Drinking water from a waterbutt?

[mikefranks]

Hi guys,


I have been thinking about getting a water-butt or 2, and if I ever end up in a SHTF situation and for whatever reason water supplies ceased, would i be able to drink it provided i filtered it, with a teaspoon of bleach for every 1 litre of water i want to drink? Is that enough to get rid of bad bacteria's and germs etc?
They are reasonably prices at around £75 each for a 250 litre tank including stand, connectors and delivery
I can hide of the water-butts so it wont be seen or known by anyone around me, so security wise im sure its okay.



http://www.waterbuttsdirect.co.uk/produ ... water-butt



Thanks

Mike

[ForgeCorvus]

I take it that the water has come off your roof?
In which case it depends on what your roof is


If you haven't already and you're planning on going this route, buy a good camping Purifier (commonly called a filter, it shouldn't be as a filter is a much lesser beast then a Purifier).
Ideal 'Pore size' is 0.02 "Absolute" or smaller to filter Viruses ("Nominal" means the average pore size, "Absolute" means the largest pore size), otherwise you will need a secondary form of treatment.

A teaspoon of bleach is way too much, a couple of drops should do it (google is your friend here) or you can boil.

Remember to keep light out

[mikefranks]

Hi,

Thanks for that, I will look into a filter and purifying methods. Will keep you posted on my findings and attempts



Thanks

Mike

[jansman]

First of all the water butts you are lookin' at are waaay too dear. Get to Wickes /B and Q/ Wilkos. You will pay half the price.
Yes , you can drink the water(treated) from the butt. I have drawn water from mine, it has been clear, and drank untreated.
Your neighbours would not even consider it a water source, ad folks are blind to the bleedin' obvious.
Go for it!

[mikefranks]

Hi


Thanks for that, just looked at Homebase, found it all for £34.99

Will pop in on the weekend


http://www.homebase.co.uk/webapp/wcs/st ... ber=013274

Heres a link if anyone else is interested.


Thanks


Mike

[Yorkshire Andy]

I got one of these from B&Q the summer when they were tipping a drought order no way was i having a dirty car inital plan was to connect to pressure washer but then the rain came very heavy and flooded most of the area .....


Anyways digressing

http://www.diy.com/nav/garden/garden-ca ... 5m-9876477


its a great clever but stupidly simple bit of kit... Bit of very careful measuring needed in the first place but follow the instruction and its great....

(it stops filling when the butt reaches the same level as the device's pipe outlet) mount it too high and it will over flow.. mount it too low and water wont run up hill and it will leak down the wall . The outfeed should be level with the water butt inlet


how mine is set up

[nickdutch]

Don't you need to have an overflow output just under the input in case of overflowing? and to have that plumbed into the drain pipe so that extra water goes down the drain and not into your foundations?

Also, if drinking it, don't forget it will be full of bird poop, moss and all kinds of chemical nasties from pollution, so treatment, ideally both antibacterial /viral as well as chemical would be a good move

[Yorkshire Andy]

No overflow needed once full it shunts water down the drain pipe into the storm drain but set up is critical for it to work correctly it's stupidly simple inside just a lip to divert flow. No moving parts.

Water usually runs down the pipe rather than free falling down the center the lip catches this and it flows out the spigot into the pipe once the butt is full the pipe backs up with water and in doing so causes the lip to overflow inwards and thus down the drain pipe

[mikefranks]

Thanks for that, Will try to pick one up tomorrow and install it too. Will update you guys on how its going


Thanks


Mike