Rainwater Hog Price/Value
The designer of the rain water Hog Sally Dominguez often gets asked why the Rainwater HOG is more expensive compared to larger alternatives on a dollar per gallon/litre basis.
Weve provided the follwoing info straight from the designers mouth so you can get a better feel for what you should consider when looking at tanks rather than a straight dollar per litre basis.
" In the early days of HOG, I received several comments based on $/gallon from experts who subsequently changed their minds and embraced my design. You are clearly knowledgeable in matters of water harvesting and storage, so I ask you to consider the following:
Yes, there is more plastic per gallon and thus more cost per gallon in a HOG than in other systems, and if one was comparing supply costs only, HOG would come out far behind, but a supply only comparison is like comparing raw apples and apple pie, rather than apples and apples. In designing Rainwater HOG, I have taken my 13 years of architectural design and building experience and drawn upon my knowledge of building design, building maintenance and practical home occupant water habits to design a tank with features, and a usefulness, not yet seen in water tank design.
With HOG all the cost is upfront. With your cheaper, larger tanks the supply cost is only the beginning of a costly installation and ongoing maintenance lifecycle. Allow me to demonstrate how I have removed the expertise, pipework and labour time necessary to install regular rainwater tanks with my HOG design.
The Rain water HOG is a OH&S single person carry, and thus can be easily transported and installed by a single person, saving labor costs. The stackable design reduces transportation costs and enables the tank to be stacked and transported "nude" rather than needing wrapping, palleting, support framing or other secondary handling structure. This also makes HOG a "greener" proposition than other rivals.
Once on site, HOG is designed as a simple DIY installation. No footings or particular ground preparation is needed: HOGs simply bear onto compacted soil or gravel. HOG connections are part of the tank price, and are sturdy, high quality food grade plastic fittings which screw into brass threaded inserts cast into the tank. All our connection points are cast in, not retrofit. We are not “Made in China: we ensure that all our fittings are robust enough to be reused several times over the life of the tank and all components are reuseable and recyclable. The same set of components allows the HOGs to be used vertically or horizontally, and the design is deliberately robust enough that the tanks can be reused several times in either orientation without requiring patching or other drilled holes. The quality of the tank is such that we are in the process of setting up a Resale section on our website where used HOGs can be resold to the next user. There are not many tank makers on the market anywhere in the world who actively back the reuse of their systems, let alone with the flexibility for horizontal and/or vertical installation. To add capacity, additional HOGs are simply screwed on. The change capacity, HOG modules can be added, removed and reused at will.
The slim profile of HOG allows it to fit in narrow areas, down sides of houses, even functioning as a water holding dividing wall. This allows the designer and the user to decentralize the water storage, holding volumes of water at the site of each downpipe, for localized use either within the house or on that area of garden. This scale removes the need for long stretches of reticulated pipework of the kind you need to and from a large scale tank, massively reducing the cost of installation, the cost of the reticulated pipework itself, and the ongoing cost of maintaining this pipework. It also removes the need for visually intrusive (read ugly) runs of pipework. We already have several case studies where HOG customers have installed HOGs in one configuration, then reconfigured and reused to suit the changing designs of their gardens and houses. There is not another more versatile, reusable, user-friendly system. Other vertical tanks require footings, multiple handlers, and reticulation. Other horizontal solutions do not have the robustness: in Australia the track record of bladders and sac tanks in particular is fairly woeful. HOG is extremely difficult to puncture, and does not require a subframe for horizontal use. It is the lowest clearance polyethylene horizontal tank by far.
Furthermore, HOG is designed to allow the excellent thermal qualities of water (r value double that of concrete) to be utilised within a lightweight structure as a thermal mass unit. Studies in the UK show a huge benefit for timber structures incorporating HOG into their joists between floors.
Vertical HOGs can load-bear an additional 100kg per tank when full. Horizontal tanks can be used as water filled deck joists when substituted for every third joist of a deck on ground. HOGs can be cast in black and used as trombe walls in greenhouses, and as heating vessels as part of a load bearing structure. In fact, a full HOG stops a 50mm calibre bullet dead and we have HOGs currently testing with the Australian Defence Force for protective, structural applications.
The Rainwater HOG is made of food grade plastic. We custom mould a range of colors, allowing designers to commission limited runs to brand buildings, schools and clubs. We actively work with architects and designers to push the limits of what they can do with the HOG.
I don’t believe any rainwater tank or indeed any water holding vessel has been designed with this level of thought and multi-function in mind. If I could, I would mould HOG of plant based resins that would be the one improvement I would make. Otherwise, I think the fact that HOG allows you to DIY, to modify your capacity and orientation at will without sacrificing fittings or space, and to create actual water- holding structures which are also thermally superior, surely makes it an effective spend. "