Week Six
Our last week of progress resulted in three separate team meetings.
1. Our First meeting between myself and Cavan resulted in his research of the filtration system. He suggested that we use fine mesh filters between the rainbarrel pump, and the water storage. We have added it to as a part of the system to be researched before our final design is complete. I updated him on my progress with the downspout design, and we discussed how important it is for us to finalize what tank design we are going to use.
On Saturday, I researched rebates and local government information about rain barrel installation in San Mateo. Through flowstobay.org, a San Mateo county program which promotes community awareness about water pollution, I was able to find a local company that specializes in modular rain harvesting systems. Blue Barrel Systems online configure allows each end customer to customize their system to fit their specific needs and space requirements. Each system comes with repurposed food grade barrels, all plumbing components and glues, and a downspout diverter to collect the water.
2. On Monday, Magdalena and I met to discuss this type of storage solution. She liked that the design was much less expensive compared to other systems out there, and I liked that it was plug and play and was modular, which allowed them to easily expand to a larger system in the future. As a team, we decided that we excited to present the Blue Barrel Storage solution to our partners at our presentation.
3. On Monday Night, Cavan and I checked in on his research on Drip Irrigation system. We thought that the numbers were a bit off with the system using much more water per day than we originally estimated. We discussed just pricing out a basic setup for now, and we will make water usage of the system top priority for the remaining research for week 8. Cavan is going to work on pricing out one row of tubing, emitters, anti-syphon valve assembly, and Rachio Controller.
4. On Tuesday Morning, the whole team met to check in about the presentation later in the day. We discussed what progress we have made, and the main topics that still need to be finalized and researched.
Tasks completed:
We have completed all research related to rainwater collection and diversion from the current gutter system
We have researched and calculated dimensions of the red roof and how many gallons the roof will produce per inch of rain.
We have researched filtration methods and different filter types
We have researched and designed a preliminary run from the rain barrels to the new expanded garden
Tasks to be completed:
Finalize our solar powered pump design and plumbing to new garden
Price out how much the pump and plumbing to the new garden will cost
Price out and finalize drip irrigation system use of water, and cost to integrate system with our system
Discuss rainwater safety for watering edibles
Make another site visit to finalize the dimensions for our design.
