Solar water system?

[dalewick]

Tweet
Does anyone have or no anything about creating/using a solar powered water/backup water system. I planning on using a rain catch cistern and pumping that to a gravity feed sand/gravel/charcoal filter. I want to have that pass through a UV filter finally and have all of this be solar powered. Key Info: I know nothing about solar beyond solar lights. Is this do-able? Can I do it inexpensively? Would it provide water for a household of 4 daily? What solar equipment will I need. Would pond 12V UV lights be usable? I need 6 feet of head/lift for the filter system. Is that do-able with solar? My cistern is not very big (500 gal) but I'm planning on adding another 500 gal of capacity.

All help with this will be appreciated. Thanks.

Dale

[Morgan101]

Tweet
Dalewick; Admittedly I am not the one to ask, but maybe these links will help:

www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/yago91.html -
www.solarwater.com/

Hope they help.

[RICHFL]

Tweet
First problem is how much rain do you get per week?
How big of container are you using to hold your raw vs potable water?
What do you want the solar power to do? run a pump.

You can pasteurize water by placing it in black painted FDA approved bags/containers until the sun cooks it to a temp of 160 degrees for 30 minutes. Pasteurize causes to the water to cook and kill all the bad bacteria and virus in it. Depending on you location 4 hours is enough time to get the temp to 160 degrees.

You said you had a rain catching system. I hope your roof is metal and not normal asphalt shingles because those shingles release toxins into the water.

I will be putting out a beginners topic dealing with water this week about Friday. I wall touch on using solar power to help with preparing water for usage.

[dalewick]

Tweet

First problem is how much rain do you get per week?
How big of container are you using to hold your raw vs potable water?
What do you want the solar power to do? run a pump.

You can pasteurize water by placing it in black painted FDA approved bags/containers until the sun cooks it to a temp of 160 degrees for 30 minutes. Pasteurize causes to the water to cook and kill all the bad bacteria and virus in it. Depending on you location 4 hours is enough time to get the temp to 160 degrees.

You said you had a rain catching system. I hope your roof is metal and not normal asphalt shingles because those shingles release toxins into the water.

I will be putting out a beginners topic dealing with water this week about Friday. I wall touch on using solar power to help with preparing water for usage.

RICHFL,

Can't depend on the sunshine and temperatures here for sterilization year round. The roof is metal and we usually get rain in the summer 1 or 2 times a week. 500 gal sys hasn't ran dry yet, I think we average about 1/2 an inch to 3/4 per week. About 48 inches here annually. Potable water will actually leave treatment and go straight to house plumbing (gravity feed). Not the 120 lbs. of pressure in the pipes currently from PSD, but good enough to take a shower, cook and wash dishes. I'm wanting a solar pump to transfer water from my storage container to my filtration system and a solar powered UV filter to sterilize the water. I have a float switch at the bottom of the filtration system to turn it off and on, with demand. Currently have to run a generator to power system.

[Bullet-Caster]

Tweet
My uncle I Hand drove a Well in his back pasture. He got a solar well pump kit. Not sure of price but it has a panel made by SHARP electronics so im sure it wasnt cheep. But anyway it pumps water only when needed during the day using a float switch in tank. Its keeps the stock tank topped off and the cattle happy.