Converting Rain Water to Drinking Water

[kleetus]

So a brief explanation of the situation, I am about to start building a house in a rural area which should take a year to a year and a half. We built a barn 1st to store all of our stuff plus equipment, the barn is 2400 sq feet with metal roof. so its quite a bit of roof surface. I put up a 1550 Gallon rain collection tank on one half a few years ago and its worked amazingly well. so this year I added a 2500 gallon one to the other side.

I am going to be installing a bathroom in the shop soon and was wondering if there was an effective way to make rain water potable? mostly for showering and toilet, but drinking and laundry would be nice while we are building.

a well is going to be coming, but its going to be around 1100 feet deep (neighbor has a well that deep 300 yards away), so if I can I would like to use rain water for the barn, I do live in Oregon so we have no shortage of rain. and if there is an effective enough system I will probably have an inground tank put in for the house.

I do currently have power so it can be a powered system. I currently use a ceramic filter system at my current house for filtered drinking in the living room, doesnt "need" filtered but I figured why the heck not. Its a gravity system so its limited to 5 gallons per hour with all 5 filters put in.

my goal is to pump it from the collection tanks to a filter then store it in a holding tank above the bathroom and use it as needed. anyone else done something like this?

Thanks

 

[davesl708]

You may need to do it in two steps. A whole house filter system followed by a disinfection system (chorine). I would limit the filtration and disinfection to the drinking water only. Maybe a water softener for the rest of the water for bathing and laundry.

 

[/pine]

I would have the water tested as is to start...if the roof is galvanized it may show up in the test...otherwise the test should also tell you what needs to filtered out (size of filter)...

I own an old house in FL that has a concrete cistern under the front porch...it was originally set up to catch rain water...there was some type of flapper/damper on a down spout...after it had rained long enough to wash off the roof the flapper was opened to fill the cistern...it was plumbed to a hand pump in the kitchen...

 

[Fossil Farm]

Done all the time using both cisterns and ponds. Some areas around here had their groundwater contaminated by shallow oil/gas wells in the early 1900's, so cisterns and ponds have been used for many, many years. Google "potable water from ponds" or "potable water from cistern" and it should give you all kinds of information on what should be done to be drinkable.

 

[teejk]

I would have the water tested as is to start...if the roof is galvanized it may show up in the test...otherwise the test should also tell you what needs to filtered out (size of filter)...

I own an old house in FL that has a concrete cistern under the front porch...it was originally set up to catch rain water...there was some type of flapper/damper on a down spout...after it had rained long enough to wash off the roof the flapper was opened to fill the cistern...it was plumbed to a hand pump in the kitchen...

I suggested such a system to a friend that has to haul water to his "man-barn". He's one on of those people that will throw out canned goods when that date says to (after needing something to eat in a trapper's cabin I personally add 10 years to that date but that's just me). Anyway his biggest concern was bird droppings and that Asian flu thing. Filtration will cure the particles and I guess chlorine will kill nasty bacteria. Will watch this post for ideas! Would be nice to wash hands without that little button on an Igloo 5 gal water cooler.

 

[Wagtail]

My house is 100% plumbed to my rain-water tank (roof collection). There's no filtration system, just pure rain water and whatever's in my gutters :laughing:. I refer to it as champagne as the taste is beautiful! One drawback is that the water is 'hard' which tends to slightly shrink some clothes, especially bed linen, but the smell (chemical free) is lovely.

My tanks (one off the house, one off my 5-bay shed) have a screen on the inlet that requires an occasional clean. Other than that it's worry free and has been my sole water source since '98. Prior to that I had a bore (what you would call a well) which required more maintenance. I still have the bore but only use it to top up the tank in times of drought.

The odd time I will have a water-tanker bring a 'top up' load of "town water" with its chlorine to add to the system but, LORD, you can taste the difference. :yuck:

 

[kenmac]

My house is 100% plumbed to my rain-water tank (roof collection). There's no filtration system, just pure rain water and whatever's in my gutters :laughing:. I refer to it as champagne as the taste is beautiful! One drawback is that the water is 'hard' which tends to slightly shrink some clothes, especially bed linen, but the smell (chemical free) is lovely.

My tanks (one off the house, one off my 5-bay shed) have a screen on the inlet that requires an occasional clean. Other than that it's worry free and has been my sole water source since '98. Prior to that I had a bore (what you would call a well) which required more maintenance. I still have the bore but only use it to top up the tank in times of drought.

The odd time I will have a water-tanker bring a 'top up' load of "town water" with its chlorine to add to the system but, LORD, you can taste the difference. :yuck:

I couldn't imagine just rain water alone.. You must have cleaner rain water than I do

 

[Wagtail]

I couldn't imagine just rain water alone.. You must have cleaner rain water than I do

Well, without boasting ('cause I had nothing to do with it), Tasmania has some of (if not the most) cleanest air quality in the world. It might be because we're so close to Antarctica. :confused3: Anyway, there's practically no pollution/harmful particulates here... and quite a few of us (including me) use wood heaters too.

