Heating harvested rain water

[JRH]

Can you give us more detail regarding location and use?
Having the tanks on the north side of a building, depending on climate, might not work well at all. Get some sun on them to provide warmup. Can you put some bleach to retard algae? Our black tank does not have a problem with freezing (or algae) but we get a good amount of sun here.

I have lived for 10 years using a 375 gallon translucent potable water tank… with a 12 volt pump to feed the RV…..spring fed, gravity filled… very cold all winter in the mtn… air temp below zero many times …spring never freezes….the tank is in a small shed with a radiator space heater and a small fan keeping the heat moving…

… 500;watts..x 24 hrs = 12kwhs per day x .15 cents per kWh= $1.80 per day = 54 bucks per month…temp stays about 40 all winter.
Cheap for all the water one can use…
It has never froze ..

as far as slime or bacteria if you add 12 drops of normal Clorox per gallon , if you use it rather fast that’s even better…
( not old Clorox but new and full strength) you will have safe clean alge free water even if it sits along time. . It’s in all the survival books .. Clorox kills viruses and bacteria and etc….and is safe for humans in these doses … it’s what citys use , dirty city’s use a lot more.

Clorox only lasts about 6 months and then diminishes in its strength…google it if needed to learn more.
hopefully you should have a reasonably clean source to start with… you always need to be able to slightly smell the Clorox in the finished water after about an hour or you didn’t add enough for that particular batch of water.…it’s smell and strength is diminished by how much was utilized to kill stuff…
but don’t add to much… yuck…
we have all grown up using it In our water…It’s not experimental and it’s cheap .
good luck…
J.

 

[Checkthisout]

Simple.

Put the tank in the ground where it doesn't freeze.

 

[JRH]

Simple.

Put the tank in the ground where it doesn't freeze.

We have to bury or water lines 4 ft deep here and sometimes they still freeze… seen it happen.. hell of a mess That requires big machinery to dig up , access and fix ( after it all thaws).

But where I am isn’t the norm…in most places I think your advice would work well , intemperate climates you could use one of those big underground propane tank , submarine hatch things ..it gives access to the water tanks top lid when open a ft or so below surface and would keep dirt and stuff out …and it closes up..neatly.

 

[Checkthisout]

We have to bury or water lines 4 ft deep here and sometimes they still freeze… seen it happen.. hell of a mess That requires big machinery to dig up , access and fix ( after it all thaws).

But where I am isn’t the norm…in most places I think your advice would work well , intemperate climates you could use one of those big underground propane tank , submarine hatch things ..it gives access to the water tanks top lid when open a ft or so below surface and would keep dirt and stuff out …and it closes up..neatly.

I would maybe use a different tank.

Running what ya brung though, dig hole 4" of foam in hole, put tank in hole, line sides of tank with 4-8" of rigid foam, backfill sides, foam on top and bury.

I would put a temp probe in the tank and see what happens. Buried, a bird bath heater on a t-stat would keep it good.

Of course you want to weigh the effort of all this against how much you intend to use the place.

At the end of the day, if you do all that, you might as well get an actual underground tank and bury it 6' down.

As someone who captures rainwater, I recommend really good filtration to keep stuff out of the tank. Something like an old pool filter works good. And, I recommend going ahead and chlorinating the water. The filters you'll use will get algae growth and need frequent changing if you don't.

 

[JRH]

I would maybe use a different tank.

Running what ya brung though, dig hole 4" of foam in hole, put tank in hole, line sides of tank with 4-8" of rigid foam, backfill sides, foam on top and bury.

I would put a temp probe in the tank and see what happens. Buried, a bird bath heater on a t-stat would keep it good.

Of course you want to weigh the effort of all this against how much you intend to use the place.

At the end of the day, if you do all that, you might as well get an actual underground tank and bury it 6' down.

As someone who captures rainwater, I recommend really good filtration to keep stuff out of the tank. Something like an old pool filter works good. And, I recommend going ahead and chlorinating the water. The filters you'll use will get algae growth and need frequent changing if you don't.

I agree..( btw ,that was a poorly written sentence I did saying propane tank…NOO.. I meant a propane tank style cover, NOT USE A PROPANE TANK …EWWW..
I have been working with water tanks springs creeks and wells and crap along time..n3ver rain..that would be cool.
we could probably put half the forum to sleep going over all the techniques to deal with the many facets one can run into dealing with raw water…haaaa..seriously …

i do always treat with the normal 12 per gal drops of chlorine but for about 15 years I still run everything ( especially city water ) through a carbon block filters as a final step for the best tasting drinking water…
..I have had the Berkeley, the pro pure and another good one that I forget…lota new one out now..I almost bought a RA unit once but it’s to much money for what I need……the pro pure seems to do best and filter fast…none are cheap but do last for years..
I use filtering in multiple steps along the way depending on the source…
which reminds me I need to service one of the bigger tanks this month before winter and replace a 12v pump… oh yea….much fun..
thx J.

