Have you really considered your water usage/needs in the event of no mains supply?

originally posted by: redempsh
Every supplier in my area who advertises them turns out to have USED barrels. Previous contents were often food grade (malt concentrate, molasses, etc.) but are totally unnacceptable for water storage. None of the big box retailers carry them here either, not even the farm supply places...

Why's that?

Just run em on rain water for a few weeks. Out there in the sun, new water coming in washing them out. I'd wager anything the water in the bottled cases at the store would be far nastier than an agged used drum then filled with rain water and let sit. In fact, if you're using rainwater, the resulting water would be cleaner than the tap water after a week of sitting in and aged used drum (assuming you keep dust/debris/algae etc out of it after fresh filling it with pre-filtered rain water).

If you're that worried about it tho, you can score non-toxic chem sourced stainless steel drums & tote tanks off craigslist.

From there, you'd be surprised how many sorts of 'chemical' sourced drums would end up perfectly good. A couple examples include: Sodium hydroxide (dilute the stuff enough you end up with inert water, where the pH will adjust all the way down and by neutral you basically just have water). Likewise, leave a jug of household bleach out in the sun with the cap off: the chlorine eventually all dissipates into the atmosphere (which can be hasted with a air pump/stone).

Besides, even with bottled tap water (that is anything from the store, or you fill yourself) you should have a secondary / polishing filter if the water is to be drunk later. That is, you ought to have a in line system such as RO (the best investment you could ever make in terms of your health, meaning EVERYONE should have one), while everyone in such a Survival forum should have (various) pre/post filtering materials that can work with just gravity alone.

The thing everyone overlooks is the water for just 'living' (day to day stuff besides drinking). Showering tech's, LAUNDRY, etc.

I can attest to have over the last 4 years to not having running water for nearly half of the duration, in both city & rural situations. A true 'life by rainwater' pro, I am, and I do horticultural at home for a living! It isn't easy, and not preferred, but I've done it for extended periods... even the laundry with just rainwater!

My advise is have tote tanks if you have gutters / downspouts, or without them have enough 5 gallon buckets on hand to run the entire lengths of your roof edges where the water comes over when it rains. And invest in one of these:
"Amazing Washing Wand" -
www.amazon.com...
The highest quality pure plastic tool I've ever encountered. You'll want to have 4 buckets dedicated to its use. I found that to get the best wash your arms can handle, and fully rinsing afterwards, the water efficiency isnt much better than using your machine. But it works! Although, if hand washing (and worst yet hand wringing) thick items such as blue jeans is your goal: forget about it, unless you buy / invent some sort of press to squeeze the water out. Short of that, you'll use perhaps 5 times the water your machine uses in pursuit of the rinsing alone. But oh man that blue wand tool a few quick thrusts and items like socks / underwear are done! Its the wringing & rinsing that takes all the work.

Inspired by this thread iv just installed my first water butt, I use so much water on my garden I don't know why I never bothered before, laziness springs to mind lol
In 2 nights of rain (if your in the uk you'll know how bad its been lately) iv collected about 3 inches of water in my 125 gallon barrel just from 1 side of my house roof, I'm now planning to relocate some of the down pipes from my roof guttering onto my outhouse guttering and then down to my barrel to increase the surface collection space, add a couple of more barrels and its no more chlorinated tap water for my garden

originally posted by: TigStar82
Inspired by this thread iv just installed my first water butt, I use so much water on my garden I don't know why I never bothered before, laziness springs to mind lol
In 2 nights of rain (if your in the uk you'll know how bad its been lately) iv collected about 3 inches of water in my 125 gallon barrel just from 1 side of my house roof, I'm now planning to relocate some of the down pipes from my roof guttering onto my outhouse guttering and then down to my barrel to increase the surface collection space, add a couple of more barrels and its no more chlorinated tap water for my garden

Just watch you don't put too much of the flow into a single guttering, a heavy rain and it will overflow and could cause you problems.

I imagine there will be a hosepipe ban soon even though it twatted down for about a month.

originally posted by: nonspecific

originally posted by: TigStar82
Inspired by this thread iv just installed my first water butt, I use so much water on my garden I don't know why I never bothered before, laziness springs to mind lol
In 2 nights of rain (if your in the uk you'll know how bad its been lately) iv collected about 3 inches of water in my 125 gallon barrel just from 1 side of my house roof, I'm now planning to relocate some of the down pipes from my roof guttering onto my outhouse guttering and then down to my barrel to increase the surface collection space, add a couple of more barrels and its no more chlorinated tap water for my garden

Just watch you don't put too much of the flow into a single guttering, a heavy rain and it will overflow and could cause you problems.

I imagine there will be a hosepipe ban soon even though it twatted down for about a month.

The outhouse is quite small, maybe 15m square, the guttering attached to it only ever has about 20mm of water max in a heavy rain (I can see it from upstairs) and in only going to plumb the downpipe from the rear of the house in to it so will probably take it ok but I'l keep all the bits I chop off in case I have to become an emergency plumber in middle of a storm and fix it all, which knowing my luck will happen lol


You would think this country would have figure out we need more reservoirs, it rains 75% of the year, floods in many places across the country, we rarely make it a full week between autumn and summer without heavy rain but we still have hose pipe bans mid summer

originally posted by: TigStar82

originally posted by: nonspecific

originally posted by: TigStar82
Inspired by this thread iv just installed my first water butt, I use so much water on my garden I don't know why I never bothered before, laziness springs to mind lol
In 2 nights of rain (if your in the uk you'll know how bad its been lately) iv collected about 3 inches of water in my 125 gallon barrel just from 1 side of my house roof, I'm now planning to relocate some of the down pipes from my roof guttering onto my outhouse guttering and then down to my barrel to increase the surface collection space, add a couple of more barrels and its no more chlorinated tap water for my garden

Just watch you don't put too much of the flow into a single guttering, a heavy rain and it will overflow and could cause you problems.

I imagine there will be a hosepipe ban soon even though it twatted down for about a month.

The outhouse is quite small, maybe 15m square, the guttering attached to it only ever has about 20mm of water max in a heavy rain (I can see it from upstairs) and in only going to plumb the downpipe from the rear of the house in to it so will probably take it ok but I'l keep all the bits I chop off in case I have to become an emergency plumber in middle of a storm and fix it all, which knowing my luck will happen lol


You would think this country would have figure out we need more reservoirs, it rains 75% of the year, floods in many places across the country, we rarely make it a full week between autumn and summer without heavy rain but we still have hose pipe bans mid summer

It's just another un needed law to keep us worried about something mate.

This is a conspiracy site after all

originally posted by: nonspecific



It's just another un needed law to keep us worried about something mate.

This is a conspiracy site after all

haha, sorry, forgot where I was for a minute there

My recent additional solution:



13,000 gallons of water.

Between the well, rain catchment, emergency water barrels, and bottled water, should be OK.