Saving Water for a Rainy Day

Saving Your Water

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Starting to saving water one 2 liter at a time, is a good idea.  I simply saved coke bottles, washed them out, filled them with tap water, added a bit of bleach (more on this later), and dated the bottles with a sharpie. I filled just about anything I could think of with water to save it. Well, anything except milk jugs. Don’t use them. I don’t care how much you clean them out, they will stink and it will ruin your water (learned the hard way). Yes, I could buy water jugs that are made for this, but why waste the money on those.

After I filled more bottles than I cared to count, I got some of those big tubs from Walmart and placed them in for safe keeping.  Be sure to get the dark tubs with lids. Light will cause your water to go bad.
Next, I got my hands on a 35 gallon barrel (my actual tank in picture) that I keep filled. I refill it about once a year. If things go bad, that water will be good for much longer than that.

My next step in this direction is a 275 gallon tank that I got and plan on using. But I need to prep this one. The tank is clear-ish so I think painting it will work to keep the light out. Let you know how that works out.

Save_water

I also have a small rain collection system but I mostly use that for the garden. I plan on expanding this and going much larger scale with the rain collection in the future.

Well now that you know what I have done in the way of saving water, here are some tips that I have learned from research and trial and error.

Purification

bottled-water

Adding bleach is the best way that I know for keeping your water. Here are the ratios:
o 1 Liter of water = 2 drops off bleach
o 1 gallon of water = 6 drops of bleach
o 2 gallon of water = 12 drops or 1/8 teaspoon of bleach
o 8 gallon of water = ½ teaspoon of bleach

You get the idea.  Just do the math to figure out how much bleach you need to keep your water drinkable.

Storage

• Keep it out of the light: The sun will allow algae and bacteria to grow.
• Keep it cool: Heat accelerates algae and bacteria growth.
• Rotate your water: If you properly store your water, it will last for a very long time. It might taste bad after some time, but it will still be good to drink. A general rule is to start fresh once a year, but don’t loose sleep if you don’t.
• Use BPA-free plastic containers: BPA-free stands for bisphenol A. Basically this is just food grade plastic. If it had water or soda in it, you should be safe to use it.
• Date your containers: Marking a date on your containers will let you know when you put the water in the jug.
• Bleach: Don’t use scented bleach or bleach that has additional chemicals in it. Just regular bleach.
Well I am going to end this one for tonight. If you have any tips or comments on this, I would love to here them. After all, learning from each other is what this is all about. And as always, if nothing happens, great! But if it does…at least i’m ready!

Until next time,

JDK II

picture of the owner of knight's armory

Photos from:

Tommaso.sansone91, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

[[File:Save water.svg|Save water]]

https://www.fastcompany.com/1717503/singapore-bottling-wastewater-battle-water-scarcity

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