Emergency water tanks - self replenishing?

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MikeAqua

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#1675397 22-Nov-2016 10:21

Things I learned from ChCh friends: -

- Keep the car(s) 3/4 full with fuel

- Keep cash in your emergency kit(s)

- Have multiple BBQ bottles and re-fill them promptly

- Keep frozen bottles of water in your freezer (keeps the freezer cold longer in a power outage and usable as drinking water).

Mike

timmmay

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#1675580 22-Nov-2016 17:17

Used barrels from Barrys Barrels in Auckland. $30 to $150, freight for 3 or more barrels or more is $40 each. I didn't ask the individual shipping price, I asked for the best price, I imagine individual is higher. If anyone in Wellington makes an order I'll quite possibly get in on it.

I have a query in with a Wellington based firm too.

timmmay

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#1905464 21-Nov-2017 20:49

There's been renewed urging to get stored water recently. Wellington Water says to store 20L per person per day for at least seven days - for a family of four that's 560L of water - 3 of those council storage tanks at $100 each. That's a minimum as well.

There has to be a cheaper way to store water than $100 for 200L. Take away the rainwater diverter, put on a screw top, how much could a barrel cost? Add a tap if it's cheap. There are sources in Auckland and Hamilton but shipping is prohibitive.

Anyone know a cheaper source for water quality barrels in Wellington.

richms

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#1905468 21-Nov-2017 21:06

1000l IBC containers are about that on trademe when I was last looking. Unfortunatly the pile spacing of the shed mean they wont fit under there.

They hate UV tho so cant go outside. the plastic will disintigrate in no time.

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timmmay

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#1905556 22-Nov-2017 07:13

richms:

1000l IBC containers are about that on trademe when I was last looking. Unfortunatly the pile spacing of the shed mean they wont fit under there.

They hate UV tho so cant go outside. the plastic will disintigrate in no time.

That looks like a ton of water in a square meter. That kind of thing might fit in a shed, maybe, but take up a heap of room. Shame they don't come in smaller sizes. Can't think of anywhere easy to put one. I guess that's why the 200L are popular and practical.

PhantomNVD

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#1905890 22-Nov-2017 17:18

Food grade drums on Trademe go for $10-20, need a goood pressure washing, and last basically ‘forever’. The water storage works well from a basic rain diverted, and only needs an overflow back into the drain to ensure the excess is dealt with properly.

Raising it off the ground and fitting a garden tap are easy DIY jobs taking maybe an hour total.

Using the water for pets/gardening allows it to ‘change out’ regularly too.

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timmmay

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#1905995 22-Nov-2017 20:52

In Wellington the food grade drums look to be more like $50 - $65, and have sometimes held vinegar. I'll look again in a few weeks.

PhantomNVD

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#1906043 22-Nov-2017 22:04

The vinegar ones are actually about the safest and easiest to clean in my experience.
I see what you mean about Welly though, few available and far pricier than up here in Waikato/Auckland.

The worst and hardest to fully clean for me so far was a fake sugar (serbia?) one... long and hard pressure washing didn’t even seem to make a difference to the smell/taste and I ended up cutting that one in half to use for stock troughs instead.

webwat

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#1906259 23-Nov-2017 11:20

Bung:
timmmay: I can easily drain the hot water from my cylinder too - I use a tap ;)

Your tap being the normal one connected to outlet at the top of the tank? Tthat works if you have either a header tank or mains pressure to push the water through. Can you easily drain water from the bottom of the HWC?

And even a header tank is pretty small...

Time to find a new industry!

mdf

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#1927310 31-Dec-2017 11:40

I was cycling the emergency water in our tanks today and came across this gem while working out the correct amount of bleach: https://www.consumer.org.nz/articles/drinking-water-storage

Basically, don't use Janola (or any other bleach with detergents or surfectants) in it. But does any supermarket in a 5km radius have the suggested non-janola brands of bleach? Of course not.

Does anyone have any suggestions about suitable bleach-only products for treating emergency drinking water (and where to buy)?

timmmay

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#1927312 31-Dec-2017 11:47

New World had budget bleach, I think that's ones ok.

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PhantomNVD

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#1927332 31-Dec-2017 12:48

Or perhaps (for big 200L+ tanks) the small pool chlorine tablets would work well too... have to work out a size/L ratio so you’re not just drinking chlorine, but likely a much cheaper option than bleach and stores basically forever in small space too...

I’d seriously think of fitting a carbon filter to the tap end if I was adding ANY chemical steriliser though!

$20-40 on TM and $10-20 for the cartridges, +say $20-$30 for the screw on pipe connectors and for less than $100 you have a drinking quality output filter that could last a year of filtering pretty much ANY water you fed through the system. I have this and a small 10L/Min pump to be able to fill my MHome tanks when wild camping and it works excellently.

Technofreak

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#1927343 31-Dec-2017 13:52

timmmay:

Aredwood:

I have setup my hot water cylinder, and the cylinders at a couple of friends houses. So you can easily drain the water from them if needed. This means you have a tank that is always full, and the water gets turned over with fresh water whenever you turn on a hot tap.

I can easily drain the hot water from my cylinder too - I use a tap ;)

Mains pressure cylinders stop draining when there is no water feeding in. Turn off the tap at the toby box and the hot water stops flowing just like the cold water.

Perhaps you have a header tank feeding your hot water?

Edit: I see there was earlier info on this point.

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RunningMan

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#1927353 31-Dec-2017 14:44

Technofreak:

Edit: I see there was earlier info on this point.

I was just about to post that this was answered 13 months ago!

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