4,000 gallons in 48 hours

we got another 2.7" of rain last night, which translates into another 4,400 gallons into our tanks. That's 8,400 gallons in 72 hours!

 

I will look into the UV filter. I'm sure there is bacteria and stuff in it, but like I said, we've been drinking it for 13 years, and no one has been sick or anything, yet. We don't get a lot of birds on our roof, though, and minimal dust.

Still, it would be nice to have something in there.

 

If all you want UV for is your drinking water, you might simply buy a few of these. they are USB rechargeable, (from any solar charger, car charger, or computer) and if you buy a few of them, and simply rotate them, you could always have them charged, and ready. This would be used after filtration, and simply leave them in the fridge for cold water. Camelbak All Clear Bottle zaps bacteria with UV rays They get used for 60 seconds, and treat 25oz. at a time.

 

Not going into too much detail here but...

Sometime within the next two years, we will be forced to either go "Tiny House" or underground (front wall exposed) home.

When we do this, we intend to build a cistern of some size. Our current cistern is roughly 1200 gallons and was there before we moved in.

I'm WANTING to go between 3 and 4000 gallons when we build. Part of the water that goes in will be just as ALL of our water is now. We haul it 325 gallons at a time in a pick up truck. This will continue.

We are also wanting to go to rain water collectoin. Either build we go with, we'll have to supplemnt roof area by building a large "covered" patio area. So we'll be collecting that way as a secondary. It will have a run off system that allows X amount of rain to wash off the roof before it starts to collect.

Then there is a third way. There is a natural spring that runs nearly year round. It does not flow a high GPM rate but the plan is to place an underground tank of about 50 gallons at the exit point. Then, place a pump within and when it fills up, it will empty the contents into the cistern.

So, with two of those, I worry about bacteria and the like. What would be the most efficient way to properly prep that water?

I was considering some form of UV but have found limited information about such a system. A filter will be used just as we use now but that doesn't make me feel overly confident about water not coming in from a municiple water source.

So, for a whole house system, what might you guys suggest. Keep in mind, cost will VERY MUCH be a consideration.

We will be "on grid" at first, the eventually to solar tie in, and then hopefully eventually to "off-grid". Don't know if that will affect the suggestions.

Sent from my Note 10.1 somewhere deep in a hidden lair.

 

There are generally three things desired in treating water:
1. Address turbidity by cleaning the dirt and particulates
2. Remove chemical contamnation such as pesticides, etc.
3. Kill or remove bacteria, giardia, cysts and viruses

Items 1 and 2 improves taste, items 2, 3 and to a lesser degree item 1 are required to make water potable (safe to drink). Many treatment methods do not address all of these.

Boiling: good for 3, poor for needs 1 and 2. Slow, energy intensive, cheap IF the availability of fuel is cheap including your time (which isn't free if you need to do other things)
Microfiltration: good for 1 and 3 but not much for 2. Filters generally are ceramic and require maintenance or replacement regularly. Throughput is slow.
Reverse osmosis: the high pressure ultrafine membranes are great for all three and even desalinate. However, those require high pressure (several hundred psi) pumps and waste a lot of water down the drain and are expensive. Cheap under sink RO units are a mix of good to gimmic.
Particulate filter: (.5-5 micron) is good for 1 but zero for others. There cheap filters can clean a lot of water.
Charcoal filter: good for 1 and 2 but will clog easy with dirty water. Not effect on 3.
UV: needs clear water to be most effective. Can treat huge quantities of water until bulb replacement is needed.
Chlorine/bromine/etc.: these are good for 3 but need time to work and does nothing for 1 or 2 and can make water taste worse.

So, it is extremely hard to beat the system I provided a link to. It has a particulate filter that cleans the water and improves the life of the charcoal filter which captures the chemicals. They both make the UV most effective. It can flow/treat 3 gal/min. If 200 bucks is too much you save 20 bucks for a 2 gal/min system. A conservative shower heads only runs 1 gal/min.

It is very hard to get better tasting water, with no wasted water, with more throughput and at a lower cost per gallon than a multiple cartridge and UV treatment system.

AT

 

And if nothing else, you could rig up a solar still, using something like this SolSource uses the heat of the sun to cook your food
or a big satellite dish covered in mirror or Mylar as a heat source. No fuel required, but slower and smaller scale. You would end up with distilled water.
You could also set this up a solar trough set up just like this one, set for a slow feed, and it would produce constant steam for a solar still. It could also be scaled up by simply adding tubes.

 

Thanks for the filter info, guys! We will definitely be adding a bacteria filter to the system.



We have a bit of sunshine today, and the fog is clearing. The final count was 7" of rain in 72 hours, with over 11,000 gallons of water caught in our tanks. Needless to say, we are very happy, but we look forward to a few days of sunshine.

Sunshine