Water, how long?

[LadyLocust]

I have a rain water collection system, and have verified it's operation and my storage options. But, from Late November to Late April anything outside freezes so that option dies.... So that is 5 months when I would need to resort to using stored water, on average we (people) consume 5 to 6 gallons a day and we need a minimum of 1 gallon a day for drinking....

So I need to figure out how to store (assuming 4 people) 600 gallons of drinking water and 1200 gallons of sanitation water. This is assuming we can replenish our supplies when things warm up using rain water.... Here it rains on average every 3 days so if I assume I need to cover 18 days(safety factor included) in warm weather, I still need to store about 75 gallons of drinking and 150 gallons of sanitation water. All this is assuming that we can cut our non-drinking water consumption by over 50%...

If you were planning on a full year without re-supply you would need 3000 gallons for sanitation and 1440 gallons for drinking... Assuming 4 people at 3 gallons per person per day.

Will only quote this one UH. The average 4 person household uses 1000 gal. of water per month in the washing machine and the average dishwasher uses 6 gal. per load. Both of these would drop drastically in a no power scenario. Also, on your water storage front, your canning pots are great storage for shorter term or if you know the power is going to be out. The pressure canner seals so could get you through a couple/few days.

 

[Sourdough]

Question: Does having a twenty foot high year around waterfalls on your property seem like a sweet deal.

 

[UrbanHunter]

Will only quote this one UH. The average 4 person household uses 1000 gal. of water per month in the washing machine and the average dishwasher uses 6 gal. per load. Both of these would drop drastically in a no power scenario. Also, on your water storage front, your canning pots are great storage for shorter term or if you know the power is going to be out. The pressure canner seals so could get you through a couple/few days.

Yep, and every time we flush it is a couple of gallons. My scenario of 3000/1440 gallons per year would require you to reduce sanitation (that 1000 per month that the washing machine uses plus flushing (at 1 flush per person per day would be about 400) and 6 gallons per load dish washing ~100) down to 250 gallons per month...

But that is still a lot of water to try to store securely.

I like @LadyLocust point about using your canning equipment, stock pots, and empty canning jars to store water, I know that mine could hold close to 50 gallons.

Not everyone can be as fortunate as @Sourdough and have running water readily available; but those of us who don't have a clean running water resource will need to think about gathering, filtering, treating, and storing a lot of water.....

 

[LadyLocust]

Yep, and every time we flush it is a couple of gallons. My scenario of 3000/1440 gallons per year would require you to reduce sanitation (that 1000 per month that the washing machine uses plus flushing (at 1 flush per person per day would be about 400) and 6 gallons per load dish washing ~100) down to 250 gallons per month...

But that is still a lot of water to try to store securely.

I like @LadyLocust point about using your canning equipment, stock pots, and empty canning jars to store water, I know that mine could hold close to 50 gallons.

Not everyone can be as fortunate as @Sourdough and have running water readily available; but those of us who don't have a clean running water resource will need to think about gathering, filtering, treating, and storing a lot of water.....

I think this was posted somewhere here on the forum. Not sure if you ever saw it.

Also for you in particular, your grey water would be valuable in keeping your garden.

 

[UrbanHunter]

I think this was posted somewhere here on the forum. Not sure if you ever saw it.
View attachment 74587
Also for you in particular, your grey water would be valuable in keeping your garden.

I like that, they are available for about $100.
If you had to you could use a wash basin and picture and just dump the basin into the toilet tank when finished washing.... good way to double your water usage. I have seen pee traps with the threaded connection in the bottom, if you had access to the bottom you could have the pee trap feed into a bucket for toilet/grey water capture.

 

[Cabin Fever]

You can save a lot of sanitation water if you have an outhouse.

 

[Neb]

Question: Does having a twenty foot high year around waterfalls on your property seem like a sweet deal.

I have 2 50 gallon water barrels an d 2 rain barrels but never set them up because i found and developed 2 springs. In the spring they produce 3000-5000 (I forget which) gallons a day. In August they slow way down. Even in February they produce enough to keep the pond from freezing over and keep carp (gold fish) alive.

Ben

 

[backlash]

I like that, they are available for about $100.
If you had to you could use a wash basin and picture and just dump the basin into the toilet tank when finished washing.... good way to double your water usage. I have seen pee traps with the threaded connection in the bottom, if you had access to the bottom you could have the pee trap feed into a bucket for toilet/grey water capture.

That would defeat the purpose of the P trap.
How about this?
Toilet tank lid with faucet.
SINKTWICE Toilet Tank Cover Faucet and Sink Combo in White-1317 - The Home Depot

 

[bamadeb48]

Talk about water I have none now waiting on the plumber, I live in a mobile home and it has that funky piping that you cannot fix yourself so the plumber,but no show yesterday, so catching rainwater now, I bought some to drink and can turn the water on for a minute or 2 to fill everything up. Still waiting for the plumber and really don’t have the money for it, wish I had a well, and wish it didn’t cost so much to have one dug.

