Prepping water for family of 4 &dog
Posted by Lie_Hairy@reddit | preppers | View on Reddit | 5 comments
How much should we prep? And how should we do it? Should I just buy 5gallon jugs of water and keep them in my basement? How much? We have a well but are also in a serious drought. This drought has me really thinking about having water on hand. But I don’t know if I should plan/prep for a week or a year
ZionBane@reddit
1 gallon, per day, per person.
half gallon for the dog.
So, that would be 4.5 gallons of water daily.
With that said, this is a very, VERY limited amount.
Keep in mind that the average American uses around 100 gallons of water daily, this includes things like showers, cleaning dishes, washing cloths, cleaning the car, watering the lawn, etc. etc. and the like.
So, 1 gallon per person, per day, is going to be a very tight ration, and you will not have anywhere near enough water to do things like, wash clothing, take showers, even washing your hands will become limited, that one gallon, is pretty much, just drinking water.
So keep that in mind as you prep.
ianishomer@reddit
Wow if that average is correct that's a lot of water per day.
My household of 2 people and 2 dogs averages less than half that a month.
For me the answer is rainwater capture, but not a great suggestion if you don't have the space for tanks.
miauxauxaux@reddit
It’s a lot. I think my max usage in a month for 2 adults and 2 cats was like 75 gallons and that was before I started capturing rainwater.
AddingAnOtter@reddit
I'm assuming this is 75 gallons per day?
Critical3000@reddit
Is that much really needed tho? I don’t think it is. Water ultimately is about stopping death by dehydration. When simplified in that way, most older children and adults will need about 2 liters a day to prevent dehydration, maybe closer to a liter for children under 10. Cooking, if making something for a family of 4, might be another liter per day.
Adding all this up, that’s 7-8 liters a day, so about 2 gallons a day for the whole family of 4. If you want to wash hands, we could add to that another half liter if you also have hand sanitizer.