Water Storage: Hot Water Tank

How are you preparing
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Deeps
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Re: Water Storage: Hot Water Tank

Post by Deeps »

jaffab wrote:I will be picking up 4 x 25l Jerry Cans this weekend just to have on hand. If I get notice of something, I would fill them up. I am also going to do a bath test - fill it up, leave it for the weekend to see if the water level drops at all to know if I need a SHTF bath seal - my bath holds 120 litres, so that would give me 220l - for the two of us, at 2l a day each, that's 100 days worth.
Agree with Britcit above on tbe amount. The smlest 'yardstick' I've seen is 3L a day and tbats more for field conditions where you're not too worried about smelling etc.
I've got 6 25L containers at the back of my garage filled and refilled from time to time. If in doubt drop a large puritab in it.Theres always the risk you'll not get a heads up or be out at work/shops so unable to fill the bath.
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Jamesey1981
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Re: Water Storage: Hot Water Tank

Post by Jamesey1981 »

whenfires wrote:I have a few Saywer Minis to hand and my plan for water preps is for a blend of water butt (one possibly two), four 25L food grade water containers as well as some off-the-shelf bottled water. But I keep thinking of this stored water I already have. Because of showers, cleaning and so on, about 100L of the 300L gets used every day and is refilled from the cold main. So, depending on what kind of SHTF event occurred I would have quite fresh water in there in the short term. There are no lead pipes and both the copper tank and header tank are sealed so it is just a question of what contaminants are either already in the tanks or have been caused by the heating/cooling of the water.

Basically, It seems a lot of water to ignore :o
I'm pretty sure that it would be fine, if you've got no lead in your pipes and no dead pigeon in the tank then the water would probably be fine to drink, and you can always boil it to make sure, also most things like lead or heavy metal poisoning would only happen over time so even if there were heavy metal contamination in the water, you only have 300l in there and if it's not being refilled then it'll run out before you see any problems

It would likely be a fair bit cleaner than the water in a water butt, rain water is pretty clean on its way down (although can pick up some pollutants from the air) but your roof isn't clean, and it'll get washed into your water butt, but filtered or boiled it'd probably be ok too, certainly better than dehydration and then death!

I know that in dry areas where people routinely harvest rainwater from their roofs for drinking they have a special valve on the divertor that discards the first part of the flow, the first bit has most of the contamination in it and means your stored water is cleaner.
That is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange aeons even death may die.
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jaffab
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Re: Water Storage: Hot Water Tank

Post by jaffab »

Deeps wrote:Agree with Britcit above on tbe amount. The smlest 'yardstick' I've seen is 3L a day and tbats more for field conditions where you're not too worried about smelling etc.
Good point well made. But for other activities and top ups, I would do the rain water collection thing. I have two portable purifiers (one for Plan B bug in, and another for Plan C bug out) so in a push, I can collect the rain water and turn that into top up drinking water. Even in the heat of summer, it rains every few weeks, so would tarp collect all I could.
You live in a time of decay, when the worth of a man is how much he can pay (Flamboyant, Pet Shop Boys, 2006)
featherstick
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Joined: Mon Feb 17, 2014 9:09 pm

Re: Water Storage: Hot Water Tank

Post by featherstick »

Deeps wrote:
jaffab wrote:I will be picking up 4 x 25l Jerry Cans this weekend just to have on hand. If I get notice of something, I would fill them up. I am also going to do a bath test - fill it up, leave it for the weekend to see if the water level drops at all to know if I need a SHTF bath seal - my bath holds 120 litres, so that would give me 220l - for the two of us, at 2l a day each, that's 100 days worth.
Agree with Britcit above on tbe amount. The smlest 'yardstick' I've seen is 3L a day and tbats more for field conditions where you're not too worried about smelling etc.
I've got 6 25L containers at the back of my garage filled and refilled from time to time. If in doubt drop a large puritab in it.Theres always the risk you'll not get a heads up or be out at work/shops so unable to fill the bath.

Sphere standards for all uses are for a minimum of 20l per person per day in humanitarian situations.
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Brambles
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Re: Water Storage: Hot Water Tank

Post by Brambles »

I see no reason why you couldn't utilise the water from your tank, I plan to do the same. There's a stonking great copper hot water tank and a header tank that when both are full provides almost 400L of clean water.

As to usage; When I go camping, I use 4-5L per day, not including personal hygiene. I know this because I have a 5L container and I only plan on filling once a day. ;) So my water storage is based on that + 2L for washing. That's per person per day. I wouldn't want to try doing with less unless it was essential to ration water.
As regards clothes washing, I would be less concerned about where the water came from for that, but I have still factored it in as an extra water 200l water butt attached to the shed and I also have a diverter kit to attach to the house guttering.
Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning to dance in the rain~anon
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shocker
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Re: Water Storage: Hot Water Tank

Post by shocker »

For storing water I got myself a UV treatment device that spirals the water around a UV tube to kill off bugs. They are available for under £50 and are used in big aquaria and fishponds. Using that after a screwfix 5 mic filter gave me nice, storable h2o.

Obviously, being a 240v AC device they are a little bit of a luxury when off-grid but for preparing, I found them a great help especially when I was on well water that was untreated. Now I utilise my not-in-use homebrew buckets and demijohns, changed out every few months and stored in my bathroom. A dark cupboard would be better but space is limited.

I did read recently a WHO article about using PET plastic bottles left in the sun for 6-8 hours as a UV steriliser...great if you ever actually see any sun!
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