In my experience, it seems that discussions about off-grid water systems only take place in niche communities of homesteaders or preppers. If you were to bring it up in “normal” workplace conversation, I guarantee you’d get at least one set of raised “what a weirdo” eyebrows. But considering just how crucial water is to life itself, it’s amazing to me that we don’t talk about it more.
The average American is totally comfortable using a staggering80 to 100 gallons of water a day, but we are rarely taught to think about where it comes from, how it gets to us, and how sustainable and dependable that system actually is. It’s easy to depend on the grid to supply your water … but it’s a huge gamble that some of us will never risk for our families.
The truth really is, having a safe, reliable, and independent source of water is not just a back-up plan. It’s an absolute necessity for survival and should be one of the first considerations taken when planning the homestead — or any home, in my opinion. I don’t need to teach you this truth. If you’re reading this article, you already care. Even if it’s just out of curiosity, you want to know what your options are for taking your water supply off the out-of-your-control grid.
那么你应该考虑什么呢?你的房子需要有池塘吗?有很多强降雨吗?有哪些系统,它们是如何工作的?这些问题的答案取决于你的土地、你的气候和你的用水,但一般的答案是,最好的系统是多样化的。如果你是一名投资者,你一定听说过“分散投资组合”这个词。然而,比股票多样化更重要的是这种基本生活必需品的多样化。
When it comes to securing water for your family, you must always plan to diversify yourwaterportfolio. Have more than one system so that you’ll never be left high and dry. As a homesteader who uses off-grid water daily, this plan is something that I both know dearly and care about deeply. I want to share what we’ve learned and what we’ve done to help you make the best decisions you can for your land and family.
Related Post:Hand Water Pumps: A Guide
郑重声明,这篇文章并不是教你如何建立自己的离网供水系统。2022世界杯四强亚盘赔率这一旅程取决于你的特定土地和需求,并需要大量的专业信息。把这篇文章看作是我们在自己的离网用水努力中使用和参考的许多资源的收集篮子。希望它能把一些非常有价值的信息带到更多的人手中!
Off-Grid Sources Of Water
可用的离网水主要有三种形式:来自地下的水、地表水和收集的降水。如果可能的话,我建议你在你的土地上使用这三种资源。这可能需要多年的工作来实现,但当涉及到像水这样重要的事情时,它是值得投资的时间。
1. Well
Wells tap into deep groundwater anywhere from 20 to 300 feet (or deeper) below the surface. If you have an existing well on your property, you have fantastic potential for getting a good source of water off the grid. You can convert the electric pump to run on solar or wind power, or you can switch it to a manual pump.
I wrote an earlier article onusing manual pumps. Check it out to learn more about this old-fashioned and absolutely relevant way of retrieving water to use it on the surface. If you are game for it, you can totally supply the entirety of the water you need for daily, household use from a manual pump, but I would strongly recommend also working on a rainwater catchment system (which I’ll detail more below).
These two systems work in harmony with each other. You can always get water even if the rain barrels are low, but in times of plenty, your hard-working arms will get a break.
Pros Of Well Water
Well-water is usually a reliable source of freshwater, and a deep enough well won’t freeze on you in the winter because the groundwater is insulated from the surface temperature. In typical circumstances, it should be really pretty clean, although I always recommend filtering water before consuming it.
Cons Of Well Water
Getting water up from the ground requires energy — whether that’s your arms or some other alternative means of powering a pump — and the infrastructure associated with it. Drilling for groundwater may be more of a gamble in some areas than others. You never really know when you’re going to hit water.
Additionally, it is costly to have a well installed. It will be a few thousand dollars at least but in my mind, that expense is worth it. It’s also possible that your groundwater could be contaminated by nearby pollutants,especially if you live in an area where fracking is common.
2. Rain Catchment
Free water from the sky has been a gift to humankind since the beginning of time. You can take advantage of this opportunity by collecting rainwater for your homestead’s daily use. Even if your land has dry spells during the summer, you can store up the spring rains for later use, which gives you a reliable source of water at all times.
Related Post:Rainwater Harvesting: The Basics And Why You Should Start Today
I wrote another article aboutthe basics of rainwater collecting here. It will give you a good introduction to some of the options available for this under-appreciated resource.
