Water Storage

[logansackett]

I am looking at both the food grade water barrells and the 5 gallon (deep rock) style bottles and dispenser. I live in an apt. ground floor, it seems that the 5 gal. set up would be the easiest. Am I missing anything?

[Shamrock1121]

If I lived in an apartment, I'd store water in 2-litre soft-drink bottles and stack them behind my sofa, up the back wall of closets, etc. Much easier to store than large containers.

Avoid using plastic milk containers because they deteriorate and can leak.

There are also bladders that can be placed under a bed.

I have 5-gallon containers of city tap water and I have them on racks designed to hold them. I repurpose the water once a year and refill them and add some bleach or Grapefruit Seed Extract. They are stored in the basement. They are relatively easy to fill and move. I also have nine 3-gallon containers that I keep distilled water in. I normally use those in the winter for filling humidifiers in the house, but I keep the full and rotated in general use as well. I distill my own water.

I've purchased these food-grade plastic water jugs at Wal-Mart, K-Mart and Target. Make sure they have a screw-on top. Wal-Mart, as well as my local grocery stores sell these containers in the same area they sell fill-yourself reverse-osmosis water.

Emergency Essentials - www.beprepared.com - has all kinds of water barrels available as well as siphons and bung openers. You can often find food-grade barrels through restaurant supply stores.

You might find this information helpful:
http://waltonfeed.com/self/water.html

http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/emergency/water.html

-Karen

[DavidOH]

Try Craig's List:
http://www.craigslist.org/about/cities.html

There may be FOOD GRADE PLASTIC BARRELS available locally. This is from a ad near me:
"White 55 gallon Heavy Gage Food Grade Plastic barrels. Approximately 100 available. " $6 each

[Shamrock1121]

Thanks David. I found some in TN for $8 but, what do you do with it? Does it have a lid to keep the skeeters from breeding? Do you run a down spout from the gutter into it?
I have a section of roof on the house that collects a tremendous amount of rain water. What sort of harvesting system is best (not most expensive)?

Sandycane - I believe you are confusing indoor water storage with outdoor. My personal belief is that we would benefit from both if it's possible to do so.

I have 1,000-gallons of outdoor water and around 150-gallons bottled indoor water (in 3- and 5-gallon containers plus numerous 2-litre soda bottles).

My outdoor water is in closed containers of various sizes because you'll lose less water to evaporation in a closed container - plus no problems with "skeeters".

There is a product called "Mosquito Dunks" (and other name brands) that look like a doughnut. They are a chemical free way to keep mosquitos out of any standing water as well as adding one to a rain barrel.

It all depends on the system you choose to set up as to expense. After I studied the different models for rain barrels (just Google Rain Barrels and you'll find any number of ways to incorporate them), this is what we've done. Last year was our first year for rain barrels.

We use a Downspout Diverter from Gardener's Supply company (item #33-991 which are $24.95)
http://www.gardeners.com/Downspout%20Diverter/33-991,default,pd.html We have 5 of these with a total of 9 barrels (50-gal., 165-gal., 210-gal).

1. If your barrels are white, you'll need to paint them. White allows algae to grow inside. There are spray paints that will work, but there's a special paint you can get from Sherwin Williams that works for the plastic surface. We painted some of of our barrels to match our house color.

2. You'll need a flat surface to set your barrel/s on. They tend to sink into the ground without a flat surface. We used the fiberglass pads they put air conditioner units on.

3. Concrete blocks. You'll need at least one coarse of block to get the barrels up high enough to get watering cans or buckets under the spigot. The higher the barrel, the faster the water will flow from it (physics - gravety feed).

4. We've secured our barrels to our house with nylon webbing (strapping) we get by-the-foot from Ace Hardware. We also have clip connecters (sold to be used with the webbing so we can unhook the webbing to take the barrels down for cleaning. This webbing keeps the barrels from accidently falling on some kid playing on them, but keeps them in place when they are empty (winter storage).

-Karen

[Shamrock1121]

Thanks Karen...is there anything you don't know??? ;D

That diverter is a great invention. *What kind of storage tank do you suggest using, with this diverter, for storing large quantities of drinking water?

I don't store drinking water outside, only inside. I don't have an in-ground cistern - just free-standing containers. The outside water is used for watering the landscape plants, garden, and the grass. In an emergency I could use the outside water, but I'd distill or purify it for drinking.

I decided not to store indoor (emergency-use) water in food-grade barrels (which are available in 15-, 30, or 55-gallon) because, for us, they are more difficult to use from, fill, and drain - and you need to replace the water once a year. .

This is what my water storage looks like in the basement - except I have 6 racks total (I got mine for a lot less): http://www.livingincomfort.com/poch5wabostu.html

These racks hold both 5- and 3-gallon bottles. This water is stored in our basement for emergency use.

Outside I have 6 of the red ones on this page. The spigot is much lower on my barrels. I link two of these barrels together at 3 different down spouts.
http://www.rainbarrelguide.com/

I also have some poly-tanks that are commonly used on farms (out of the back of pick-ups). Check any farm supply store near you for them in a variety of sizes and shapes.

We have two that are similar to these that are hooked together (165-gallons each):
http://www.polystoragetanks.com/products/vertical.htm

One (210-gallon) is round-ish and looks like a giant ladybug, and we painted it to look like one.

-Karen

[DavidOH]

Thanks David. I found some in TN for $8 but, what do you do with it? Does it have a lid to keep the skeeters from breeding? Do you run a down spout from the gutter into it?
I have a section of roof on the house that collects a tremendous amount of rain water. What sort of harvesting system is best (not most expensive)?

Some have removable lids. Some have caps (~2inch opening) some will be open. It depends on what you find.

Here is one type of rain diverter:
http://www.realgoods.com/product/save-the-rain+diverter.do?search=basic&keyword=rain+barrel& sortby=bestSellers&page=1
This same item may also be found elsewhere for less, try your local hardware store, garden center or wallyworld.

The idea is collecting it for irrigation (garden) or washing. You'd have to filter out any bugs and bird crap if you needed to drink it.
The diverter lets the first of the runnoff go past the barrel, to wash off any bird droppings on your roof and any other things that may have gotten up there.

Keeping a lid on your rain barrel keeps out insects or other critters or litter.