# You missed this one guys!



## Magus (Dec 1, 2008)

Not nukes, not zombies, not plague, not even a new world order...what will we do about a *FULL BLOWN DUST BOWL EVENT?*You can't store that much water, don't count on the well out back because every Bubba in town wants a drink and water tables can change with the smallest earthquake. don't count on hunting either, the game will go where the water is and if it ain't near you, you're out of luck!we are looking at a Mad Max/Book of Eli
situation if it carries on another season or two.I have a solution if you're handy enough with tools to make it.

Ever notice the condensation on a air conditioner? if you converted one, or several by increasing the amount of copper tubing and housed it in insulated cooling towers you could get a couple of gallons of water a day out of it.

Just me thinkin' its too hot again.


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## ComputerGuy (Dec 10, 2010)

Given the weather, and the overr population I see the Ogalala suffering


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## CapnJack (Jul 20, 2012)

Hmm..

Ya know I've thought about this before, but stopped at just that (the thought). Problem is, though, for some unknown reason, the condensation from my two window units runs down behind the siding.

Now, that's probably not good for the house, but we rent. So it ain't my house LOL. Besides, I really see nothing can be done about it. BUT if I ran extra tubing as you suggested....


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## SierraM37 (Nov 2, 2008)

How are you going to run the AC if we are all off grid? Generator? How much gas you got and how long will it store?


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## TheLazyL (Jun 5, 2012)

CapnJack said:


> Hmm..
> 
> Ya know I've thought about this before, but stopped at just that (the thought). Problem is, though, for some unknown reason, the condensation from my two window units runs down behind the siding.
> 
> Now, that's probably not good for the house, but we rent. So it ain't my house LOL. Besides, I really see nothing can be done about it. BUT if I ran extra tubing as you suggested....


Usually there is a "pan" (may be part of the A/C housing) that catches the condensation and sort of directs the water to a drain hole.


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## CapnJack (Jul 20, 2012)

TheLazyL said:


> Usually there is a "pan" (may be part of the A/C housing) that catches the condensation and sort of directs the water to a drain hole.


Yeah I believe mine are either missing, or were never equipped with them (el-cheapos).


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## kejmack (May 17, 2011)

The Dust Bowl was the result of poor farming techniques combined with a TEN YEAR drought. Most places in the US have only been in drought for 6 weeks. My grandmother was on a farm in ND during the Dust Bowl.

And besides, the East Coast and most of the South was not affected by the Dust Bowl Drought. Your state, Georgia, did okay during the Dust Bowl years.

http://weather.about.com/od/imagega...Graphs.--5K/Palmer-Index-US-Dust-Bowl-Map.htm


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## Well_Driller (Jun 3, 2012)

SierraM37 said:


> How are you going to run the AC if we are all off grid? Generator? How much gas you got and how long will it store?


It's called a dehumidifier. You can buy them and they are very good at collecting the moisture out of the air, but like siera says in the above, what good is it when you can no longer generate the power to run it??


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## CapnJack (Jul 20, 2012)

Well_Driller said:


> It's called a dehumidifier. You can buy them and they are very good at collecting the moisture out of the air, but like siera says in the above, what good is it when you can no longer generate the power to run it??


Ya know, I've thought about this as well. Matter of fact, it was yesterday. Considered having one or two running on the porch as a way to collect storing water, with how humid it has been around here. Maybe it wouldn't work, I dunno. :scratch


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## Marcus (May 13, 2012)

A solar still will collect a cup or two per day of water from the ground. All it is a hole in the ground with a plastic cover, a rock in the middle on top, and a container at the bottom of the hole to collect the water.


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## radio477 (Feb 9, 2012)

humidifiers work great for capturing water, most have a spot on the recovery tank to hook a hose up. Set them on a shelf with a barrel below, mine is in the basement keeping the humidity off all my other goodies! I also keep a large supply of blue barrels down there for extreme conditions. 16 actually, wife thinks I am ocd, but come to think off it she is probably right!


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## tac803 (Nov 21, 2010)

I get at least 2 gal. a day from my dehumidifier in the basement. I heard you're not supposed to drink the water, but run if through a filter and it should be good to go.


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## FrankW (Mar 10, 2012)

Magus said:


> Not nukes, not zombies, not plague, not even a new world order...what will we do about a *FULL BLOWN DUST BOWL EVENT?*You can't store that much water, don't count on the well out back because every Bubba in town wants a.


