Idea for water storage at home

This seems too easy and obvious to have not been discussed before but a search yielded something close, but not exactly what I'm going to discuss.

I remember house shopping a few years ago and seeing one outside of some official fire protection zone. The builder, complying with code, installed a large plastic tank (it went basement floor to ceiling and was wider than a 50 gallon water heater so it might have been 200 gallons?). When I asked about it they said it was hooked to a sprinkler system.

Well would there be any problems if one were to design a simple system with one of these that worked like your hot water tank (fresh water comes in one end, fills tank and from then on water to the house comes off other end). The water would be continually changing this way (in one end, out the other constantly), then in a water off scenario you would have 200 gallons (plus whatever was already in your HOT water tank) which could get you by for a couple of months. Of course it wouldn't come out of the faucets unless you rigged up a backup pump system but we're talking about survival here, not convenience. I'd be glad to run to the basement with a bucket and open a spigot to get some water.

One could get fancy and install this in an attic and the the faucets would work to some degree but then freezing could become an issue depending on where you live.

This seems simple and cheap on the surface . . . now lets pick it apart!

[Swim]

I have two 250gln being setup that way. The tank lid must be spring load to allow air pressure and the easiest to describe the setup is like a commercial gravity fed fire sprinkler system w/o the plumbing. Cheap and easy to maintain as well.

PS.. we are hooking up the output of the tank into our laundry room (sink and washer).

Ours are flat black instead of blue...

http://peggylayton.net/media/ccp0/prodsm/IMGA0044.JPG

Nice.

Model numbers and/or prices? Where did you get them?

Does the spring loaded mechanism and/or the flexibility of the tank (doesn't look too flexible) affect pressures? I was picturing the 75 pound water input causing a slower start at a faucet until that slack was absorbed, then having excess pressure wanting to push out as you shut the water off . . . But that's all in my head!

Also, when this is actually used as designed for a sprinkler system, to gravity feed it, doesn't it have to be ABOVE the sprinkler heads? Are YOU setting up for gravity feed? How?

Why not just upgrade to a 200 gallon water heater? Cheaper to have a container that just needs to hold water, and not heat it?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Irving

Why not just upgrade to a 200 gallon water heater? Cheaper to have a container that just needs to hold water, and not heat it?

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100 gallon or larger water heater are typically in the thousands of dollars due to the required BTU to heat up the water. They are also meant to be pressurized.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Busta Prima

Also, when this is actually used as designed for a sprinkler system, to gravity feed it, doesn't it have to be ABOVE the sprinkler heads? Are YOU setting up for gravity feed? How?

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http://peggylayton.net/ccp0-prodshow/02.html
http://www.thereadystore.com/water-s...ncy-water-tank

The best price I found is through a guy out of Utah for $360. His number is 801-458-5271.

Ours are being setup in the attic of my garage on top of its own metal frame. Sprinkler system uses electric pump (thats what I meant without the plumbing part). The picture I posted is for 180 gallon I think.. The actual container is posted on another thread :"she got prepper bug." Oh make sure you measure your doors... ours are in the garage for that reason! We also have to finish and insulate the garage and in the middle of installing a sky light for winter season.

Who sells intermediate bulk storage containers. Essentially 250gal plastic tanks with a metal cage around them on a pallet. he provided a new spigot setup for it and it's square so it it surprisingly compact.

Can't for the life of me remember who he is, but I found him on the web. Google sucks these days for local results, always on the cutting edge of stupidity.

Colorado Zero Waste in Longmont sells the palletized containers.

That 275 gallon pallet is what I'm planning on doing this summer. Just need to rearrange my garage so it fits better. Well that or build an insulated enclosure for it outside.

the tanks have to have a fill valve and only have static pressure to drain. If you want to do something on the cheap simply get someones lightly used water heater on craigslist, you can find them for $50 in good working order. Put them in line with your (working) hot water tank as the last one. This way they water comes in from the city line at about 58 degrees, warms to room temperature about 68 degrees before going into the heated tank and you save all of those BTU's you would have to burn to add 10 degrees, constantly fills and tops itself off and cycles your water so it doesn't go flat.

you'd save 4170 btu's per tank of water.

1 BTU = 0.000293 KWh

1.22181 kwh per tank saved at about $.14 per kwh which means you'd save the $50 cost of the used tank in about a year (294 days) assuming you only used one tank full a day

Or just buy a plastic tank, stick it in the corner, fill it and cap it. Water doesnt go bad...