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| water procurement versus storage | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Mar 28 2009, 05:13 AM (567 Views) | |
| Loshali | Mar 28 2009, 05:13 AM Post #1 |
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I'm glad to see this section is more about harvesting and obtaining water than storing masses of jugs or containers of water. No matter where you live, unless you live in a desert, water is a renewable resource. We tend to forget that and think, 'oh i have to store a year's worth of water'. Now, I"m NOT saying storage is a bad thing, not at all. But, as its been pointed out before, plastic degrades. Sometimes thinking in terms of how people survivede a hundred years before plastic, is key. What is the best way? Well, we do have options. If we are in a house, then by all means, an in-ground cement cistern is the best way to go, IMHO. Included with that is a guttering system to catch rainwater. In my area, I've estimated that a 1000 sf house with guttering can cache as much as 28,000 gallons per year. Add an outbuilding or barn with guttering, and you could possibly double that amount. Not everyone will have a source of ground water available to them, and storage containers are a red flag in a survival situation. Think outside the box (or plastic jug, in this case). Loshali |
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| Lazer | Mar 28 2009, 05:26 AM Post #2 |
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Lazer
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Good point Lo~. My oldest son's girlfiend has relatives in the Carribean. Family has been there for hundreds of years. All of their houses are built over cisterns. I plan to visit them in a year or so and that is one of the things I want to fully investigate. We all should consider capturing our roof runoff. Except Niki where I read it was against the law in Co. to keep rain from hitting the ground!? |
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oldmarinesgt
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Mar 28 2009, 09:41 AM Post #3 |
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In my opinion, harvesting and storage have to go hand in hand. In the part of Texas where I grew up, a lot of the houses in town had concrete cisterns under the house. They were poured by hand, then the house was built on top of it. They worked well but they also had their problems such as cracking. Those of us that lived on ranches had concrete tanks, that were made by hand poured concrete or laid up stone that were fed by a windmill. Again you had to deal with cracking and every so often the tank was drained and the algae scrubbed out. Somehow that always seemed to be my job. Of course these days the concrete technology is much better and algae is controlled by shutting off sunlight to the stored water. It boils down to doing the best you can with what you have or can afford. Each storage system has its advantages and its drawbacks. Concrete, when done right, has a very long lifespan. The drawback is that it is a very heavy material. If you are going to install a prefab concrete tank then you need machinery to do it. If you are going to build it in place then you have to form up, install rebar, bring in or mix up concrete and make a monolithic pour (all at one time). If you do it in sections then you have to seal it or install a liner to prevent leakage at the seams. You probably would want to put a liner or sealer on the inside anyway because concrete is porus and does leach lime into the stored water and the water will become slightly alkaline over time. I would not rule out the use of a polyethylene, sometimes called poly or plastic, tank. The cost is a lot more affordable and they are very light and easy to handle. Polyethylene is a UV stabilized food grade plastic and many of the tanks have fairly long lifespans. 15 to 25 year warranties are common and I know of a company in New Zealand that manufactures tanks for use in Africa that claim theirs last over 50 years. It all depends on the environment where they are installed. I would definitely go for underground or at least covered storage to prevent deterioration, provide protection from physical damage and not draw attention to your reservoir. There are a lot of options out there and which one is right for you will be dictated by financial resources, physical capabilities and skills, available resources, environment, etc. Anway that is my two cents worth. |
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Brosia
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Mar 28 2009, 03:16 PM Post #4 |
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I'd love to get a rain water harvest system set up. It's on my list. On a side note, the astronauts just got back from their space shuttle mission, and the recycle system that produces water from urine is up and running. Gosh, I'd hate to be up there when it malfunctions! |
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oldmarinesgt
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Mar 28 2009, 08:11 PM Post #5 |
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Saw an article about a system that a guy built in Nova Scotia where he runs his greywater through a filtration bed in his attached greenhouse then it evaporates and condenses on the slanted glass then runs down into gutters ready to use again. He had to clean out his filtration bed every so often. Of course it is grey water from sinks and showers and not blackwater from his toilet. He used a composting toilet so there was no blackwater to deal with. Be interesting to see what kind of system they are using at the space station. |
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Niki
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Apr 1 2009, 08:54 AM Post #6 |
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The little blonde with the P22
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I have heard from several people that rain water harvesting is illegal in colorado. But then again if tshtf that may be the last of lakewood PD's issues? I don't know, I worry about water storage. I can put a lot in the camper, I have the room, but in gallons? bottles? I'm not sure what to do! |
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oldmarinesgt
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Apr 1 2009, 11:35 AM Post #7 |
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Niki, Always keep in mind the weight you are dealing with. You can figure that every gallon weighs a little over 8 pounds (8.33 for us engineer types) The amount you store will probably depend upon what your ultimate plan is. If you are headed to a safe place that has access to a stream or body of water then store enough for your and your family to get there with plenty of extra and add water purification equipment to your supplies to deal with the water supply you will be using there. If you are planning to hunker down where you are at then you need quite a bit more storage capability in case the water supply is cut off. You are right that technically it is illegal to capture rainwater in your state. Also in Utah and Washington. The reality is that they are not really out looking for people catching rainwater and most people only get in trouble when they actually try to legally go through the process of gaining a state water rights like you would if you were a farmer and wanting to irrigate. If you are really interested in trying to develope some kind of inconspicuous capture system send me a note and I will gladly share some ideas on the subject. Here is an article on the legal question of capturing rainwater before it hits the ground: http://www.hcn.org/issues/40.18/a-good-idea-2013-if-you-can-get-away-with-it |
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RustyShakelford
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Apr 1 2009, 01:48 PM Post #8 |
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AS OMS can attest, it is hard to harvest water in the deserts of West Texas. Tomorrow, I hope, I will be making a system to use my grey water from the washing machine to water the back yard. It will be quite a project, and is illegal to do. But what the man don't know, ain't gonna hurt him. |
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Niki
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Apr 1 2009, 04:57 PM Post #9 |
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The little blonde with the P22
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haha thnx marine rusty... i swear.... LOL |
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| Deleted User | Apr 2 2009, 09:43 AM Post #10 |
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Deleted User
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The grey water from our house goes to the garden area.Everything except the toilets goes into a homemade trap where the solids can be pumped and the liquid will go out into a ditch. I have modified it slightly but otherwise it was here when we got the place. I have a well and ''city'' water but still collect rainwater and stategically route runoff.We also save water in clear 2 litre bottles. These are stacked on the soda crates although I don't know where to get them......legally. |
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1:03 PM Jul 11