Posted: 6/28/2012 8:18:53 PM EDT
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So it's been about 2wks here without any rain, and the next week we're looking at 100+ temps. I exhausted my 55gal water barrel a week ago, but my garden is still looking pretty green compared to the rest of the area. I have two general questions:
1. What do you guys do usually during a drought situation where your water barrels run out and you don't want to spend money using city water? I've thought about trying to fill the thing up at a local creek or something, but it's got a hole in the top and bottom, and I have no idea how I'd lift the thing to get into my truck. 2. In the case of a storm or something knocking out power/water, is water barrel water safe to drink by just boiling it? My roof is a regular tile roof coming down through a plastic gutter attachment. Thanks. |
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Does anyone you know own a gas powered pump that you can borrow for an afternoon? That would be the easiest way. You could place the empty barrels in your truck and then fill them directly with the pump. Then you could empty them into barrels on the ground at home either by gravity, or with the pump again.
You could always call Home Depot etc and see about renting one for the day if you have a lot of barrels to fill. It's usually not expensive, although on second thought it's probably more expensive than just using city water. Edited for typo and content. Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile |
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Quoted:
Does anyone you know own a gas powered pump that you can borrow for an afternoon? That would be the easiest way. You could place the empty barrels in your truck and then fill them directly with the pump. Then you could empty them into barrels on the ground at home either by gravity, or with the pump again. You could always call Home Depot etc and see about renting one for the day if you have a lot of barrels to fill. It's usually not expensive, although on second thought it's probably more expensive than just using city water. Edited for typo and content. Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile I bet this is pretty much true for any water-hauling scheme. Just the gas to go pick it up is probably more expensive than filling it from the tap. We're on a well so I don't know what city water prices are these days, but I'd guess filling a 55g barrel is barely measurable.... pennies at most. |
| if you don't have any airborne industrial pollution, crop spraying etc.... running through a coffee filter or clean car chamois should get the trash out, and boiling to kill the critters...dissolved heavy elements or other chemicals????... is the water level low enough for a shallow well and hand pump? say lesss than 50'? |
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1. What do you guys do usually during a drought situation where your water barrels run out and you don't want to spend money using city water? I've thought about trying to fill the thing up at a local creek or something, but it's got a hole in the top and bottom, and I have no idea how I'd lift the thing to get into my truck. I would get more barrels after our last CatV hurricane, it didn't rain for a week. during a drill, we went through 55 gals much sooner than anticipated. we have just gone through a dry spell, so we are continually adding to the collection. 2. In the case of a storm or something knocking out power/water, is water barrel water safe to drink by just boiling it? My roof is a regular tile roof coming down through a plastic gutter attachment. we are looking for a non-toxic solution with out asphalt roof. if your roof system and barrel is non-toxic, a good filtering, maybe treat and boil... |
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hole on top, hole on bottom?
Got a trailer? Drive to the nearest boat ramp. open top and side. back trailer into water like you're launching a boat. Once the tank fills up as far as it will, close the top (and bottom if possible). Have someone ready with the cap to the bottom, and as soon as you pull out of the water, have them cap it. just remember...water is heavy. Make sure the trailer is rated for it. 
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How many barrels do you have?
Only one, Nothing below is with the trouble. You say, you have a local creek ! I do not know your local laws, but I would wonder if you can illegal take that water. Saying that, You have a local creek and you are not all ready set up to pump it. Why? I would think you may want a pump that you could run off of your turck battery. (May have to have two batteries) Maybe a DC convertor to AC. Then maybe you could run a submersible sub-pump. Depending on how deep the creek is. Water off the roof is good to, if it rains. Good luck! If you come up with a solution. let the hive know!!! PITA45 
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Quoted:
City water here is $.00441/gallon. That makes it a little less than $.25 to fill a 55 gal drum with good clean water. I can't think of any other way to fill it that would cost appreciably less. $.25 Twenty-five cents. That's about 1.6 miles of gas. What is your time worth, OP? $.25? |
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My water bill is $3.77 for 1ccf of usage. I get charged on top of that for waste water which is also $7.5975 per ccf. I'm not sure how many gallons makes up a CCF, but I know I average 4 per month. I've used as little as 2 and as much as 6 in the past few years. Any little bit I can save on using rain water or creek water saves me some money.
Can someone help me out here to see how much my water is worth per gallon? |