Rainwater is a soft, usually very clean source of water, and free of the chemicals in city water and the sometimes-excess minerals in groundwater. Harvesting rainfall from the impervious surfaces on your land relieves some of the pressure to supply your needs from underground aquifers and allows them to be replenished in your area.
Pros Of Rainwater
A rainwater catchment system is simple to implement, generally very clean, absolutely free, and easy to set up off any roof on your property. Do note that asphalt roofs and treated wood-shake roofsare capable of leaching chemicals into rainwater. A metal, slate, untreated shake, or tile roof may be better choices.
Cons Of Rainwater
In some areas, rainwater collection is restricted — a crime, in my book, since the impact made by household collection is absolutely negligible.
Related Post:How To Make A DIY Rain Water Barrel
Also, an impervious surface is required to collect rainwater. Usually a roof is sufficient, but this means that water storage will need to be beside the building where it is collected.
3. Pond
你家的一个池塘不仅仅是鸭子和蜻蜓的游乐场。It’s also your personal reservoir and source of back-up water.
I wouldn’t recommend using a pond as your primary source of water, but having a huge amount of stored water on your property is a potentially life-saving resource that can benefit every living thing on your homestead.
Pros Of Ponds
A pond is easy to maintain if it’s already on your property.
Related Post:How To Build A Fish Farming Pond
It naturally fills with every rainstorm, and in the meantime, provides habitat to a huge host of creatures and plants.
Cons Of Ponds
Pond water requires extensive cleaning and filtering to be turned in to potable water for human consumption. It’s not easy to move water from point A to point B without a pump system, and lugging 5-gallon buckets up the banks can get arduous!
4. Spring
Old-time spring houses and the allure of clean, icy-cold water bubbling from between rocks is the stuff of homesteader daydreams.
I don’t have a spring on my property, and therefore have very little experience with them,but this articlewill give you a good launching-point if you are blessed to have one of these gifts on your land.
Pros Of Springs
泉水通常提供非常干净的水,从地下自由流动,一旦在水源周围建立起基础设施,就不需要太多的照料。
Cons Of Springs
泉水需要大量的初始工作来驾驭、引导并变成可靠的水源。它们可能不在你日常活动方便的地方,而且它们可能会被邻居的活动污染。
Systems For Utilizing Off-Grid Water
在离网的情况下,利用地球的自然设计是长期成功和可持续发展的最佳选择。在把水移到你想要的地方的情况下,你不能得到任何更合乎逻辑的——或脱离电网——比利用重力把液体生命移到它能维持你的地方。
古罗马人知道利用重力的力量。这就是他们的引水渠的工作原理。你可以借鉴他们的经验,在你的家园上安装重力输送系统。
Related Post:Creating a Rain Garden
There are surprisingly few instructions for implementing a gravity-fed system to be found online. I heartily recommend buyingArt Ludwig’s book Water Storage Tanks, Cisterns, Aquifers, and Pondsas a fantastic resource on this entire subject. All the storage methods I list below are given the royal treatment in his thorough, experience-based write-up.
1. Rain Barrels
这些可以买到预制的(通常价格过高)或从55加仑的旧食品储存桶中回收。如果你刚刚开始接触离网供水的想法,试着在周末安装一个,然后开始旅程。
Pros Of Rain Barrels
Barrels can be installed anywhere there is a downspout, giving you instant storage of rainwater with every storm.
They are small enough to be used in a city lot without making too much a statement. They can also exert a decent amount of water pressure if raised on a platform.
Cons Of Rain Barrels
Rain barrels are limited to 55 gallons if you’re using a typical size, and result in lots of potential water lost during a rain event.Making a daisy chain of rain barrelscan expand your harvesting potential. Alternatively, usingIBC totescan give you the opportunity to catch 275 or 330 gallons.
2. Cisterns
Cisterns are a time-honored way to store water, and have been used for millennia. Those familiar with the Bible will find constant references throughout.
Related Post:How To Make A Rain Chain
它们可能位于地面上或地下,这取决于你的设置,它们可以由大量不同的材料制成:用石头凿成,用金属塑形,甚至用铁水泥雕刻。For an in-depth explanation of their form and function, take the time toread through this website,and then buy the Art Ludwig book I mentioned earlier.
