Harvesting Rainwater

[grandchessboard]

Anyone exclusively drink rainwater? I'm looking to build a system and be the guinea pig for some time before putting the entire family on it.

I would be curious if anyone can explain how they pull this off... more specifically their harvesting system and their purification process.

There are a ton of systems and instructions on the internet, but I am more interested in finding out what type of system works for them and if someone would be willing to answer some questions if during the process I into some issues.

Thanks

 

[kletzenklueffer]

My neighbor is a scientist and gave me some calculation that indicated number of gallons of rainwater collected in a given square foot of surface area per inch of rain received. I didn't know what he was talking about then, and still don't now that I type it.

given that (lack of ) information, I'm working on gutters on my barn (about 3,000+ sq.ft of roof surface) to collect in two 50 gallon drums, which will be plumbed to allow that water to be diverted into a 330 gallon container. My use will be for garden irrigation, not drinking water. Something to consider before drinking are the chemicals released by local industry, especially in an urban/semi-urban area. For purifying, easy is distillation,, a bit more difficult is reverse osmosis. both systems can be researched on the web.

My neighbor also mentioned a design for the drum that would let water in, but was cause debris to overflow and wash off to the ground.

Another consideration for drinking is the roofing surface. My barn roof is somewhat rusty tin. A little extra iron never hurt anyone, but galvanizing isn't good for the soul.

 

[darrenmd]

Just an FYI: My sister in law lives on an island and has a small child. Apparently due to the water situation there.... her child had all sorts of teeth issues due to the lack of chemicals that the Cities put in the water for us.... Her dentist pointed this out. Apparently she needs to brush her teeth more than once or twice a day that she was doing....

 

[Snipershot]

Have to watch out for the bird crap on the roof also.

 

[grandchessboard]

Just an FYI: My sister in law lives on an island and has a small child. Apparently due to the water situation there.... her child had all sorts of teeth issues due to the lack of chemicals that the Cities put in the water for us.... Her dentist pointed this out. Apparently she needs to brush her teeth more than once or twice a day that she was doing....

Most municipalities add sodium fluoride to the water for your teeth. Problem is... sodium fluoride is a nurotoxin. You can research this yourself. Dr. Paul Connett, Dr. Russell Blaylock, and Dr. Mercola have come out against the fluoridation of water, with Dr. Connett having conducted and aggregated the most scientific research on the issue. Basically, we can thank the aluminum industry, specifically ALCOA, for lobbying the gov and getting fluoride in the water. Here is a link that explains. http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/11/12/jeff-green-on-fluoride-part-1.aspx

you can also google image "fluoridated teeth" which is caused by over fluoridation of water.

In Gwinnett, where I am at, there is .75-.80 ppm. http://www.gwinnettcounty.com/static/departments/publicutilities/pdf/waterwords_2012.pdf

BTW you can also research "estrogen in water" and research why there is so much estrogen in our water. No wonder our females are getting cancer of their reproductive organs at such high levels and men are turing into gays. I'm just saying. It does the same things to frogs, why wouldn't it do the same thing to us.

These are some reasons why I would like to switch over to rain water exclusively -outside of preparedness for TEOTWAWKI.

 

[GreenPanther]

Sounds like you are on the right track with this so far, I am curious to see what you come up with for amount of gallons collected and purification and any other issues to beware of.

 

[grandchessboard]

Here is a good link on much of the process. http://survivalblog.com/2012/04/from-rainwater-to-drinking-water-by-former-echo-trooper.html

I already have the Berkey (http://www.bigberkeywaterfilters.com/) to filter the water and remove parasites and other biological nasties. The article explains the majority of the process but I was hoping someone on here might have installed a similar system so that I might ask them a question if I run into difficulties. It's always best to have a real person to consult with instead of trying to google everything.

Water is really the starting point of any survival situation so hopefully this will encourage people to obtain water self sufficiency.

 

[FlyDawg72]

I worked with a guy who had plans to live "off the grid" and return to nature when he retired. At the time he had property in Wyoming where he spent all his vacation time building a cabin for he and his wife. His plans included solar power and wind power due to the open area where his cabin was. Though there was a running creek on his property, it was far enough away that he was going to have to pump it to the house, or collect rainwater to use in the cabin. After weighing the options, costs to pump the water from the creek, and the cost to build a cistern and purify the collected rainwater, he chose to have a well dug and use battery power to run the pump. His reasoning was the ground water was naturally purified, readily accessible when he needed it, cost much less to dig the well and have it pumped to the surface than collect rainwater and purify it.

I'm not sure what calculations he used to arrive at this conclusion, but I think what he proposed had some valid points and deserves consideration.

As for the guy... he did retire to the property and I am assuming he began living out his dream.