 

[Neb]

I have 2 50 gallon water barrels an d 2 rain barrels but never set them up because i found and developed 2 springs. In the spring they produce 3000-5000 (I forget which) gallons a day. In August they slow way down. Even in February they produce enough to keep the pond from freezing over and keep carp (gold fish) alive.

Ben

I stopped this afternoon to record a short video of the output from the 2 springs I mentioned above.



Ben

 

[Bacpacker]

I stopped this afternoon to record a short video of the output from the 2 springs I mentioned above.



Ben

Watched that while ago.

 

[Neb]

Watched that while ago.

I inly recorded it 7 hours ago.?

Ben

 

[Bacpacker]

It just popped up when I first opened utube, there it was. Love the sound.

 

[Rick]

At my current location (which is not my BOL) probably 10 days maybe 2+ weeks if its not summer and just for drinking.
At the BOL indefinitely for water..

 

[joel]

A electric/ solar/ hand well all in one.

 

[joel]

all in one.

 

[Neb]

Love Engineer775




I used his collection system for my first spring

Ben

 

[Caribou]

Question: Does having a twenty foot high year around waterfalls on your property seem like a sweet deal.

Sounds like you need my Pelton wheel.

 

[Supervisor42]

Space Weather News ----- For those that think running out of water , brought on by running out of electricity can not happen just watch the post above just put up this very morning . Two solar flares erupted and flung out of the sun just this morning . A lot of things going on right now in an unstable galaxy . We could instantly be thrown into life with fried electronics , electrical transformers and melted power lines . We all may get to see if our backup water plan is adequate .

From 5 days ago.
Aaaand once again, nuthing happened.
...Except their monthly crying of 'wolf'.

 

[Sourdough]

From 5 days ago.
Aaaand once again, nuthing happened.
...Except their monthly crying of 'wolf'.

Aaaaaaaand this from a guy who lives where people have a "cow" and go "Bat'Spit" crazy if they hear the word Hurricane.

Where they "MILK" a minor weather inconvenience for weeks prior to a little rain.

 

[Supervisor42]

Aaaaaaaand this from a guy who lives where people have a "cow" and go "Bat'Spit" crazy if they hear the word Hurricane.

Where they "MILK" a minor weather inconvenience for weeks prior to a little rain.

Yeah, I don't know why they panic so much.
Everybody buying shopping carts full of bottled water each time.
Look up people!!!
We keep between 80,000 - 100,000 gallons of fresh potable water stored in a water tower.
Since it is way up high, the water is under pressure at ground level, no pump required:

 

[rice paddy daddy]

We will have water for as long as we need it, providing we saddle up the horse and ride two miles to the river.

 

[Aerindel]

From 5 days ago.
Aaaand once again, nuthing happened.
...Except their monthly crying of 'wolf'.

Did someone cry wolf again? I get space weather notifications on my phone and everything said 'mild' or 'moderate'.

 

[joel]

A electric/ solar/ hand well all in one.

I emailed this guy about putting in a simple pump hand pump for me, he has a a back log of 12 months.
Must be a lot of people worried about the state of the union.

 

[Supervisor42]

Did someone cry wolf again? I get space weather notifications on my phone and everything said 'mild' or 'moderate'.

Shirley not!

We could instantly be thrown into life with fried electronics , electrical transformers and melted power lines . We all may get to see if our backup water plan is adequate.

On topic: "Hey Super, what happens when the power goes out and water stops going into the water tower?"
The power won't go out for very long, if it ever did. We are not connected to 'tha-grid'. We have our own natural-gas wells feeding the power plant, and the power lines going to the water plant are buried in the ground.

Now you will have to excuse me while I work on all of my fried electronics from the CME.

 

[Aerindel]

Well, we may. Its one of the mostly likely natural civilization ending events.

But we get minor solar flares all the time, which don't indicate anything in particular. Its just like someone may get hit by a tornado someday, but the weather report today just shows rain and 20mph gusts.

 

[Supervisor42]

Well, we may. Its one of the mostly likely natural civilization ending events.

I agree with that, but we need to end the false alarms.
I remember the previous 'civilization ending' CME warning.
Everybody was locking their electronics up in Faraday cages.
They reported that the Northern-Lights were visible much further south than normal.
That was it.

On topic: You would never guess what the biggest threat to our water supply is?
Freezing weather.
We almost never have temps below freezing so most plumbing here is ill-prepared for it.
Last winter we did, and busted pipes everywhere were spraying water, dropping the water pressure.
We got a 'conserve water' notification for one day.
If pressure gets low enough, they issue a 'boil water' advisory (last one was in 2016 when a water-main was broken and they had to shut down water to fix it)

 

[Aerindel]

Yep. Its a constant problem Science requires more than just knowing knowing the names of the theories. You have to actually measure and record data. That's the part people seem to always skip. They treat science like it's just another name for magic.

When the next Carrington even happens, we will either know it 18 hours before it hit, and it will be obvious and labeled as such, or the power that be will shut down the public feed from the solar monitoring satellites and we won't know anything until it happens.

It won't be because we got another of the dozens of minor CME we get every year.