 

[fpgt72]

Simple.

Put the tank in the ground where it doesn't freeze.

Freeze line here is 18", so your plan is to dig 40"x48" hole that is 64" deep? IBC height is 46" plus the 18" frost line.

Hang on I will get you a shovel.

 

[fpgt72]

We have to bury or water lines 4 ft deep here and sometimes they still freeze… seen it happen.. hell of a mess That requires big machinery to dig up , access and fix ( after it all thaws).

But where I am isn’t the norm…in most places I think your advice would work well , intemperate climates you could use one of those big underground propane tank , submarine hatch things ..it gives access to the water tanks top lid when open a ft or so below surface and would keep dirt and stuff out …and it closes up..neatly.

Mine is still deep enough that suggestion is flat......well uninformed.....lets say. Even if the frost line is at 1" you are digging one hell of a hole.

 

[fpgt72]

I am going to dump two tanks and leave just the 275gal full over winter. Heat the tank itself with a left over stock tank heater that still works, and heat wrap the water lines outside and in, Cover it all to try to lock the heat in as best I can. We will see what happens, If I loose it they are fairly cheap, and PEX is easy to work with.

 

[SamDeleted]

Mine is still deep enough that suggestion is flat......well uninformed.....lets say. Even if the frost line is at 1" you are digging one hell of a hole.

How cold does it get there mate ?


There are other options besides electric heating , so long as it's not VERY cold

 

[fpgt72]

How cold does it get there mate ?


There are other options besides electric heating , so long as it's not VERY cold

I know the frost line is at 18". I would say the coldest would be -10 to -15, but that does not last for a day or two. Generally normal winter is at 0.

When we have issues is late fall early spring, the temps will be right at freezing, and if rain comes through ice on trees, power goes down. I have been out of power for 14 days straight due to power outage. That was the longest single run, usually a "long run" is 2-3 days. I would bet we loose power 3-4 times per month, and generally for around 30min.

I live in the sticks and it is just part of it. The only issue with water is if the pumps stop, the "city" pumps, and we loose water pressure. You can use the water we collect to do things like flush the toilet and clean yourself up a bit, you have to jump through some hoops if you need to drink it, we do have that all in place just incase our potable water gets low.

I babbled, but the frost line for our area is at 18, and I am sure you are aware what happens if you don't go below that if you are sticking something in the ground. If I did burry it, it would make sense that it be that deep. I think my plan of basically a tent, and some heat for the lines will do the trick of holding the heat in.

To babble again for a sec....

When we had animals each fall we would build a "house" out of a round bail, I had a rebar frame and we would just dump the hay over top of that frame, it made like a cave. Inside that cave I bet it was easy 50 even on the most cold day. The wind was held back by a fairly heavy tarp. Kid wanted to spend the night in it several times, with the coyote around that was a hard no.

anyhoo sorry for all the babble.

 

[SamDeleted]

When we had animals each fall we would build a "house" out of a round bail, I had a rebar frame and we would just dump the hay over top of that frame, it made like a cave. Inside that cave I bet it was easy 50 even on the most cold day. The wind was held back by a fairly heavy tarp. Kid wanted to spend the night in it several times, with the coyote around that was a hard no

Sound like a good solution for your IBC ?

 

[TOU47]

Different but here is what we did living off grid in a 5th wheel in Colorado last winter, (6,850' elevation) while we build. We hauled water via ICB totes which we dump into an above ground black 550 gallon water tank. We would fill the RV up from it...on nice days...which just means sunny but usually still cold.

Once winter hits which is longer here than most, it is rarely above freezing...never at night. Last winter we had 3 weeks in a row of -5⁰ to -10⁰ F. We wrapped the tank in standard paper faced R19 fiberglass insulation. We then put 2 left over wood boxes/crates together over it to keep the elements off of it. I then made a small removable insulated box from 2" foam board (R7?) just for the ball valve at the bottom for filling. The whole thing sits directly on the ground...not buried. Because it is insulated & covered the ground acts as a geothermal heat sink & the ground never freezes which means the tank doesn't either. So long as it We keep the tank above 1/2 we never had much more than 2" frozen on the top which I would break through easily before refilling. The ball valve never froze. We will be doing this again this winter.