Rainwater collection tanks?

[Nao57]

So I've been wondering, how big a water tank would you need to provide your own water for a small farm etc or household in AZ, NM, or other low water states? (Rainwater collection fueling the household and a few animals?)

How do you figure this out?

I'd like to move some place rural to live. But the only areas affordable are areas where there is low water per year like AZ, NV, NM, parts of very rural Utah or Colorado.

Everything hinges on water.

Electricity can be dealt with with battery banks, solar panels. But water is a different story, ... it has to have something that will work if you want to actually live somewhere.

And how much would something like this cost?

 

[Alaskan]

In some of those states it is illegal to collect rainwater.....

Forget which ones...

Otherwise.....

Basically you set up a huge water storage tank... easiest to do if everything can run by gravity.

So, dig huge hole, inset huge tank.

Put gutters on all buildings, run gutter down spouts into an at ground level box, first through a mesh (something to keep out leaves etc) then whatever other filtration floats your boat.. then the bottom of the box pipe into the huge tank.

Also,some areas have water delivered.. and the delivered water gets pumped directly into your huge house water tank.

 

[Kusanar]

Figure out how much water you will need. This includes all livestock, cooking, showering etc plus any evaporation that occurs in water troughs. I would scale up 10% to be safe.

Then, look up average rainfall in your area, pick the time that will have the least amount to go by. Then make sure you can catch enough rainfall and store it to get through those times.

If you can get the rainfall and the amount used I can help with the math if you want.