I bene saying for years the new dustbowl is ocming.

most studies on this subject predict most of the southern and western US to be in an extreme dusbowl as anew normal later this century.

The palmer drought index for the 30's dusbowl was at its worst a - 5 or -6 ( the mor eminus the less water the more dryness) 
The new dustbowl we are looking at a -12 or -13..

If i buy land it will be in canada or northern US


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## FrankW (Mar 10, 2012)

tac803 said:


> I get at least 2 gal. a day from my dehumidifier in the basement. I heard you're not supposed to drink the water, but run if through a filter and it should be good to go.


Your not suppsoed ot dirnbk it bcxause it is disilled water.

Distilleed water cna be drinkable i you filter it thru soil since it will pick up minerals.


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## kejmack (May 17, 2011)

My house is very old and did not have electricity when it was built. It used a Swamp Cooler. You all might look that up.


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## Immolatus (Feb 20, 2011)

Um, this is all good food for thought, but it doesnt make sense to me to try to pull water out of the air when the humidity is >10%. Here its routinely over 70%.


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## Well_Driller (Jun 3, 2012)

Magus said:


> Not nukes, not zombies, not plague, not even a new world order...what will we do about a *FULL BLOWN DUST BOWL EVENT?*You can't store that much water, don't count on the well out back because every Bubba in town wants a drink and water tables can change with the smallest earthquake. don't count on hunting either, the game will go where the water is and if it ain't near you, you're out of luck!we are looking at a Mad Max/Book of Eli
> situation if it carries on another season or two.I have a solution if you're handy enough with tools to make it.
> 
> Ever notice the condensation on a air conditioner? if you converted one, or several by increasing the amount of copper tubing and housed it in insulated cooling towers you could get a couple of gallons of water a day out of it.
> ...


From what I know about ground formations and drilling into those formations it would take a pretty devastating earthquake like no one has ever seen before to disturb those formations to the point that the groundwater would disappear. With an earthquake of that magnitude you probably won't have to worry about it. In my area there are wells that can supply 1.6 million gallons per week of continuous pumping, then there are those that make very little water, but i've never seen a well that couldn't produce enough water for the most basic needs of survival. As for the water tables dropping, it is true they are, i've personally seen it happening as i've gone in and drilled countless wells deeper that were only 50ft deep drilled back in the 1960's. Some of the original owners were still living there and have told me they never run out of water since they've been there. So yes in some areas people are noticing this, but look at how many new wells have been drilled into these aquifers and how much water we're now pulling from them, and people are using more water now then they did back then.


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## machinist (Jul 4, 2012)

We rebuilt the cistern that was the original water supply for our home, before the county ran public water lines out here. The cistern holds 6,700 gallons, by my figuring: 7 feet deep, 12 feet X 14 feet outside (deduct for 8" thick walls). 

Wife and I have been using this as our water source for a couple years now and doing fine. 2-3 months in late summer with no rain dropped it by1/3 to 1/2 before we did any water conservation. That is, we were using an automatic washing machine, flush toilets, showers, dishwasher, etc.. Our normal lifestyle now has cut our usage by half, so that makes the supply good for 5 to 6 months easy. If we go to extreme mode, it would last a year and not strain anything. 

I also put in a 2,500 gallon tank for watering chickens, pets, and garden. That one is fed form the roofs of outbuildings. Indiana is pretty short of rain at present, and our cistern is within 5" of the top. 

In an extended (years long) drought situation, we would be out like everyone else, but we wouldn't be the first ones out of water. That gives us time to hook up the RV and get somewhere better. Yeah, I keep enough gas handy.


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## Emerald (Jun 14, 2010)

BlueZ said:


> Your not suppsoed ot dirnbk it bcxause it is disilled water.
> 
> Distilleed water cna be drinkable i you filter it thru soil since it will pick up minerals.


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## CrackbottomLouis (May 20, 2012)

ComputerGuy said:


> Given the weather, and the overr population I see the Ogalala suffering


Ogalala is already suffering. Look up comparison pics. Problem with that aquifer is that recharge is extremely minimal.


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## Alaskaman (Apr 6, 2012)

BlueZ said:


> Your not suppsoed ot dirnbk it bcxause it is disilled water.
> 
> Distilleed water cna be drinkable i you filter it thru soil since it will pick up minerals.


