# Enough water?



## tsrwivey (Dec 31, 2010)

We have community water, a private well that used to service our house, a saltwater swimming pool, & an RO filter. We keep enough commercially bottled water for at least 3 weeks on hand. We have a generator to run the well pump as well as stored fuel for the generator. We could get the water out of the well with a bucket if we had to. Is this "enough"?


----------



## UncleJoe (Jan 11, 2009)

tsrwivey said:


> We could get the water out of the well with a bucket if we had to. Is this "enough"?


I hope so. That's our method of last resort.


----------



## Jason (Jul 25, 2009)

It sounds like you have plenty if you're careful with how you use it. You can distill the pool water to make fresh water in a pinch. I've never heard of a saltwater swimming pool, though...that's a new one on me.


----------



## vn6869 (May 5, 2010)

tsrwivey said:


> We have community water, a private well that used to service our house, a saltwater swimming pool, & an RO filter. We keep enough commercially bottled water for at least 3 weeks on hand. We have a generator to run the well pump as well as stored fuel for the generator. We could get the water out of the well with a bucket if we had to. Is this "enough"?


Never enough - LOL :wave:
Enough for what? a family of four?
For how long?

It seems more than enough to me but what do I know of your personal situation and plan. Am rather curious about the "saltwater swimming pool" - is that being run through a pool filter like other swimming pools? Just curious.


----------



## tsrwivey (Dec 31, 2010)

vn6869 said:


> Never enough - LOL :wave:
> It seems more than enough to me but what do I know of your personal situation and plan. Am rather curious about the "saltwater swimming pool" - is that being run through a pool filter like other swimming pools? Just curious.


Our saltwater pool has a sand filter, but depends more on salt to keep the water clean than chlorine. On the plus side, less chemicals, less maintenence, no bleached hair/irritated eyes. On the down side, more expensive on set up.


----------



## LegitCitizen (Jan 1, 2011)

We've been wrestling with "how much is enough" as well.

The trouble with figuring out how much is enough, is that most people don't know what they use to begin with. Once you know what you use, you can figure out what you actually need and what you can live without.

We're still on "city water" so it was easy for use to track our usage. It was more difficult to break it down into categories of usage. It took us a weekend to figure it all out but we did it [attached]. We were shocked that the water we drank was slightly less than 6% of our total usage. But, as I said, we're on the municipal water supply (at least for now) and we currently have the luxury of being able to run the washing machine with impunity.

When we were figuring out how much drinking water we'd need, we started with a base of 3 gallons per person per day. This figure is based on two sources: (1) I had a sensei who recommended that we drink 2 ounces per pound of body weight per day - which worked out to 2.7 gallons per day for me; (2) Cody Lundin who recommended a minimum of 3 gallons per person per day in an emergency situation - when needs are higher due to activity and stress levels. Since 2.7 is close enough to 3, we just said 3 gallons per person per day would do it.

So, for two of us, a week's worth of water is 42 gallons. A month = 186 gallons.

We're new to prepping, so we don't have a lot together yet. We don't yet have a month's worth of drinking water set aside. But at least we have a goal in sight.

Thanks for reading.

~ L.


----------



## Woody (Nov 11, 2008)

*That's my method also!*



tsrwivey said:


> We have community water, a private well that used to service our house, a saltwater swimming pool, & an RO filter. We keep enough commercially bottled water for at least 3 weeks on hand. We have a generator to run the well pump as well as stored fuel for the generator. We could get the water out of the well with a bucket if we had to. Is this "enough"?


With a well the water is always available to me, just have to get it up from 55' down. Have a generator, 10 gallons gas and electric supplies to allow me to unhook the pump from the breaker box, install a plug and run off the generator.

The backup is rain barrels and a few gallons in the closet. (remember the water heater and all the household pipes are full of water too!) I have several 15 to 55 gallon barrels cleaned (with some baking soda and a sprig of rosemarry in them) and stored away also just in case.


----------



## dawnwinds58 (Jul 12, 2010)

Everything, and I mean everything, you can collect to keep your family alive is dependent upon water, clean, drinkable water. Remember that old saying "don't put all your eggs in one basket?" It means have 2 or 3 back up plans in case the favorite one fails.
1-Stored water with a stabilizer
2-rain water storage in an aerated, filtered cistern
3-greywater for plants and food crops
4-a well, hidden out of sight (people will kill when dieing of thirst)
5-forget modern and get a composting toilet since ALL that keeps that water from being usable for plants is the addition of human waste
6-efficient appliances that do not waste water, front load washers, Point-of-Use tankeless water heaters, etc. (if you have to run water to make it hot or cold, you are wasting it)
7-make your shower "box based" - build a small "tub-like" pluggable base and save shower water. Then a very small pump can shift that water to a tank over your washer for second use, or if you don't have a composting toilet, to flush with. 
8-look up "earthships" and how they are built, in the desert, no wells, rainwater collected, and the water is used 4 times before being let go. It just might give you some new ideas. The man's name is Reynolds (sp) and has been making a big money building them, but they ARE 100% self-sufficient and contained. I can't afford one, but I can dang sure get ideas from them.


----------

