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Small Cabin Forum / Off-Grid Living / cabin water supply
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RIjake
Member
# Posted: 4 Sep 2010 09:03pm
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I, like smlattanzio, want to have a drilled well with the option of a hand pump and a 12v pump. Does anyone know if both can be on one well head?

Hattie'sHubby
# Posted: 5 Sep 2010 12:02am
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If the well is more than about 25 ft. deep, a suction-type pump mounted above the well cannot lift the water far enough to get it out of the well. Deep wells require the pump to be at the bottom of the well. When I was a kid I remember a gear driven, crank type hand pump on a drilled well that we used when our shallow dug well ran dry. The gear head was mounted where you could turn the crank (above ground) but there was a shaft running down inside the pipe turning a pump at the bottom of the well. It only supplied enough water for drinking.

dvgchef
Member
# Posted: 6 Sep 2010 10:37pm
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I collect rainwater from my shed roof - Opaque Patio plastic roofing. for drinking I use (and love) the Steri-pen. The only issue is the pen has to stay in 1 liter of water for 60 seconds. When we get a slew of people visiting it becomes a full time job to sterilize enough water. But for general drinking use it is great - the water is STERILIZED!

supermom
# Posted: 7 Sep 2010 11:57am
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How do you get your building permits without established system for water and septic?

Anonymous
# Posted: 12 Sep 2010 06:37pm
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I am building my cabin with hot running water for shower and for kitchen...so here is what I think will work. The shower or tub will be built on a platform high enouth to put a five gallon bucket under it. Then I will put in shower or tub and build a support for a 50 gallon water drum. I think this will give me good pressure and then run it though my zodi hot water heater...It is a shed style cabin 10 ft low side 14 foot high side.
I can do the same for micro kitchen..any comments? or thoughts will be very welcome
thanks peggy

Anonymous
# Posted: 12 Sep 2010 06:40pm
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I built my cabin under the term shed. With the permission from the building inspector...which means no water or electric............
once it is built...........
I am going to have the running water with no exterior plumbing......
all water from shower and kitchen will be emptied daily
It is indeed lving green.............using waste and water the way it should be used
instead of storing it or leeching it..........

Barrys Bay
Member
# Posted: 8 Apr 2011 11:16am
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I would like to install a simple solar shower at our cabin. We have two 50 gal buckets used for olives that we cleaned out. We have a stream that we walk to to get fresh water. We would be hauling the water in and pouring it into the bucket occasionally. I'm thinking of spray painting one bucket black to heat the water. We will raise it on a platform above the shower, and hope it gives enough pressure for a light shower now and then in the spring and summer. Do I need to be concerned about bacteria if I'm only showering with this water? Should I use a couple drops of bleach each time just to be sure?

RnR
Member
# Posted: 8 Apr 2011 11:38am
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Hey Barry's Bay,

Sounds like a great little system you are planning.

We have a fast running stream and have often used the water for showering and washing and so forth without bleach and have had zero problems. The stream water is crystal clear in the summer, and only gets a light tea colour in the fall due to all the leaves in decomposition in the water.

However, when we fill a camping solar shower bag we do add a few drops of bleach if the water is going to be in the bag for a couple of days. We once left water in the bag for a while and there was algae that had to be cleaned out.

I would say that if your water is going to be sitting in the container for any length of time it would be prudent to add a few drops of bleach to avoid this. I recommend you get a dropper because you really do need very very little bleach and it's easy to put too much and feel like you are showering in city water.

I read that if your water has giardia or other parasites you can get ill if you accidentally swallow some water while showering but I think the risk is relatively low. When you think about it, streams are what feed rivers and lakes, so it's difficult to imagine how the water could be much worse.

That's my take on it.