Distilled water is ok to drink, just not as an only source. Mineral depletion will result. As a part time source, I'm sure it would be fine. That said, condensate sitting in or running through a pan could easily be contaminated by mold or other stuff so I'd filter itand add a bit of bleach.


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## Tweto (Nov 26, 2011)

Distilled water is fine for drinking. It's a myth that it's bad for you. The lack of mineral myth is a good one, but it's wrong. 95% of all minerals that you need are from food not water. If all the minerals that you needed were all received from water you would die, unless you could drink several hundred gallons a day of water to get the necessary allowance.

What distilled water does not give you is harmful bacteria and almost all harmful chemicals.


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## TheLazyL (Jun 5, 2012)

tac803 said:


> ...dehumidifier.. I heard you're not supposed to drink the water, but run if through a filter and it should be good to go.


I heard to that you're not supposed to drink water from a garden hose too.

Reckon it's the same government missource as yours?


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## Emerald (Jun 14, 2010)

TheLazyL said:


> I heard to that you're not supposed to drink water from a garden hose too.
> 
> Reckon it's the same government missource as yours?


Actually.. some garden hoses contain lead. It usually says so on the label. trace amounts but there.. I have been having to replace my hoses(well 15 to 20 years old they worked hard) and we looked for ones that said lead free on them and also got a few that are for drinking water(sold for campers) so that we don't have to worry but ya know.. if that water is gushing thru and icy cold aftre you have been washing the car or watering the gardens or even the chickens.. well I drink up! I just don't drink the warm stuff that had been sitting there in the sun.


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## Magus (Dec 1, 2008)

WOW! 3 pages of food for thought!

Any of the older geeks in here remember Luke Skywalker's job prior to being a Jedi?

He ran a moisture farm.shouldn't be too hard to figure out how a oversize condenser works and make it huge even with post SHTF tech.


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## Fn/Form (Nov 6, 2008)

It would be a very inefficient means of "producing" water. Compressing ambient air in humid areas might be slightly more efficient.

Be very, very careful. You want to use a water PURIFIER with this, as a filter cannot block viruses. Legionnaire's disease and other things can be found in untreated HVAC water supplies.


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## Jimmy24 (Apr 20, 2011)

CapnJack said:


> Yeah I believe mine are either missing, or were never equipped with them (el-cheapos).


Actually the pans haven't been used in quite some time for catching the condensed water just to drain it away. There is a pan of sorts there, it's what the unit is built on top of. If your units are over 20-25 years, then they may still have them as drains.

The manufactures have had them setup so that the condenser fan, picks the water up and blows it into the condenser so to use it to help lower the head pressure and make it run more efficiently. If the angle of the unit sitting in the window is off much from the specs, it will leak into your home, outside wall or just drain out of the unit much like they did back in the day.

Jimmy


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## LongRider (May 8, 2012)

ComputerGuy said:


> Given the weather, and the overr population I see the Ogalala suffering


Interesting post don't they sit on the biggest aquifer in the nation? Part of the reason behind the PineRidge wars of the 70's


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## dirtgrrl (Jun 5, 2011)

Well, looky here! Ain't we sideways talkin' about climate change? 

" ...doesnt make sense to me to try to pull water out of the air when the humidity is >10%. Here its routinely over 70%. "

That's when you WANT to pull the water out of the air. Magus is talking about pulling water out for survival. The more humidity, the easier it is. If you are pulling water out for comfort it may not make much difference. And swamp coolers don't work at all when the humidity is that high. 

My house was built in the 40's and had a swamp cooler. It was also built for air circulation, with double hung windows all over the house. The swamp cooler worked great with humidity at less than 10%, OK between 10 and 25% and really not at all above that. Summer monsoons will bring the humidity all the way up to about 40% here, which is about as humid as it really gets. Being a desert rat, that sucks for me. Those of you in the midwest would kill for it. I run my AC a lot less than most people do here, because I can open the windows and get good air circulation. Saves a lot on the power bills.

Back on topic: seems that a dehumidifier would be something easily converted to solar or wind power. Runs by itself, all ya gotta do is empty the bucket once in a while.


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## dirtgrrl (Jun 5, 2011)

LongRider said:


> Interesting post don't they sit on the biggest aquifer in the nation? Part of the reason behind the PineRidge wars of the 70's


The Ogallala Aquifer is hurting. The western edge of it is almost gone.

The Ogallala people have been hurting a long time now. Seems that all we have to do to get rid of something is name it after a Native American tribe...


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