Cisterns can create off-grid, passive water pressure if they are located at an elevation higher than your tap. If having a gravity-fed system is important to your water plan, calculating the precise location for your cistern is crucial before you ever buy the first bag of cement or turn the first shovel of dirt.
The formula: every 2.3 feet in elevation change adds 1 psi (pounds per square inch) of pressure. Or, every meter of elevation change adds 10 kPa (kilopascals) of pressure.
Pros Of Cisterns
Cisterns can hold thousands of gallons of water, turning a single heavy rainstorm intothe majority of your water for the season. Cisterns can be freezeproof if buried in the ground (or if massive enough).
Cons Of Cisterns
Cisterns require intense construction and installation, as well as a good understanding of the terrain — they can sink into the ground if installed on fill dirt! Due to their size, they need a lot of space, and if you want water pressure, you also need elevation difference on your land.
3. Lots Of Bucket-Lugging
Explaining this one is not really necessary, I should hope!
Much of the world still moves their water around in buckets, and as someone who is currently doing my fair share of bucket-lugging, I can assure you that while it is a lot of hard work, it is possible. Cancel that gym membership. You’re going to get fit, off-grid-style.
Pros Of Bucket Lugging
The system can’t break down. Just get a new bucket!
Cons Of Bucket Lugging
这需要一定程度的身体健康和桶保持干净。如果你要走这条路,一定要用食品级的5加仑水桶!
Deciding When To NOT Filter The Water
这似乎是一个愚蠢的想法,但当你建立离网供水系统时,这是一个需要考虑的重要因素。2022世界杯四强亚盘赔率并非所有的水在使用前都需要清洗、过滤和净化。做不必要的事情是浪费时间和资源。
This (again) is why having a multifaceted system is so important. It allows you to make choices for your specific needs. Decide what water needs to be clean for human use, and don’t worry about the rest!
当涉及到给牲畜和植物浇水时,他们可以很好地使用“原始”水。树木是天然的过滤器。In fact, there are someinnovative filtering systemsthat take advantage of thenatural capillary action of treesto clean an amazing array of contaminants out of water.
在我们的家园,我们用雨水桶来养活我们所有的动物和植物。2022欧洲杯葡萄牙vs德国如果你住在有城市水的地方,这对你关心的生物来说可能是一个比你意识到的更大的恩惠。City water is often chlorinated and fluoridated, andboth chemicals can have detrimental effects on your plants when you water them with water straight from the tap.
You can also use unfiltered rain barrel water — and occasionally unfiltered well water, when the rain barrels are low — to wash clothing. It doesn’t make sense to take impeccably clean water and then immediately toss mud-caked pants or reusable diapers in it.
If you use a clothesline, you may already know that direct sunlight helps to disinfect the laundry … and let’s be honest, sometimes we may not get the laundry in before a surprise storm hits, and the laundry may get a rainwater bonus rinse anyway.
The laundry item I do recommend taking special care with is the kitchen dishcloths. They should get both scrubbed and boiled.
Household Use Of Off-Grid Water
The “easiest” (and probably most short-sighted) way to do off-grid water is to just figure out some way to get your well to provide the same amount of water you used while on the grid.
A solar-powered and wind-powered well, or generator-powered when conditions aren’t right, may allow you to continue living what some would call a “normal” life of flush toilets, plentiful showers, and washing machines chugging in the basement. It will work until it doesn’t, and then you’re in a bind for sure.
事实是,让一个离网系统到位应该会导致一些生活方式的调整和检修。如果你是在一个家庭中开始这种转变,确保每个人都参与进来,因为这种改变需要每个人一起努力。当每加仑都要计算的时候,每人80到100加仑的心态真的不应该是一个选项。
这听起来根本不像是一种控诉。以一种兴奋的心态和自愿的精神开始向离网用水过渡是一种鼓励。如果你要脱离电网,你必须承诺。你也需要给自己时间重新学习如何生活。就我个人而言,我知道把我传统的思想转变成我现在的生活方式需要时间和一点斗争。但我成功了,浪费了更少的水,你也可以!
Here’s a list of some of the things that changed for us — for the more sustainable and better — that may help with your own transition. This list is meant as a launching point more than instructions. Every topic could be a long article in its own right.
