i.e. .623 x 1,610 x 12 inches. These canales capture about 75% of the total runoff, or approximately 9,000 gallons a year. But his canales are located on different sides of his existing houses with muture landscaping and small city lot.

Consequently, trenching around his house to install 1 or 2 below ground tanks would have been cost prohibitive. A far better design was to use the water in his existing beds near the existing canales. Passive drainage pipes with attractive rain chains and clay pots were used on the most visable sides of his house (i.e. the roof and the rear patio), while on the very back side of the house downspouts feed directly into a passive irrigation system.

On the back side of his house where a lot of water used to run off the house two 50 gallon rainbarrels had been used to capture the rain. These were replaced with two 225 gallon rainbarrels. Before the old barrels would overflow in even the smallest of storms and rain water would wash across the walkway and through the beds to the neighbors yard in large events.

The new barrels have an overflow to prevent water from washing out the walkway, but more importantly these large barrels are connected to passive irrigation soaker hoses that can be left on all the time to make this active system a slow drip passive system.

Now 100% of the water falling on Will's roof can be captured and used on site. Providing Will years and years of FREE water for his beautifully landscaped year.

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