Rainwater Harvesting Rincon, Puerto Rico

The tropical climate in the Carribean is ideal for collecting rainwater. With daily afternoon showers, and heavy downpours in the rainy months, clean fresh water is plentiful. Bigprototype designed a rainwater catchment system to take advantage of this resource for the Little Malibu house at Dos Ceibas.

On the upper floor of the house a shade structure doubles as a water funnel to collect fresh rainwater. The rainwater catchment is located high up on the structure to keep the pan clear of dirt and debris. The total area is 128 sqft that gently slopes to a drain at the edge of the catchment.

From the drain the water flows down thru the center of concrete column in a 2" diameter PVC pipe which terminates in a 600 gallon tank. We use this tank to run our toilets throughout the house and to water the landscape. This also provides the opportuity to maintain a local source of freshwater when the municipal supply is down - a frequent occurence in Puerto Rico!

Our system is gravity fed, taking advantage of the topography of our site. A 2" overflow valve is run from the top of our tank to an external drain preventing backups when we have unusually heavy rains.