We're very rural, small population for the State and an island with a lot of forest cover. Very clean rivers & streams too, a number of people/neighbours pump straight from them too.

 

[MossRoad]

You may need to do it in two steps. A whole house filter system followed by a disinfection system (chorine). I would limit the filtration and disinfection to the drinking water only. Maybe a water softener for the rest of the water for bathing and laundry.

I don't think you need to soften rainwater.

 

[teg]

What type of metal roof? If it's the painted tin, you are better off... As for most of your usage, I wouldn't do anything but basic filter out the trash. Just treat the drinking and cooking water.

 

[newbury]

You need to boil the water, to each 10 gallons add about 100 ounces of malt extract, boil let it cool, maybe throw in a few ounces of hops. Throw in some yeast, cap it so it can ferment. After a few weeks bottle or keg it.
Note - this is not for washing, only drinking.

 

[kleetus]

speaking of brewing... I literally am drinking the 1st pint out of a new batch.. it just complete its carbonation.. a nice Belgian style ale around 7.5-8%. I call it "Not a Banana in my Pocket" the recipe was based of one called "Dirty Banana". The yeast puts off a banana aroma but adds no flavor to the beer, if you use a different yeast (T-33) then it doesn't. I also did a batch of dirt banana but I wanted to see just how the yeast affected flavor.. its quite noticable

Dirty Banana Bock - Beer Recipe - Brewer's Friend

 

[kenmac]

Well, without boasting ('cause I had nothing to do with it), Tasmania has some of (if not the most) cleanest air quality in the world. It might be because we're so close to Antarctica. :confused3: Anyway, there's practically no pollution/harmful particulates here... and quite a few of us (including me) use wood heaters too.

We're very rural, small population for the State and an island with a lot of forest cover. Very clean rivers & streams too, a number of people/neighbours pump straight from them too.

I wouldn't dare pump from the river or stream.. there are large cattle farms & chicken houses here.. Guess where all the pasture & chicken house run off ends up

 

[kleetus]

What type of metal roof? If it's the painted tin, you are better off... As for most of your usage, I wouldn't do anything but basic filter out the trash. Just treat the drinking and cooking water.

painted steel, I don't think its galvanized.. 26gauge steel is what it lists.

 

[TnAndy]

You may need to do it in two steps. A whole house filter system followed by a disinfection system (chorine). I would limit the filtration and disinfection to the drinking water only. Maybe a water softener for the rest of the water for bathing and laundry.

You'd soften rain water ? Really ?

I'd put in a 5micron filter and a UV light, and not drink chlorine.

 

[TnAndy]

My house is 100% plumbed to my rain-water tank (roof collection). There's no filtration system, just pure rain water and whatever's in my gutters :laughing:. I refer to it as champagne as the taste is beautiful! One drawback is that the water is 'hard' which tends to slightly shrink some clothes, especially bed linen, but the smell (chemical free) is lovely.

Folks, rain water is nature's distilled water....it has no minerals in it to be "hard" (dissolved lime mostly). It tends to lean more toward the acid end of the scale (soft) than alkaline (hard)....it will combine with CO2, NO2, and SO2 in the atmosphere to form various weak acids.

When that runs thru a limestone rock layer, it dissolves lime into the water (which is why caves form). Water sources from limestone tend to be "hard". Rainwater, or water sources that come out of sandstone springs like ours, are 'soft'.

If your water is hard, it's because you are storing it in a concrete tank, and it's dissolving the tank, leaching into the water.

 

[Wagtail]

Folks, rain water is nature's distilled water....it has no minerals in it to be "hard" (dissolved lime mostly). It tends to lean more toward the acid end of the scale (soft) than alkaline (hard)....it will combine with CO2, NO2, and SO2 in the atmosphere to form various weak acids.

When that runs thru a limestone rock layer, it dissolves lime into the water (which is why caves form). Water sources from limestone tend to be "hard". Rainwater, or water sources that come out of sandstone springs like ours, are 'soft'.

If your water is hard, it's because you are storing it in a concrete tank, and it's dissolving the tank, leaching into the water.

All right, Mate, it's soft. My mistake and ta for the correction. My tanks are both poly, as are the pipes that lead into them... colourbond 'tin' roofs on all my buildings.

I assumed the hardness due to my linen shrinkage... darn near impossible to 'fit' my fitted sheets anymore.

 

[Wagtail]

I wouldn't dare pump from the river or stream.. there are large cattle farms & chicken houses here.. Guess where all the pasture & chicken house run off ends up

I agree, neither would I and for the very reason you give.

However, they must be using some sort of post-pumping filtration. I believe that the filtered intake is typically buried in the sandy bed of the river/stream.

 

[Redneck in training]

While working in Australia few years back I remember an article describing a business producing and selling bottled rain water. Tasmanian Rain is the brand. There are several US brands also.

 

[TnAndy]

I assumed the hardness due to my linen shrinkage... darn near impossible to 'fit' my fitted sheets anymore.

Nah.....you're using too hot water....or it's those cheap Vietnamese sheets...