Finished putting up shiny galvanised guttering yesterday ready for collecting rainwater when the rest of the bits come. Lindab stuff - really easy to put together. Surprisingly complicated making rainwater safe to drink, cook and wash with. It's pretty clean as it falls out if the sky but then gets contaminated by dirt from the roof - mostly from birds - but also leaves and other debris blowing around. We're fitting a clever German filter (Wisy) in the down pipe which stops the big stuff getting into the tank (which is one of those big plastic cubes on a pallet squeezed under two of the bunks downstairs). Between the tank and the taps there are two very fine filters and a UV treatment unit which nobbles any bacteria by stuffing up their DNA or something, which apparently stops them multiplying. Well, I suppose it would. So all that means we can safely use rainwater for everything and we have a big hole in the budget - the UV unit alone was over £700, but then no water rates, ever, which is nice. We don't use water to flush the toilet (which is composting) and the shower flow is restricted, but it'll be interesting to see if the 1000 litre tank is big enough.