Rainwater Harvesting: What Is It and How Can It Make Your Home Greener?

Rainwater Harvesting - Eco friendly home
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Rainwater harvesting is the process of collecting rainwater in order to reuse it and reduce your need for using excess water from the mains. 

The Energy Saving Trust says that the average UK household uses around 330 litres of water per day (for two-person households the figure is 276 litres. With four people it rises to 450 litres). In 1960, the average was just 165 litres per day.

Tim Pullen

Tim is an expert in sustainable building methods and energy efficiency in residential homes and writes on the subject for magazines and national newspapers. He is the author of The Sustainable Building Bible, Simply Sustainable Homes and Anaerobic Digestion - Making Biogas - Making Energy: The Earthscan Expert Guide.


His interest in renewable energy and sustainability was first inspired by visits to the Royal Festival Hall heat pump and the Edmonton heat-from-waste projects. In 1979

this initial burst of enthusiasm lead to him trying (and failing) to build a biogas digester to convert pig manure into fuel, at a Kent oast-house, his first conversion project.


Moving in 2002 to a small-holding in South Wales, providing as it did access to a wider range of natural resources, fanned his enthusiasm for sustainability. He went on to install renewable technology at the property, including biomass boiler and wind turbine.


He formally ran energy efficiency consultancy WeatherWorks and was a speaker and expert at the Homebuilding & Renovating Shows across the country.