From the category archives:

WATER

Alive and well-updates

July 20, 2009
Alive and well-updates

Alive and wellHere is an update on what has been going on in our off grid life. I know I haven't written in a while, I took a mini-break from blogging and writing, it was something I needed to do, but now I'm back. :)

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Roll out the rain barrel

June 29, 2009
Roll out the rain barrel

Free water Off-Gridders across the state of Colorado have been waiting a while for this moment - its now legal to gather rainwater off your roof, as long as it is 3,000 square feet or smaller.

But before we all have a barrel of fun, take note: the only people allowed to capture rain are those whose residences are well-ready with a well permit. The mere fact that you have no access to water, are not connected to the water grid, is not enough.

There is still a hill of rules you have to climb for fetching a pail of water.

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Free water generator

June 26, 2009
Free water generator

If you are lucky enough to have access to fast moving water on your land, you can use it to generate power.  And there are free plans available on the web for DIY water powered generators (see below).  But be careful only to go to recommended sites.  Bogus companies like Earth4Energy has affiliate deals sweeping the net, selling worthless e-books for $30-75.

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How to harvest rainwater

June 20, 2009
How to harvest rainwater

Global warming means droughts, and Americans have experienced plenty of those recently. Here is what you can do to prepare for a long hot summer:

Rain water harvesting is simply diverting the flow from downspouts to a barrel. Devices are available to divert water back to downspouts when the barrel is full.  You can collect 0.62 gallons (not 6 gallons as stated earlier - thanks Don for pointing it out)  of rainwater from one inch of rain on one sq ft of surface area. For example, Central Ohio averages 37 inches of rain yearly.  On 1,000 square feet of roof  that's 22,200 gallons of water per year.

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Conserving water . . . outside the box.

May 4, 2009
Conserving water . . . outside the box.

Every home should have one I would like to share with you three water conserving ideas that, if practiced on a wide scale, would help ease some of the pressure on one of our most valuable renewable resources. I know that nothing is really new any more, but hopefully these will be of benefit to someone.

The first one I bring to you as a question: why do we not have urinals in our homes as we do in nearly all public places? There is no reason to use just as much water to flush

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PBS Frontline on water pollution

April 19, 2009
PBS Frontline on water pollution

The nation has a right to expect clean water, but the reality is that increasingly its tolerating poisoned waters, contaminated with chemicals from agricultural runoff, prescription medicines, cosmetics, industrial pollutants, and more. Some of these contaminants, such as steroids, cannot be filtered out.

One of the benefits of living off-grid is that your water has not been through the system. Whether its from rain, or spring, or even bottled drinking water, its likely to be less contaminated than tap.

“The irony is that everybody looks at that scene and thinks that it’s great; everything is right with the world in Elliott Bay,” says scuba diver Mike Racine in the Chesapeake Bay in tonight's PBS episode. “But in point of fact, not 100 feet away from where they are drinking a nice glass of wine off their white linen, there is this unbelievable gunk coming out of the end of this pipe.”

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Rainwater workshop

April 17, 2009
Rainwater workshop

The Hopi declaration of water states, “What we do to our water, we do to ourselves”.  A scary reality in the West, where aquifer levels steadily decline, arsenic continues to poison city water, and new development is threatened with an inadequate assured water supply.  

In the face of such monumental water shortage challenges, rainwater harvesting offers a solution.  

High Desert Rain Catchment of Prescott, Arizona is hosting workshops geared towards do-it-yourself types who want to learn about installing their own rainwater harvesting systems.

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Peak water

January 22, 2009
Peak water

Do we need it? The era of cheap water is nearly over says a report by the Pacific Institute in California. A swelling global population, changing diets and mankind's expanding "water footprint"  have led ecologists to forecast "peak ecological water" — the point where, like the concept of "peak oil", the world has to confront a natural limit on something once considered virtually infinite.

Off-gridders have to look at their water supply, and ask "is it really secure?"

The world is in danger of running out of "sustainably managed water", according to Peter Gleick, Pacific Institute president and a leading authority on global freshwater resources.

A key element to tackling the crisis, say experts, is to

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I love my composting loo

November 14, 2008
I love my composting loo

DIY Water activists The Greywater Guerillas have a book out. Its called Dam Nation: Dispatches from the Water Underground and its damn good.

One section deals with the practicalities of the composting loo in an urban area - risks include the "post traumatic neighbor" who reports the author to the authorities for creating insanitary conditions. But undeterred she says "I love my composting loo," and she is never going back.

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