The Rainwater Pillow is a flexible alternative to a rain barrel. Able to hold significantly more water than conventional barrels, the pillow can be placed underneath decking, in a floorspace or any other such ground level hidden space. The water collected can then be used in a garden or even to flush toilets.
The Rainwater Pillow is designed to take advantage of even short sharp showers, collecting heavy rainfall effectively in minutes. It does this by taking all the rainfall from a houses guttering system, filtering in and due to gravity the water is pulled into the pillow for storage through wide piping to ensure effective and fast collection. Two overflow pipes ensure that the pillow never overfills or ruptures.
By collecting rainwater you can reduce your household water bills (especially if on a water meter) as the water can be used for gardening, cleaning cars and other outdoors objects and even for flushing toilets. It also helps to reduce the amount of water entering drains and so reduces water requiring processing in water treatment facilities. This collected water can also be used in times of drought when water restrictions are applied. Rain barrels do allow for this but do not easily accommodate a hose pipe, and cisterns can take up a lot of space or require a great amount of planning if they are to be placed below ground. The pillow instead takes advantage of unused spaces and with its pump system the water can be accessed conveniently for outdoors use.
The Rainwater Pillow comes with all the basics needed for installation on your property, including an installation manual and DVD. The system comes with two filters to be placed onto your drainpipes to filter the water run off from your roof to ensure the water entering the pillow is free from debris. It also includes a 25 psi water pump, this pump will be able to provide you with 10-12 gallons of water per minute out of things like a hose, this is comparable to a standard hose attached to a tap. The pump is controlled by a remote control so that by connecting a hose and pressing a button you are able to water your garden, green house or even wash a car.
The pillows come in a range of sizes, the standard basic size has a 1000 gallon capacity, but there are pillows for up to a 40000 gallon capacity. The Rainwater Pillows can be made to custom specifications to allow them to fit in any available ground level space like that within a crawl space, under decking, in a greenhouse and such like. The standard 1000 gallon pillow measures 9 ft x 11 ft x 2.5 ft (275 cm x 335 cm x 76 cm) and needs a clearance height of at least 3 ft (91 cm) to accommodate the pillow expanding with water.
The rainwater pillow varies between $2,500 and $4,500, depending on what capacity you opt for.