R.

hattie
Member
# Posted: 8 Apr 2011 12:41pm
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We put in a small water tower at our camp. We pump water up from the river below and store it in the barrel. We don't drink this water but do use it to wash dishes. We put a little bleach in the barrel to disinfect the water.
An early photo of the water tower at our camp
An early photo of the water tower at our camp


larryh
Member
# Posted: 9 Apr 2011 08:59am
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I am a bit puzzled by the comments of not drinking cistern type collected roof water? Way back before anyone ever heard of a Berkey Filter my grandparents and most everyone else we knew had large cisterns that after the roof was flushed for a while would switch the water from outlet to the intake for the cistern. They used that all their lives and lived long. I had a cistern in my farm home for at least 12 years and never had more than a sand trap filter and some occasional bleach in the water or lime. I now have city water but am considering returning to flitering my own water as my use is way down due to eliminating most of the interior piped water and a sawdust potty or outhouse set up. I have a Berkey myself to remove farm chemicals which are so prevalent in our area. According to the Berkey information it is able to remove all harmful particles from even pond water. I don't know that I would try that, but it would seem that a well operated roof catching system of some type and filtered though a Berkey would be acceptable drinking water?

I did make also a small Berkey that Is shown in another thread here somewhere. Its to recycled filters cut down and mounted in a similar way as the bucket system shown, only I used an available water grade clear vinyl cooler found at walmart. The compete instructions are in another thread here.

larryh
Member
# Posted: 9 Apr 2011 09:01am
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Here is a photo of my counter type smaller recycled Berkey I made for my moms house.
Small home made Berkey using recycled filters.
Small home made Berkey using recycled filters.


bugs
Member
# Posted: 19 May 2011 09:51am - Edited by: bugs
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I posted this on our thread but it likely should go here:

RnR mentioned in a post on their thread the Sawyer filtration method as a possible interesting (less costly) alternative to the Katadyn water filter that they use to filter their stream water. Since we have "water, water everywhere but not a drop that we would want to wash in let alone drink" and the idea of boiling water for washing and drinking sounded too much like work (We are inherently lazy!) and too much stove fuel usage we thought we would try the Sawyer system (http://sawyerpointonefilters.com/).

First issue was trying to get one in Canada! The company only sells directly in the US even though you can go through the entire purchase form until you find this out. So next stop was eBay as I could not find a Cdn retailer. We went with the basic SP1803 - Sawyer® PointOne™ Filter w/Bucket Adapter Kit W/ 3 Foot Hose (Current price $61.59 usd) that they claim removes "Bacteria, Which Cause: I.E.: Cholera, Botulism (Clostridum botulinum), Typhoid (Salmonella typhi), Amoebic Dysentery, E. Coli, Coliform Bacteria, Streptococcus, Salmonella Protozoan (Cyst): I.E.: Giardia, Cryptosporidium, Cyclospora." NOTE: No viruses. From what I have read normal filtration does not remove viruses from water but chlorinating it does. However, chlorine does not work well in killing off Giardia or Cryptosporidium parasites.

Next issue came up when I tried hand drilling the plastic pail with the provided self-tapping bit they. The bit dug in one side created an oval hole. Thankfully I was able to rasp it round and smooth and then silcon "to the rescue".

We tried it out last weekend with some pond water. We used a pillowcase to remove the big bugs (I think I will use a 75 or 100 micron Tyler sieve that I have kicking about instead of the pillow case in future.) The pond water was a decidedly greenish colour likely from the plant pigments in the water but not turbid. The filter did not require priming and it had a flow rate of about 500 ml/min. The water that came out of the filter was ever so slightly greenish in colour. We think we will add some chlorine, household bleach or pool chlorine, ((0.05 ml) of bleach to 1 litre of water, shake and allow to stand for at least 30 minutes) to kill any viruses or maybe we will try a Steripen. The water should then be acceptable for washing and showering. We think we will still haul out drinking water just because we are used to it (We have had gut flushing experiences from drinking high mineral content "pure" glacial water that we were not used to!!). I hope to get the water tested for nasties some time in the future to see how well the whole process works. If we did decide to drink the water we would likely run it through a carbon filter.
kit
kit
"prefiltering"
"prefiltering"
setup
setup


RnR
Member
# Posted: 19 May 2011 10:29am
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Hey Bugs! Thanks for sharing your experience with the Sawyer Point 1. I ordered one as well but we haven't installed or used it yet.

I was also thinking, have you considered having a rain catch and barrel and filtering that water when available instead of the pond water? It will likely be a lot cleaner and easier to filter. This is also a reference to Larryh's informative and throuth-provoking post above.