1. Toilets
If you take a step back from convention and look at our society’s current means of managing human waste, it’s actually insane. We take clean, potable water, fill an indoor bowl with it, then fill the bowl with urine and feces before flushing it away to be mixed with industrial wastes, and chemically-processed … and then, we just hope it is clean enough when it gets sent back into our waterways! If you’re taking your water usage back into your own hands, you can do better.
虽然你可以很容易地给一个系统加压来运行一个厕所(他们可以慢慢地充满只有1到2 psi),我建议堆肥厕所系统。It’s a lot easier to deal with, believe it or not.
Yet, it is. Instead of having to scrub a nasty, smelly toilet every week, composting toilets are a usually smell-free (I’m serious), waterless system. It doesn’t need to be hooked up to the grid and also provides you with an opportunity to compost and reinvest the nutrients from your waste back into your own soil rather than shipping it off to some debatably-dependable sewer.There are many waysto create this system that are beyond the scope of this article.
Then, think about separating your feces from your urine. Not only will this make the compost easier to handle, but it will give you a new resource. Urine actually comes out sterile and is an imminently usable material when not contaminated with other waste.
The bookLiquid Goldillustrates many well-researched uses for urine on the homestead and is certainly worth the read for those willing to try.Urine-diverting composting toiletsmay also be a useful addition to the homestead if you’re serious about this practice.
2. Showers
The pressure usually required to run a shower head is somewhere in ballpark of 20 psi, though many of us have grown up accustomed to a much higher55/100 psi–the typical/maximum pressure offered by municipal services.为了达到这样的压力,你的水箱可能需要安装在高于你家100英尺的地方,这是非常不可能实现的。
So you may need to face the possibility of changing your bathing practices and adapting to life with low water pressure. This may be a hard one for you to give up at first. I know a lot of us do good thinking in the shower — letting endless, thoughtless streams of warm water run all the while. But I want to let you know it is possible to totally and satisfactorily convert your bathing needs to the contents of a two-gallon bucket (or less).
Give yourself the time to learn theart of the sponge bath, and revolutionize your water usage. I think the key to successful sponge-bathing is threefold. First, go easy on the soap and reserve it for smelly areas. Just use hot water and a washcloth everywhere else.
第二,每天结束时洗个澡。这是一个令人愉快的夜间仪式,无论如何,每个自耕农都需要我们做所有的户外工作。第三,停止使用洗发水。它减轻了产生的灰水中的化学物质,你会发现你的头皮在放弃洗发水后会变得更健康。尝试一下常见的小苏打和醋溶液的方法。It will take some time to transition to a new self-care routine, but if you’re in it to win it, you’ll figure it out within a few weeks.
Related Post:20 Outdoor Showers
3. Laundry
If you take the plunge and switch your pump to a manual system, you might also have to face the music that the washing machine you depended on would also have to go. That can be a hard pill to swallow at first because handwashing a whole family’s laundry is an intimidating prospect. But Iyou can learn, through many trials, experimentations, and errors, how to wash clothes like everyone used to before washing machines came on the scene. I have to tell you, it’s not that bad.
There are many systems available to the off-grid launderer such as theLavario, theWonder Wash, or even gasoline-powered washing machines. The most effective clean I have ever been able to manage — even cleaner than with the washing machine — has been with a homemade washing stick, a 5-gallon bucket, and a washing plunger. This system is my go-to.
Related Post:Why You Should Start Using A Clothesline
A big key to keeping laundry manageable when you’re manually washing off-grid, is to make sure the clothes that go in the hamper actually deserve to be there. You’re not gross if you wear the same shirt you wore yesterday today. As long as it doesn’t smell bad, it’s still good in my book. Bath towels should last at least a week, if not longer — especially if you sun them on the clothesline after every use. And if the pants you got muddy yesterday are just going to get muddy again today, do they need to be washed yet, or can they wait until the project is done?
4. Eating And Drinking
I would recommend sending all of the water that you personally consume through drink or cooking through aBerkey Filter.Once upon a time, raw rain and river water may have been safe to drink, but those days are lost in the haze of modern industry, pharmaceutical-laced waterways, and groundwater contaminants.
You’ll likely usually use well water, but you can use rainwater too. There are many ways to purify and filter rainwater.This websitedetails the various UV-based, mechanical, and chemical ways to go about it. I’m not big on plugging products, but I make an exception for theBerkey System of water filtering. You could pour hideous pond water through these things (though it will make a terrible mess to clean up afterward) and have safe water to drink.
