Drinking rain water

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Posted: 11/19/2012 8:24:04 PM EDT

I just signed the purchase agreement on a small BOL/hunting property that has a small cabin on it. It has a wood-burner and power(110V) but no water. I dont want to pay for a well right now, and was wondering if collecting roof water could me made safe to drink. I was thinking of a water tank, and a pump to get it to a sink. What do you do during the winter? Whats a good way to filter it? Do you just use a filter on the sink?

Any good websites to check out? Any ideas are appreciated.

pic of the view

Posted: 11/19/2012 8:28:09 PM EDT

[#1]

Is the roof metal or shingle? I would have no problem drinking metal roof water (after letting it rinse a little in a rain storm) but would not drink water off a shingle roof. Shingle roof water can be used for anything other than drinking and washing eating utensils though.

Rainwater is also naturally softened!

Posted: 11/19/2012 8:28:56 PM EDT

[#2]

OP, I can't see any reason why not if you take a common sense and a good engineering approach to the solution.

Works for me...

Posted: 11/19/2012 8:29:24 PM EDT

[#3]

its a shingle roof.

Posted: 11/19/2012 8:30:09 PM EDT

[#4]

Quoted:
its a shingled roof.

So what?

Use appropriate filtering methods.

Posted: 11/19/2012 8:33:33 PM EDT

[#5]

Quoted:

Quoted:
its a singled roof.

So what?

Use appropriate filtering methods.

such as? how is this usually accomplished? Got any good web-sights I can check out?

Just telling me appropriate filtering methods didn't address my questions.

Posted: 11/19/2012 8:44:40 PM EDT

[#6]

Quoted:

Quoted:
its a singled roof.

So what?

Use appropriate filtering methods.

such as? how is this usually accomplished? Got any good web-sights I can check out?

Just telling me appropriate filtering methods didn't address my questions.

Well, sorry...

Posted: 11/19/2012 9:41:39 PM EDT

[#7]

Not having water sucks big time. At my retreat the well went dry and I had to haul water in a 275 gallon tote. And yes, you have problems in the winter. I got tired of dumping it down the well, so I just used a 7 gallon water container to haul it inside for whatever use s I needed it for.
Water off of a roof might be kinda nasty with bird poop and stuff. They carry diseases and such. I wouldn't depend on a house filter to clean it.
I loved that place, but with a dry well, it was hard to do. I hope you figure something out.

Posted: 11/19/2012 10:22:30 PM EDT

[#8]

A bunch of people around here have cisterns full of collected rain water, both asphalt and metal, as their primary home water source.

Posted: 11/20/2012 1:54:52 AM EDT

[#9]

Quoted:

Quoted:

its a singled roof.

So what?

Use appropriate filtering methods.

such as? how is this usually accomplished? Got any good web-sights I can check out?

Just telling me appropriate filtering methods didn't address my questions.

Well, sorry...

step 1- collect h20

step 2- filter/purify h20

step 3- consume h20

op-

buy a good filter, boil and or purify via treatments/bleach

Posted: 11/20/2012 5:04:11 AM EDT

[#10]

for a filter system, you might consider something like this Sawyer .1 micron unit... it can be backflushed with the syringe... shown with the 5 gal bucket kit, though hole in bucket is difficult to see.... there are a couple of pretty good "first dump" videos on the net (LDS Prepper is one that looks pretty good) and the 275gal totes look like the way to go, but I don't have to worry about a freeze problem...

Posted: 11/20/2012 5:33:37 AM EDT

[#11]

- Collect water from the roof into a large tank. A little bleach in the tank now and then to keep it from getting funky.
- Pump water from the large tank using a pump set for 60 PSI.
- Pump water into a standard bladder type water pressure tank.
- Feed pressurized water from pressure tank into a standard under counter reverse osmosis filter unit.
- Drink water from the RO filter's storage tank and tap.

~$500 or so

Posted: 11/20/2012 5:45:17 AM EDT

[#12]

Just add some bourbon and it's a win/win situation. My mothers aunt and uncle drank rain water from a shake shingle roof that was collected in a concrete cistern all their life and never had any problems.

Posted: 11/20/2012 9:26:09 AM EDT

[#13]

Here's some links:

Link 1

Link 2

Link 3

Link 4

From this last link:
Composite or asphalt shingle
Due to leaching of toxins, composite
shingles are not appropriate for potable
systems, but can be used to collect water
for irrigation. Composite roofs have an
approximated 10-percent loss due to
inefficient flow or evaporation (Radlet
and Radlet, 2004).

Take this as you will. I'm sure that some do drink water from asphalt shingles and have no problems. If I needed to collect water for domestic use from an asphalt roof, I would buy drinking water and use the collected water for just about everything else.

But, whatever you feel comfortable with.

Posted: 11/20/2012 10:41:16 AM EDT

[#14]

Quoted:
Here's some links:

Link 1

Link 2

Link 3

Link 4

From this last link:
Composite or asphalt shingle
Due to leaching of toxins, composite
shingles are not appropriate for potable
systems, but can be used to collect water
for irrigation. Composite roofs have an
approximated 10-percent loss due to
inefficient flow or evaporation (Radlet
and Radlet, 2004).

