Ideas for water storage

kildare.17hmr

So every winter we have water problems in our estate, its on a hill and the council turn down the pressure to preserve water and we get shafted:rolleyes: and have to rely on a tanker that come every day and i fill a few 25 ltr drums and empty bottles ect.

This year iv decided to get a couple of 205 ltr plastic drums so we can have water there to keep the toilet going and so herself doesn't run out when im at work.

So im lookin for sugestions, should i fill them from the tap when i get them or fit them to the gutters and use a filter so they fill them selves? Iv a garage on the house so thought id store them in there to help prevent freezing.

Any ideas id love to hear them, not plannin to spend a fortune so keep it simple!

eth0

The gutter is usually alright quality water sure never did me any harm but after a dry patch you'd wnat to remove the barrels till the first few showers take all the bird shoite away.

They will be useful for when our benevolent overlords hit us with water meters and you want to water the garden or wash the car. I'm not quite sure how much filtering you'd have to do but can't imagine it being terribly dangerous to drink without filtering even once the bird ****s are gone or even just boil it to be sure

crackcrack30

Could u fit a second resivor tank in the attic, i think they are supposed to fit up the manhole (cover) it wood give you an extra few days shower and toilet water.............

eth0

crackcrack30 wrote: »

Could u fit a second resivor tank in the attic, i think they are supposed to fit up the manhole (cover) it wood give you an extra few days shower and toilet water.............

If you could just have a level sensor on the first tank you might not need it

Usually when water goes at my place, we cop on to it long before the tank is empty. So 200L+ of drinking water, rest for flusing the jacks and such can be got from a nearby stream. Although that stream has decent enough quality water

ShadowFox

I got similar plastic drums for toilet water I put a chart in the bathroom to see how many times it flushed over a week and got 3 drums To stop them freezing I added some anti freeze to the drums (Remember I only want these for toilet water) Ive the 3 drums connected together with plastic pipe like steps high mid low the high one is connected to the gutter down pipe you can get the fittings anywhere that sell butt barrels Hope this helps

Drinking water we use a lot of 5lt bottled water anyway so we have around 20 bottles extra at all times

SNAKEDOC

get yourself a large tank such as the ones used on building sites and sitck it in the garage. have your water butt catching rain water from the roof on the garage and house. get a pump filter and run a hose that you can connect to your attic tank so when your water freezes or pressure drops just switch on your own pump and you still have a water supply. the tank should hold over 1500 liters. that will see you through the winter. Do what my gf's da does and if it snows put the snow in the a container inside to melt extra water then lob it in the tank. a filter should suffice we have our own well and it's filtered tastes better than mains water.

waterfordham

We are also at the top of a town.

I've a 190L Water Butt that fills from the downpipe. During the freeze last year, we had already filled the bath full of water.

The downstairs Cistern fills from the mains so we used the water in the Water Butt to fill that after a flush.

One of the bins happened to be empty so I filled it with snow off the drive and rolled it into the garage. It thawed after a few days.

I was keeping an eye on the header tank, which I could have filled from the bath should it be required.

We had bottled water for drinking so We were fine for the week or so the water was off.

Even made a few cups of tea by boiling snow on the stove to see what it was like.

I'm considering a second water butt off another downpipe off a different roof, but I need to chuck some other stuff out of the way first. The important thing for us was that we had plenty bottled water already.

krissovo

I have a 1000 ltr heating oil container plumbed into our water system. Mains water fills up the container where a toilet float valve regulates the water level. I have fitted a oil level monitor to show me when the water has been cut off. We can effectively continue as normal if we lose water for a few days.

Oil containers have a sturdy construction and look more "normal" sitting outside the house than a building site tank. I can also rig it up to my rainwater harvester with a couple of hours work.

slowburner

And just how much water do we need?
It works out at about 50 litres per person per day for all requirements.

Drinking water 2 - 5 litres per day
Sanitation 75 - 200 lpd (where toilets need flushing)
Bathing 5 - 70 lpd
Cooking & Kitchen 10 - 50 lpd

Fair old requirement, isn't it?

Builderfromhell

I have installed rainwater harvesting systems for people who did not want to be out of water again this year. This web site shows the simple type of filter I use to keep water relatively clean;http://www.alternativetechnology.info/3pfilter.htm

A simple submersible pump, Lidl do good cheap one, should get water up to your water tank in attic.

Water butts are often dumped by factories and can be collected for free. I use the 1,000 litre metal framed ones. They have a handy valve on the bottom for water pipe connections.
http://www.donedeal.ie/for-sale/machinery/2581571

kildare.17hmr

lucky enough my parents live at the bottom of the hill so Thats where we go to shower when the water goes off so that saves a lot.

How much are 1000 liter tanks and pumps?

colonel-yum-yum

slowburner wrote: »

And just how much water do we need?
It works out at about 50 litres per person per day for all requirements.

Drinking water 2 - 5 litres per day
Sanitation 75 - 200 lpd (where toilets need flushing)
Bathing 5 - 70 lpd
Cooking & Kitchen 10 - 50 lpd

Fair old requirement, isn't it?

It will vary depending on your usage, but remember that bathing water and cooking water can easily be used for toilet flushing etc.

Builderfromhell

colonel-yum-yum wrote: »

It will vary depending on your usage, but remember that bathing water and cooking water can easily be used for toilet flushing etc.

In Africa in times of drought we would dis-connect the trap from below the sinks and collect the sink and wash basin water to use for flushing toilets.

krissovo

Builderfromhell wrote: »

In Africa in times of drought we would dis-connect the trap from below the sinks and collect the sink and wash basin water to use for flushing toilets.

I have looked at "greywater" recycling by using waste from showers and baths etc to flush the toilet. At the time the expense did not justify plumbing in but I imagine with water rates then it will have a payback period.

Red Harvest

kildare.17hmr wrote: »

lucky enough my parents live at the bottom of the hill so Thats where we go to shower when the water goes off so that saves a lot.

How much are 1000 liter tanks and pumps?

We are also at the bottom of a hill and as the 2inch (maybe 3inch?) mains water pipe goes all the way up the hill behind us for half a mile thats how much water we have stored. There was a major outage in the area a few years back when a mains pipe was damaged and they couldn't easily get to repair it so we were off for a week and we didn't even know the water had gone off :cool:.

I have a few of the 220 litre barrels that are used on farms for the chemical to clean the milking equipment our local Glambia will "harvest" them from around the place and sell them for a tenner each. They also do the 1000 liter tanks in a metal cage (not sure what chemicals were originally in them) for 80euro.

CamperMan

colonel-yum-yum wrote: »

It will vary depending on your usage, but remember that bathing water and cooking water can easily be used for toilet flushing etc.

we divert the grey water from the sinks and shower into a small tank and this is used for flushing the toilet.. at the moment, it's a small tank, but we will start to use a 1000L IBC tank once the grey water has gone through a sand filter to take the crap out..

slowburner

Builderfromhell wrote: »

In Africa in times of drought we would dis-connect the trap from below the sinks and collect the sink and wash basin water to use for flushing toilets.

Very clever this.
I suppose we see so much water in Ireland that we take it for granted. Until it's gone.