Also, from what I have read, viruses are not a major concern with drinking water, because viruses don't actually live in water but live in a living organism and are spread, in the case of humans, from person to person, rather than through drinking water, which is why the Point 1 is considered sufficient for most situations. The Sawyer "Point zero two" does remove viruses though, but it has a lower flow rate and is more than double the price if I recall correctly.

also, I got mine from their international seller at the following web site http://adventuresafetyproducts.com in case you ever need another one of for the benefit of other Canadians. I too went through the whole ordering form on the sawyer web site until the very end when you have to put in your address and there is no way to select a province, which was a little frustrating. I called their 1-800 number and the lady who answered was very nice and directed me to that web site.

So all in all, Bugs, would you say it has made your life a little easier? Would you recommend it? Is it too early to tell? Is it worth taking a gamble with the 60 bux?

RnR

bugs
Member
# Posted: 19 May 2011 11:06am
Reply 


Hey RnR

Thanks for putting me on to the Sawyer filter. I think it should work fine for general use but I don't think I would drink it (as mentioned in the post) unless we ran out of drinking water and it had been chlorinated and "brita'ed".

Been thinking about roof top water but not sure how much our little roof(s) will catch. If we have a dry spell, which our area is known to have, there might not be any water in the barrel(s) when we arrive. Might give it a try tho just to see. There is also the bacteria and algae growth that develops in most "normal" rain barrels as we have noticed in our rain barrels at home. Treating with some chlorine should, of course, alleviate that problem.

Like larryh I am well acquainted with cisterns as we had huge one in the basement on the farm when growing up. Other than the occasional floating mouse the water stayed clear and useable for the house with no treatment at all. Never really drank it but did brush our teeth in it. As I am writing this post I guess I suffered know ill affects lol.

We are considering the Sawyer as a good back up when/if we don't have room to haul out jugs of water for washing.

thunderchicken
# Posted: 18 Jul 2011 06:59pm
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Im building a cabin home in Virginia that sits 40 ft. above a small trout river . the river is said to be the cleanest in the state. Rather than drilling a deep well, I want to get my water from this river as the city does. This river runs year round so what inexpensive system would work best to serve my everyday needs that a novice can install himself. I've been pumping water thru a pump for everything except drinking for several years but i'm concerned about keeping the sand out of the pump and house.

jim barton
Member
# Posted: 21 Jul 2011 11:04am
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i am in the thought process of building a 20x20 cabin on my 26 acres here in southern ohio. there is a spring fed run about 40" to 50" away . although the watere needs for the cabin will be for just showers alone i needs a spring box for the colection system which i will pipe into the cabin ,the run has never ran dry ,so water getting will be know problem. any ideas ? i look at them all . thank you jim

yarntospin
# Posted: 17 Jan 2012 03:51am
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I am trying to get soft water for soap making and this is the dry season so we have no rainwater. Our well is 250 feet deep so I have some minerals I need to remove. I have the Sawyer point one, but as it is not designed for mineral removal, I'm not sure if it would work. I'd appreciate any help.

bonlieu
Member
# Posted: 13 Feb 2012 06:05pm
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Have you ever heard about a RAM PUMP? A ram pump is a pump that run without electricity or gas motor or what ever. This pump run on WATER! I do have 2 of those pumps. This pump was invented around 1792 by CHARLES MONGOLFIER. The same guy that invented the hot air balloon. These pumps were in use during 1800 - 1900. One of my pump is over a 100 years old and work like a charm!I did build 3 of them and with a little doodling i had them working. I did install this system at our family spot and i do supply 2 cottages and possibilities of supplying 4 more. This pump will pump about 1 gallon /min so in 24 hours i get 1440 gal. If you go on GOOGLE and check for "RAM PUMPS" AND you will be surprise what you will find. I've been locking for this for the last 40 years. My dad told me about it when i was a kid and it was always in the back of my mind till i did found two of them. Check this on GOOGLE and let me know what you think about this amazing forgotten invention! You can get back at me and i will provide you with more informations

Babysaph
Member
# Posted: 31 Mar 2013 03:29pm
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Is it safe to wash dishes and showers with water taken from a metal roof?

miksb1
Member
# Posted: 30 Apr 2013 03:13pm
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We have a creek close to our cabin and I am trying to figure out the best way to pump water from the creek to the cabin. I have a well pump and was thinking about submerging a 50gal drum in the creek somehow so that I can use the pump. Any Ideas???

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