On Sun, 11 Sep 2011 17:41:48 -0400, aemeijers
wrote:
On 9/11/2011 5:18 PM, wrote:
(snip)
If you are worried about having enough water in an emergency, install
a couple of old electric hot water heaters in the basement - hung from
the ceiling or on a strong rack would be best - and have all your
water go through them so the water is always "fresh". In case of a
power failure you could drain water from them. No vent required if you
just crack a tap open above it to let air in.
Okay, McGyver. Somehow that doesn't sound real practical, or cheap. It
gets TOO nasty, I can just go to a hotel. Only problem with the Memorial
day storm was, the damage and outage was so widespread, there wasn't a
hotel room within 50 miles. I managed, but it wasn't pleasant. 20 or 30
gallons of stored water would have made it a lot easier. I was looking
for a cheap and painless way to do that. Like 4 or 5 5gallon plastic
jerry cans for less than 20 bucks each.
Go to the camping supply department at Walmart or whatever your
favourite local reseller is, and buy a couple of camping water totes.
Ours was blue - 5 US gallons, and had a tap on it and a little vent
plug that you needed to pull. Only problem is keeping the water FRESH.
You want simple, effective,AND cheap??? Pick 2 - you can't have all 3.
If I lived where power outages were anything close to common AND
depended on a well for water I WOULD have a buffer tank installed
in-line that would hold a goodly supply of "always fresh" water. A
"gravity tank" in the attic would make the some sense, as it would
allow water usage in a normal manner, through the regular taps.
When I was in Zambis ALL houses were fed from a "gravity tank" in the
attic - and the "geyser" didn't have (or need) a pressure relief
safety valve because the "gravity tank" was not under pressure.
Picture a big livestock watering trough with a float valve and a
snug-fitting but not air-tight lid. If (actually when) water service
was disrubted because the pump broke down at the main water works, you
didn't even know about it unless it was off for quite some time - and
they did not have a "water tower" to provide system pressure like most
cities here do.
Not advocating doing that here.
Like I said before, proper cure is to get somebody who knows local code
to come in and put half-a-dozen critical circuits on a transfer switch
for me, and buy a generator. If I can have furnace (and maybe AC),
water, and 2 or 3 outlets for fridge, computer, tv, reading lamp, etc, I
would be fine. But given how seldom I have extended outages (every
couple of years), the other stuff the place needs (like new siding) has
to be higher on the list.