A while back I turned on the tap here at the Choko Tree farm and noted that the water pressure was down a bit, not common but not too unusual, but then a couple of hours later I turned on the tap and nothing happened! Not the first time for us but it is pretty rare, was unexpected and, if I am honest, a bit confronting.
When there is something as basic as water, you turn on the taps and nothing comes out, well! I cannot imagine what it is like in those parts of the world where this is a regular occurrence and my heart goes out to them. We have 18,000 litres of rainwater in tanks so whatever happens we will not die of thirst, and in any event the water came back on about three hours later, but it started me thinking….
We do have all that water but for the most part it is used to water our fruit and veggies and keep the chooks happy, but there hasn’t been an easy way to make it available in the house. A dedicated line from our main tank into the house, filtered and disinfected with pressure provided by a 12v pump to the kitchen would be ideal, but it is also expensive. So, what could I do now to make water more available in the house that was not reliant on the reticulated system?
This is the plan, some is already in place, some I am working on and some is yet to be implemented.
The Kitchen
Drinking Water
While our tank water is pretty good quality, I figure that it wouldn’t hurt to have some filtration/disinfection built into a system to supply us with water that we can drink directly without any concern.
Many years ago, we bought a ‘Stefani’ ten litre glazed ceramic gravity water filter (see pic below) but for some reason we stopped using it a long time ago and it has resided in the garage unused and unloved ever since. A few months ago (when things started blowing up in the middle east) I pulled it out, cleaned it up, removed the filter cartridge and found out that new cartridges were still readily available from the hardware shop, bought a new one, installed it and fired it up! I then found out that the tap had problems so I had to replace that too. There are several types of filter cartridges available but the more expensive one offers water disinfection, so that is what I got and we have been using it on and off ever since.
As well as the ‘Stefani’ water filter referred to above, we also have a 2.5 litre Thermos insulated pump pot that we can fill with boiled water from the tanks, that will stay hot for the day. The water can be used for hot drinks or washing up or cleaning surfaces. I first read of the idea in a book about Chinese cooking, (Called ‘The Real Food of China’ for those interested). The book stated that quite often the Chinese kitchen did not have running hot water and they would use a similar set up (several and probably larger) to buy and store hot water from a street vendor, keeping it hot in the insulated pot and using it as required.
Other Water
While our tank water is clean and good quality, there are kitchen uses that don’t require it to be disinfected, like where the water is to be boiled, used for rinsing or to wash hands. To provide a larger reservoir I will set up a shelf over the sink to accommodate a potable water container (15 litres) which will have a tap directly over the sink. The container will be able to be refilled directly from the tank or indirectly using a watering can or whatever.
This system can still be used with water that has been disinfected if this is a concern, especially with the advent of bird flu. An article here discusses the options for disinfecting tank water where required.
The Bathroom
I wanted to provide some form of a body wash if the water goes out, and so I figured a solar gravity shower would work best, suspended from an existing hook over our spa bath, which is currently supporting a basket of fake flowers. We used to have a fairly cheap model (similar to the pic below) but it would have to be over 30 years old by now and I wanted something newer, maybe something better. I did a search and there seemed to be a couple of reasonably priced, better designed models but wow, when I checked the reviews they were very poor with issues around leaks, poor quality and poor performance.
There was also the issue of beefing up the hook to be able to take a water bag filled with weight of between 10 kg and 20kg of water. After looking around I decided a better set up would be a rechargeable 12 volt pump and shower system (There are quite a variety of them on the market). To provide water I used a 25 litre water container filled with tank water that would sit on the floor rather than collapsing the ceiling. For a comfortable shower a water temperature of 40°C is all that is required, so the water container will sit in the sun in the greenhouse until it achieves that temperature. I then carry it inside and set the shower up and we (hopefully) both get enough hot water for a reasonable, if quick, shower.
When not in use, the shower set up folds away into this handy zip up bag
The Toilet
This fix was simple, a couple of 9 litre watering cans stored next to the toilet itself. The first one is empty and designed to be peed in! This reduces the number of times the toilet needs to be flushed and as a side effect provides high nitrogen fertiliser once diluted with more tank water. The second one is used to flush the toilet by either refilling the 3 litre/6 litre cistern or pouring the water directly into the pan to provide a flush.
