Posted May 28th, 2008, in: Ideas, Observations, Opinions, Rants Etc
People that live in the country like I do should buy large-capacity water-storage tanks. Really, even suburban homes should be equipped with water-storage tanks too. I’ve been thinking about this for a long time. If you’re on muni water, it wouldn’t take much to screw up that infrastructure, an earthquake etc. And if you’re off the water-grid so to speak, you’re still dependent on electricity to run your well pumps etc which isn’t a whole lot of insurance against some sort of crazy natural disaster, which I fear we will be seeing more and more of.
I went googling around for prices on large stainless steel tanks and couldn’t find a lot of info on actual prices, but it appears that it costs about $0.60 per gallon for big water tanks.
It would be nice if every home (at least in the burbs and in the country) could have a gravity-powered backup or cache of their water supply.
I don’t know what the ideal size is. I don’t know why this isn’t already a business that’s being flooded, no pun intended, by people who want to bank on the fear we all have of infrastructure collapse, especially with the whole global warming thing finally “becoming real” and the recent wave of disasters worldwide that seems to suggest that things might get really screwed up in the near future.
If only I could have a month’s worth of water saved up in a tank.
I bet a lot of people would pay for that assurance nowadays.
I was trying to imagine what would be the best material to store water. At first I was thinking concrete because it’s cheap, but I realized that it isn’t very earthquake-proof. I think metal is the way to go. I don’t know if there are any health problems associated with stainless steel. Maybe aluminum? Zinc-lined steel? All I know is that plastic is a tough sell… Many plastics gradually contaminate water or food as they decompose or whatever, however slightly, or at least that’s what I’ve heard, but maybe it’s just hippy propaganda. Somehow, I suspect it’s true. Plastic is poisonous.
What about stainless steel?
Comments encouraged!
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Yo Bro,
Really what you are talking about here is technology that is as ancient as the sky is blue; its called a “Cistern” or rainwater management system and usually consists of a terracotta reservoir recessed in to the ground and connected to a dedicated roof run off. New building codes don’t seem to account for the technology and with all of the other corner cutting, this solution has lost its place in builders’ and home owners’ mindset. Older homes still have them buried a couple of feet down and are only revealed when a major project exposes them. Its an easy solution and one that may make a comeback if our conditions get dire enough.
Oddly, some of the modern versions use electric pumps which I guess could be solar generated, but I think you are right: we all need to start thinking about becoming independent from muni infrastructure. Do a search for Cistern, or “Wik it.” I think this is a much better solution than launching a big huge tank up in the air that could come down in an extremely windy weather or earthquake.