Take this as you will. I'm sure that some do drink water from asphalt shingles and have no problems. If I needed to collect water for domestic use from an asphalt roof, I would buy drinking water and use the collected water for just about everything else.

But, whatever you feel comfortable with.

I wouldn't have a problem drinking rainwater from an composite shingle roof if it's subsequently RO filtered. The reject water from the RO system (get a low reject one) would be fine for flushing toilets and other non-potable uses. Of course if this is a small cabin, replacing the roof with metal shouldn't be that expensive anyway.

Posted: 11/20/2012 12:22:20 PM EDT

[#15]

Found this collection setup online... Haven't tried it myself. Looks interesting though.

Posted: 11/20/2012 7:52:58 PM EDT

[#16]

Search youtube "rain catchment".

Posted: 11/21/2012 3:45:08 AM EDT

[#17]

My setup basically looks like this here except i have a ceramic inline filter between the top and the bottom one. Gravity does the collection and the filtering and i pump from the bottom barrel. If it needs further sanitation or it may need to be stored for a bit, then i can just add a cup of bleach to a full bottom barrel.

http://d3t0t2nqwmr1c9.cloudfront.net/photos/25571/IMG_0093.detail.jpg

The whole setup was about $50

Posted: 11/21/2012 3:56:15 AM EDT

[#18]

Get a Katadyn filter. You can filter mud puddles through it as it's used frequently by missionaries in Africa where there is all kinds of nasties in the water. Read the reviews on Amazon...about 200 bucks and will filter 40000 gallons.

Posted: 11/21/2012 4:33:05 AM EDT

[#19]

Quoted:
My setup basically looks like this here except i have a ceramic inline filter between the top and the bottom one. Gravity does the collection and the filtering and i pump from the bottom barrel. If it needs further sanitation or it may need to be stored for a bit, then i can just add a cup of bleach to a full bottom barrel.

http://d3t0t2nqwmr1c9.cloudfront.net/photos/25571/IMG_0093.detail.jpg

The whole setup was about $50

What do you do about freezing?

Posted: 11/21/2012 4:47:00 AM EDT

[#20]

I caught rain water for years at my hunting cabin, but had rural water installed when I moved there for a year. I buried a 1200 gallon plastic water tank and pumped from that. I ended up hauling drinking water, but used the rain water for everything else. Had I been able to get a ceramic filter to make the two bucket filter system at the time, I probably would not have hauled drinking water. It was hard to keep the cistern clean and the taste was bad.

Posted: 11/21/2012 4:49:06 AM EDT

[#21]

If the cabin is not very big look at re-roofing it in metal it will have a cleaner run off then asphalt shingles. Have your water collection on the south side to help prevent freezing and paint it black. Bleach will kill just about everything, but it will not get rid of toxins, you must have a filter with carbon for that.

Posted: 11/21/2012 4:52:14 AM EDT

[#22]

You could always boil it.

Posted: 11/21/2012 5:46:50 AM EDT

[#23]

Quoted:

Quoted:
My setup basically looks like this here except i have a ceramic inline filter between the top and the bottom one. Gravity does the collection and the filtering and i pump from the bottom barrel. If it needs further sanitation or it may need to be stored for a bit, then i can just add a cup of bleach to a full bottom barrel.

http://d3t0t2nqwmr1c9.cloudfront.net/photos/25571/IMG_0093.detail.jpg

The whole setup was about $50

What do you do about freezing?

i'm in southern NC so that is limited, haven't had an issue yet

Posted: 11/22/2012 4:28:49 PM EDT

[#24]

So this thread had me thinking, and I'm going to add another and double my collection capabilities over this long holiday weekend.

Posted: 11/23/2012 8:52:57 AM EDT

[#25]

I am far from an expert, so don't take what I post as Gospel, its just what I have read during my own rainwater collection studies. I purchased a 275-gallon tote, and I will be installing gutters on my barn. The roof is asphalt shingles but this doesn't worry me. I am installing a trap before the downspout enters the tote. At the base of the trap I will be using a PVC clean-out. All the little nasties (bird poop, shingle bits, leaves, whatnot) will collect in the trap instead of my tote. We have yet to run electricity out to the barn so I have not begun construction. However, to address the freezing issue I figure I would install a stock tank heater to keep it in a liquid state during the winter months once I get things up and running. Have a video to feed the imagination! Fast forward to 6:00 to see the bit about a hunting cabin and an example of the trap I attempted to describe above.

Posted: 11/23/2012 9:40:46 AM EDT

[#26]

That's a wonderful video Swoop.

The County employee in it is great! [Wonder how soon the libtards will have him fired?

]

Posted: 11/23/2012 10:03:41 AM EDT

[#27]

Quoted:
That's a wonderful video Swoop.

The County employee in it is great! [Wonder how soon the libtards will have him fired?

]

Thanks, I think it was the first decent video I stumbled across. It was a great mix of factual information, good presentation, and practical application all in one place.

I really hope they embrace what he is advocating rather than try to get him fired!! I think he is safe considering he was in Texas if my memory serves me.

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