Collect rainwater or drill a well?

My mom says that rainwater is much better for plants than drinking water.
We have a decommissioned oil tank in the garden that we could convert into a cistern. Even that probably won't pay off financially very quickly. Digging one in specifically would then be quite a bit more expensive. A well would be great, but unfortunately I have no idea how to find out how deep the groundwater is. Or rather, I haven't found anything about that yet.

Yes, of course I have such a bin, but it is empty after a few days. I need to increase the capacity. It is important to keep something like that as tightly closed as possible to avoid a mosquito infestation. By the way, information about the groundwater levels can be obtained from the responsible water authority; in Berlin, this would be the Senate Department for Urban Development. It should actually be available in the publicly accessible geoportals by now. Otherwise, one would first conduct a test drilling anyway.

Friends of mine get their water from a well, not connected to the public water network. This has always worked since the 1930s, but showering was sometimes difficult during the last two summers.

Cistern: with the size, you need to see how much you can collect. What’s the use of a 30 cubic meter cistern if it only fills up in winters with heavy rainfall.

I would partially change the planting so that less water is needed. Even for the lawn, there are mixtures that root up to 80cm deep.

you would first do a trial drilling anyway (have it done).

Hello Pianist

why something like that? It certainly costs about the same as the well itself.
Find out how deep the groundwater is. Possibly neighbors with a well. Sometimes the authorities can help.
It would also be helpful to know which soil layers are at which depth. Clay is good for drilling (goes quickly). Gravel must be drilled with a casing pipe. Or best of all, right away with a well pipe. 3 meters with filter pipe into the groundwater. Up to 10 meters is pretty easy. My groundwater is at 14 meters. I plunged the pipes down to 18 meters.

Steven

If the possibility for a well arises (and you don’t have to drill 30m right away, or only have 100sqm to irrigate), the well always wins. In case of doubt, you can even set it up in [EL].

You really have to do the math. A turnkey well with drilling, electrical, pump, and tap point under €1000 is, in my opinion, not feasible. With that, I can pour tap water here for 20 years. We decided against it.

Cisterns are the same. How big does it have to be so it’s not empty after 1-2 weeks of dryness? It also doesn’t fill back up after two thunderstorms. How much does it cost and how long could you just take from the tap for that money?

From an ecological point of view, the thought process is understandable. Pouring tap water into the garden, well. At the end of the day, however, tap water is simply too cheap and therefore not as precious here as one is made to believe. If you can save sewage fees (this circumstance significantly changes the calculations), wells and cisterns are usually too expensive.

You have summarized my thoughts very well. I also think that neither well nor cistern will pay off, but if one simply does not want to let tap water seep away, then the well is probably more sensible. Ideally, the pump is powered by photovoltaics, but I haven't done that yet either...

Presumably, due to all the Corona crap, I am currently mentally somehow totally focused on self-sufficiency...