Another filtering system to try experimenting with isa Biosand filter.虽然我很喜欢我的Berkey,但我不喜欢完全依赖于购买的产品。
The Biosand filter is a means to naturally remove a ton of contaminants using things found on our land, and I love that. It’s another means of buildingredundancyinto your water supply to ensure you can always have what you need.
5. Dishes
Those old farmhouse sinks knew what they were doing with their deep pockets and two sides. Washing dishes by hand, and with off-grid water, is a breeze when you fill both sides of a sink. Make one side the soap side, the other side the rinse side, and you’re well on your way to having dinner cleaned up without wasting tons of running water.
6. Greywater
不使用电网时的水管理也包括使用后的水管理。首先,确保水有它的用途,然后“梯级”使用。如果可以的话,从需要清洁水的地方开始,然后让它产生的稍微有点脏的水完成不需要完美的水的任务。
例如,如果你用一壶水来孵化酸奶,酸奶煮好后加热它来洗碗。或者,你可以用一桶衣服里的漂洗水作为下一桶衣服的洗涤水,或者直接用手洗的水冲厕所。The longer you work with off-grid water, the more ways you’ll figure out how to innovate its use to benefit your home.
一旦你最终处理完毕,灰水可以用几种不同的方法处理,但最重要的是立即处理。灰水不能储存超过24小时,否则细菌就会繁殖,很快就会变成黑水。
Your final plan for greywater management could even be a greenhouse attached to the front of your home if you’re planning to build one. The greywater can be directed to the plants there to provide them with a nutrient-rich source of water and nutrition. Or, you could work in mulch basins surrounded by gardens in the laundry area.
There are many ways to redirect greywater to your benefit, so if this plan sounds appealing to you, check out these books:
- Art Ludwig, Create an Oasis with Greywater— a wonderful, indispensable resource for making use of greywater in a huge array outside applications
- Michael Reynolds,Earthship I, Earthship II, and Earthship III— the go-to resources for implementing greywater reuse inin-home greenhouse designs.
All four of these books discuss incredibly detailed, innovative ways to route greywater into planters, gardens, and created wetlands, to make your land incredibly lush and productive … and basically waste-free.
Off-grid water is not just a topic for prepper forums. It’s a way of life that I truly love even with all the immense work involved. I hope more of you can join us in declaring water freedom! I know that was a lot of information, so thanks for hanging on for the ride.
If you know of any other worthy resources for intrepid off-grid water adventurers, please leave the information below. Those of us embarking on this crazy adventure of experimentation and freedom always welcome new ideas!
Zanne Hsays
Re laundry: Have you looked at a commercial salad spinner? The one I’ve been checking out is at Webstaurant store online. I had a Wonder Wash and wasn’t thrilled and returned it. I haven’t used the salad spinner but a friend has one and I’ve looked it over.
BTW, really appreciated all the info in your article. Have copied to my files for reference.
Thanks
Wren Everettsays
I’ve gone through a few different off-grid options for laundry, and by a wide margin, the old-fashioned washing plunger, washboard, 5-gallon bucket, and clothesline have been the best system I’ve ever used. I can’t imagine a salad spinner would do a good job–it would just get the clothes wet and then move them around without really cleaning them…p
Thanks for the kind words, by the way! I hope it really does help you on the way to self-sufficiency. Happy adventuring!
hugh swiresays
what options do you have, like pumps, for moving water from your spring to your homestead? A friend told me about ‘RAM pumps’ – which only use flowing water to operate. Have you heard of this type of tech ?
Wren Everettsays
I must confess, I haven’t, since we don’t have a spring on our land. Gravity-fed systems are more our cup of tea here, since there’s so little moving parts to break/go bad (and if gravity stops working, we’ve got bigger problems!). The forums over at Permies (https://permies.com/) may have some folks who have worked with the RAM pumps, though–it’s worth delving there!
Shirley Foster Cullensays
Great information! The articles are very well written and the flow (not pun intended, Lol) kept me reading on. Thank you! I’d love the “Shampoo” recipe you use. Thank you SO MUCH!
Yanasays
Hello everyone, I am looking for help on how to build my off grid water system from the river behind our cabin
frank clementesays
Photo/Attachment:
doing a small home development in Phoenix AZ
12 homes per acre