On 10/26/2012 8:19 AM, HeyBub wrote: ...
Excepting it doesn't take long to empty one and if there isn't power to the pumps to refill it (or pump it from the reservoir or well (here)) it doesn't much matter whether it's a gravity pressure system or not. One had best _always_ have water for emergencies as well as the other necessities--it's simply silly to rely on somebody else for one's welfare for things one can do for oneself...
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How do you think the water gets up in that tank? Those are just pressure regulators and do not provide that much storage when compared to the typical day's demand. If that water pressure ever drops below about 15-20 PSI you start seeing "boil water" notices because you can't really trust 50 year old back-flow preventers to keep contaminated water out of the system.
I have a well so none of this applies to me. If I have power, I have water.
The Chinese are making solar competitive these days ... if you can get
10 years out of the system before you need to fix something.
Might get both hurricane and blizzard next week.
While building a new house some 10 years ago and seeing a long pipe run between the kitchen and bathroom, I installed two 50 gallon highly-insulated water heaters at the two water-using locations to keep the hot water runs short. One is upstairs.
If the city water fails, I have 100 gallons of drinkable water just by shutting off the main house valve and opening an upstairs sink valve so that air and gravity can do their thing. I've been thinking about adding a tire valve fitting to the tank upstairs so that I could use a hand tire pump to add some pressure to the system. Fortunately, there's been only one water failure since installation, but that was enough to show that the system worked.
Tomsic
Blowout adaptor at Walmart, RV section. About three bucks. Screw that into the female end of a washing machine hose. Inflate.
The WH I've worked on, the inlet goes into a dip tube with a tiny hole in it. So, you won't get a heck of a lot by siphon. If you regularly drain the tank, you can hook a hose to the drain. Be sure to shut off the electric or gas, until the tank is fully refilled. You might burn out your tank, if you don't.
Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus
While building a new house some 10 years ago and seeing a long pipe run between the kitchen and bathroom, I installed two 50 gallon highly-insulated water heaters at the two water-using locations to keep the hot water runs short. One is upstairs.
If the city water fails, I have 100 gallons of drinkable water just by shutting off the main house valve and opening an upstairs sink valve so that air and gravity can do their thing. I've been thinking about adding a tire valve fitting to the tank upstairs so that I could use a hand tire pump to add some pressure to the system. Fortunately, there's been only one water failure since installation, but that was enough to show that the system worked.
Tomsic
Here in sunny heathen San Francisco, where we godless folks are celebrating the 2nd game win in the World Series, our weather is fair, high so far today (11:47am) is 62 under a cloudless sky. We have no storms coming our way, but God is directing yet another storm toward the Bible Belt. Fancy that...
You seem to be having a geography brain fart. This is aimed at the mid Atlantic states. (Northern Virginia to Maine) It is sunny and beautiful in the bible belt. (West Florida and the whole south) In Florida, it is the blue counties on the "New York" coast that are getting the rain and wind.
But it's not drinkable, or, at least should be viewed with suspicion.
The water in a hot water tank is often filled with double-nasty bacteria. Many Legionnires Disease outbreaks have been traced to the washing of vegetables with water from a hot water source.
Hot water is to be used for washing, not consuming. Unless you boil it first, but in an emergency, boiling water may prove problematic.
City water here sucks, but when the power goes out, they keep on pumping. Our town does have backup generators to run the plant. The few times the power went out for more than a few minutes, I was happy to have cit water.
Most people don't realize that they have 40+ gallons of good water stored in their water heater.
Well, that is, if the drain valve opens.
Need to turn off the heat source to the WH, or risk burning the tank when the thermostat cools, and the heat comes on.
Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus
Most people don't realize that they have 40+ gallons of good water stored in their water heater.
Repeat idea from an earlier post:
The water in a water heater is, often, not "good" water. Hot water should be used for washing or bathing and never for consumption. The reason is that many double-nasty bacteria thrive in fairly warm water. Several outbreaks of Legionnaire's Disease have been traced to washing vegetables in water from a water heater.
Of course you COULD boil the water... but in a power outage environment, that may be tough.
The water in the toilet tank should be drinkable, as well as the 50 gallons you ran in the bathtub just before the emergency...
You could probable treat the water with the clorox you have at hand, and know treatment amounts, without looking on Internet.
Greg
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If it's east of Reno it's "East Coast"; if it's south of New York, it's "The Bible Belt". That's the way we look at America from here.
But regardless, the fact is that no God worth his weight in gold is punishing us for our heathen ways. I keep bringing this up because people LOVE to laugh at San Francisco and tell us that God is going to do bad things to us. But God seems to do bad things to everyone ELSE.
By the way, the Giants have now won the 3rd game in the World Series. Just one more to go.
"gregz" wrote
When you mix bleach into the water if you get it JUST to the point where you can smell it in the water, it is already sterile enough to kill off bacteria and viruses and other bugs. If you use any more than that you're not doing anything but making the water less drinkable.
Iodine is also a well-proven water sterilizer.
We sort of lump California into one state too although I have been there and I know better. Realistically the bible belt is the old confederacy about 50 miles west of the Atlantic coast. This storm is going to hit Obama country. His reelection may depend on how he handles the recovery. The biggest threat in this storm will a storm surge going up into New York harbor, flooding lower Manhattan, the subway tunnels and all the buildings that have direct subway connections underground. There is also a nuke plant there but it should be OK.
It is worth buying a swimming pool 2 bottle test kit if you think you will be purifying water. You want your drinking water right in the same range as a pool. Washington DC city water tested "ideal" with a test kit when I lived there. It works out to 2-3 drops of bleach in a gallon of water, depending on how fresh the bleach is. Wait about 10 minutes before you test or drink the water
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In this case it could be a lose/lose situation. What's he going to do? If he spends federal dollars on recovery he's accused of racking up more government debt. If he doesn't spend federal dollars, he's accured of not doing his job.
I happen to think that boatloads of federal dollars should be thrown at everything we need to have fixed in this country -- roads, schools, parks, bridges, etc. -- because the dollar is STILL TOO STRONG, which is causing other countries not to buy our exports. We need to weaken the dollar in order to make our exports attractive on the world market.
No, the dollar is not in trouble. Oil is traded in dollars, not euros, yen, yuan, pounds sterling, or gold, because the dollar is the safest currency in the world. Likewise, China invests in the America because we have the safest economy in the world for investment.
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Right here and now I want to correct something. Putting any chemical into water is NOT purifying it, but sterilizing it or disinfecting it. You actually don't want pure water because it's too easy to grow stuff in it. But you do want sterile water.
Actually, 2 drops per QUART of water (4 times the amount you recommend):
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