Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond by Brad Lancaster

Search this site:

Thought Seeds

“Begin harvesting water where it is simple, easy, and inexpensive - in your landscape.

Follow a more sustainable hierarchy of water management where:

• Rainwater and localized runoff, our on-site water resources, are the primary water source for our landscapes and gardens.

• Greywater is the secondary water source for our landscapes. Greywater is household "wastewater" that drains from sinks, clothes washers, showers, bathtubs, reverse-osmosis water filters, and the condensate from air conditioners.

• Municipal water or groundwater from private wells is strictly a supplementary source for landscapes and only in times of need such as a drought. This is water pumped onto, or pumped up to, our site.”

--  Brad Lancaster, "Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond"

30% to 50% of the drinking water consumed by the average American or Australian household is used to irrigate landscapes.

« Previous
Next »

September 27, 2013

I Knew It Was the Fall Equinox On September 22 Because My Sun- & Shade-Harvesting Sculpture/Calendar Told Me So!

by Brad Lancaster © 2013
www.HarvestingRainwater.com

I designed the sizing and placement of the roof overhang/gutter and windows on my garottage (one-car garage turned cottage) in Tucson, Arizona, to let the sun’s rays in when I need them for heating, and shade the sun’s rays out when I need cooling.

The sculpture shown in the photos below celebrates both the sun’s seasonally changing path and how the building was designed in relationship with that path. The sculpture also acts as a calendar, building on a long tradition of such calendars among Native American cultures in the southwestern U.S. See here for virtual tours of ancient sun calendars at some of the archaeoastronomy sites that have been surveyed in the Verde Valley of Arizona.

Note that while the angle of the sun is the same on the spring and fall equinoxes, there can be more than a 20ºF (11ºC) difference between the outdoor temperatures on the two equinoxes. This leads to a design challenge of how to let in more spring light and heat, while providing more fall shade and cooling. I solved this by designing for a seasonally extendable/retractable awning for the south-/equator-facing windows on the ground floor (see figure 4, above).

For more on how you can better design and live with the seasonally changing patterns of sun and shade, see:

Comments are closed.

Drops in a Bucket Blog

 »Read all blog posts...

Sign up for the Newsletter



Upcoming Events

  1. Online Rainwater Harvesting Course

    October 21 - December 5

  2. Water Harvesting Presentation & Book Signing with Brad Lancaster in Silver City, NM

    November 19 @ 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm

  3. ARCSA Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada

    December 2 - December 5

  4. Water Harvesting Presentation & Book Signing with Brad Lancaster in Las Vegas, NV

    December 2 @ 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm

  5. Spring 2020 – Permaculture Design Course, Tucson, AZ

    February 8, 2020

View All Events


Umbrella Newsletter

The Umbrella: Summer 2019

THE UMBRELLA: A catch-all of resources, events, media, and more from Brad Lancaster   New, full color, revised editions of the award-winning books Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, Volumes 1 and 2 are now available for order and pre-order!   Buy direct from Brad for big discounts, and to help him fund the creation […]

 »Read all newsletters...

Like what this website offers?

Donations are greatly appreciated as they enable us to continuously update this expansive resource and generate new content. Thanks!