Put a rain barrel under my downspout in April and the water bill did not drop a single dollar

Aaron Grant · 2026-09-17T20:45:04.590577+00:00

I finally set up a 55 gallon rain barrel off my back gutter in April, mostly to stop the downspout from washing out my mulch bed. Three months later my water bill is basically the same as last summer, maybe $2 lower, and I still had to drag the hose out for the garden in July anyway. Turns out I use way more water on laundry and showers than on the yard, so catching rain for the plants barely moves the needle. It did keep the mulch from washing into the street during that big storm in June, so I am keeping it. Anyone else find that the rain barrel helped with runoff but not with the actual bill?

Free To Speak

Loading…

Put a rain barrel under my downspout in April and the water bill did not drop a single dollar | Climate Action - Free To Speak