Does this 'green' idea save you green???

What is a rain barrel? It's simply a large barrel placed at the end of your downspout that collects rainwater for the purpose of later use. The idea is that it saves you money, you're conserving water, etc...

I like to be 'green', but I'm not opposed to seeing a little change in my pocket in the end for my effort either.

Here's the math:

Average cost: $100-150.
Capacity around 50 gallons.
Cost per gallon where I live = $0.013

Now let's use $120 and 50gal for our math just for fun to see how long it will take for us to "break even" using the rain barrel.

$120 / $0.013 = 9230.77 / 50gal. = 184.6

184.6 is the number of times you'd have to fill up the rain barrel before you'd get your $$ back from buying the rain barrel. I really hope my math is wrong!

This means that IF you had 15 rains per year that fill up your barrel, it would take just over 12 YEARS recoup your money. Do they even last that long outside????

Another ARTICLE that says it would take 40 years to get your money back on his average of 5-10 fill-ups a year with a 50gal/$100 barrel. YIKES!

My conclusion....if you want a rain barrel, get it for the purpose of going 'green', NOT saving green because you WON'T. In fact, the opposite will almost inevitably occur. However, when and if I make enough money to toss at a rain barrel or two or three.....count me in. We all need to do our part and go beyond reasons related to the 'green' most are worried about.