Posted: 5/6/2015 8:44:02 PM EDT
|
I have a small 12x16 cabin on a piece of property that I own. I just finished the inside with a 30 amp electric panel that I connect to my generator, the walls, carpet, and a bunk bed. I had camped for years out of the cabin without power using propane heaters and lights. I get my water from the neighbors well but I also have a 50 gallon rain barrel and an extra 275 gallon tank. My question is this, what would be the best way to purify the water from the rain barrel without using any power? I am curious if there would be a tank/barrel/vessel that I could just drain from the rain barrel into the tank and then into my potable water tanks. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
Here's a video of the cabin that I took years ago if someone could embed it. http://vid946.photobucket.com/albums/ad308/cjtwoods/bush_creek2_zps51f9686a.mp4 Here's what it looks like now. 
|
|
You're dealing with a pretty large quantity of water. If it were a smaller quantity I'd suggest using one of the normal
filter solutions (Sawyer, Katydyn, etc.) But running 50 gallons through one of those at a time isn't going to go well -- it might work with clear rainwater and a decent prefilter, though. My inclination would be to gravity feed the water through a good (but not sanitary) cartridge-based water filter (the filter housings look like these) like those used for well and whole-house systems. (Note that this a 1/4" pipe housing, you can get 1/2" or 3/4" for however you want to plumb it.) You could use a two-phase filter like this DuPont filter or just a standard one micron filter At this point you've got pre-filtered water with most of the crap out of it, but it's by no means potable -- so you dump chlorine into the water using bleach, pool shock or whatever method you wish, and then check the residual chlorine levels with chlorine test strips to make sure they're in the effective range. Do this and you'll have fairly pure water with most particulates removed, all the microbes killed, and some coverage against organic chemicals via the charcoal filter (not a lot though, this is mostly just a bonus.) It'll likely be more pure than what's coming from your neighbor's well. |
|
I realize you said 'no power'...
However, most everything addressed so far seems not to deal too much with DISSOLVED IMPURITIES in the water you are collecting from your roof. Here's [an unnecessarily intimidating] 'technical' solution that is particularly efficient, highly inexpensive and easy to implement. We use these systems EVERY day and have going on 10 years. We reuse any 'RO Bypass' water so there is NO waste of our precious water. In the mtns for us, any water is PRECIOUS. RO |
| Thank you all for your suggestions. I've got some research to do but this helps tremendously. I plan on purifying 5-10 gallons at a time as needed. I would love to figure out something relatively simple to save energy from transporting it back and forth. Thanks again. |
|
I had posted this else where but it may give you some ideas...
Many years ago in my in high school science class we made drinking water from rain we collected in barrel. This was 40+ years ago so I don't remember exactly but I think it was first filtered with patio screened to get rid of large pieces. It was followed by filtration through a tall plastic pipe that had 8"-10" of Dacron fill to catch smaller particles. Then filtration through a tall plastic pipe that had 8"-10" of coarse sand to catch even smaller particles. Then filtration through a tall plastic pipe that had 8"-10" of fine sand to catch tiny particles. Then through a tall plastic pipe that had 8"-10" of mixed fine and medium size activated charcoal. Finally chlorine was added to the water at rate of 15 drops from medicine dropper per gallon. We let it sit for a day and drank it next day. All 30 of us students and the teacher drank some and none of got sick. |
|
Keep in mind, most water use we need, it doesn't need to be filtered. Filtered water is for cooking, drinking, etc.
Take a look at a Berkley or similar filters, if you don't plan to pressurize. At my moms place, well, she filters at the facet with a good sized cleanable glass filter to take out the suspended solids inline before it comes into the house. If it stinks, that means you have biologic issues. You will need to periodic shock your well/holding tank with chlorine. |
|
Do you get a lot of sun at your place? If so, and you are so mechanically inclined, you could build a Solar Still.
I imagine if you plumb it right you could have it run all the time. Mind you it doesnt produce water fast but it can do it with no power. http://www.solaqua.com/solstilbas.html |
|
I have been working with a biological sand filter. Seems to work fairly well. I am going to test it again this weekend. Only problem is, it must have water added daily for about a month to get "active," then must have daily water addition to keep the good bacteria functioning. If you are there, and can do daily additions, it might serve the purpose you are looking for. |