Home Water storage and filtration consultants?
Posted by Tairc@reddit | preppers | View on Reddit | 11 comments
I’m building my little urban prepper heaven, and one thing I haven’t specced yet is water storage and filtration. I’ve seen Caribbean countries where most homes have 1000+ gallons of storage in large tanks outside, fed by municipal water, but when that goes out, you flip a valve to isolate your tank from the municipal supply and can go for quite a long time.
I’d like to build something similar. There are even better ways with multi tank solutions, where the system uses one tank, while filling another from municipal water - so that if the municipal water is contaminated, you isolate out the “fill” tank, and just use the ones filled earlier that are presumed safe.
Other systems catch and use rainwater, then filter that well enough that you can’t tell it’s not clean municipal water.
I’ve got a couple of grand to throw at the problem, but don’t know what’s reliable, trustworthy, cost effective and more.
Does anyone know of any consulting firms or people that might be able to do a few hour consult? Once they got me a BoM and design, I could source it, and work with a plumber to install it.
So - any ideas? I’m in North Carolina, but the consultant can likely be most anywhere in the US.
VisualEyez33@reddit
"Urban" and "thousand gallon outdoor tank" seem like that combination will present challenges.
I am also in an urban area and the city has a permit process for damn near everything more complex than hanging a picture on a wall.
So, I would ask the city code inspector first to see if there are already any regs on the books. The next concern on my mind would be hiding it.
I have room in my basement for 20 or so 55 gallon drums, and could move them one by one myself, while they're empty. Simple hand pump to retrieve water. Which would then get put through the same doulton filter I use for tap water.
Much smaller initial investment, and can be spread out over time.
FlashyImprovement5@reddit
Depending on where you are located it could be illegal or down right dangerous.
In very hot countries, the water is basically pasteurized (sodis) by the constant heat. So you see outdoor passive hot water systems or bulk water storage. Then you only have to worry about animals getting inside or excrement.
In the US, we don't get hot enough in most cities to have the pasteurized water outdoor tanks. We have to worry about legionnaires disease, shigella, cholera and more. Many places have laws prohibiting outdoor water storage because it is warm enough to breed diseases but not hot enough to kill them.
And many cities prohibit private water storage completely. Not even for garden usage.
Adorable_Dust3799@reddit
One co- worker had a big cistern and a small tank on the roof with a pump, and the tank flushed the toilets.
Severe_Heart_297@reddit
I have this illusion that I will be able to take sea water, boil it and condense it again to remove the salt, and treat it with chlorine or charcoal to drink if things get bad.
Tairc@reddit (OP)
That’s an incredibly energy intensive process. You can build a solar still, with a lens to focus sunlight, or you can use a TON of fuel. Definitely possible if you’reyou nearing day 3 without water, but most would/will likely just boil catch water or suspicious municipal or river water.
Much-Newspaper-8750@reddit
In Brazil, practically 95% of houses have water tanks of at least 500 liters on top of the house, reaching up to 2000 liters in larger houses.
This is our main source of water, and before distributing the water throughout the house, it is stored in these water tanks.
At the same time, many have a backup system of buried water cisterns, which can be fed by the water company, wells or rain.
These cisterns are not fed routinely, like water tanks, when they are filled they remain unused for months, and the owners use them sporadically to change them or treat them with chlorine.
Cisterns on average hold 5000 liters, and depending on the location, they can reach up to 20,000 liters.
Tairc@reddit (OP)
Basically this. I want something like this, and wish I could find a consultant/system designer who understands the ins, outs, and requirements for such systems.
Much-Newspaper-8750@reddit
Construção de caixa de agua e cisterna? No Brasil? Não precisa de especialista, pedreiro sabe fazer, no máximo um bombeiro hidráulico! Ele só vai precisar saber quantas pessoas tem em sua casa e por quanto tempo vc quer aguentar. Assim ele estuda quantos litros de cisterna sua casa precisa. Mas para uma casa de 5 pessoas uma caixa de 5000 litros passa de uma semana, se economizar.
Tairc@reddit (OP)
Right. But how are you? Sure that the water is filtered and clean? If you’re just using it for things like flushing toilets, it’s not a big deal, but in general portable water should be filtered or treated to prevent things like bird poop from causing illness.
Plus, if I wanted to run from municipal water at all, there are certain backflow check valves that have to be used because the water company very much doesn’t want dirty water getting pushed back into the system
Much-Newspaper-8750@reddit
O tratamento ideal de água de menor custo e de uso a longo prazo é o tratamento próximo ao consumi-la. Então é bom ter filtros com propriedades antivirais e bactericidas, aqui no mercado da região temos bastante.
A água que vem da empresa já vem clorada na medida e límpida, mas nada impede de adicionar filtros antes de deposita-las na cisterna ou caixa de água, há sistemas de filtragens por etapas que se iniciam para sedimentos grandes até filtros de osmose reversa (muito caros $) na ponta se quiser.
O mesmo vale para aguas coletadas de chuva ou poços, basta passar por esse sistema logo antes de consumir.
Com alguma pesquisa você irá economizar alguns trocados e aprender até mesmo fazer a manutenção devida, conhecendo cada vez mais seu sistema.
Aqui colocamos o sistema de filtragem no final de tudo, como exemplo da imagem, por vezes não usamos o sistema ultravioleta e por vezes ainda usamos filtros domésticos antibacteria na ponta.
Jaicobb@reddit
Contact your water works for leads.
This sounds like something the company selling you the system would provide.