[Greenbuilding] Living with a rainwater cistern (was Re: hot water)

[bill.allen at verizon.net]

Great story!
I'll probably put a top on mine:-)
Bill
-----Original Message-----
From: RT <ArchiLogic at yahoo.ca>
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Date: Tue, 08 Feb 2011 12:06:17 
To: <greenbuilding at lists.bioenergylists.org>
Reply-to: ArchiLogic at chaffyahoo.ca,
 Green Building <greenbuilding at lists.bioenergylists.org>
Subject: [Greenbuilding] Living with a rainwater cistern (was Re: hot water)

On Tue, 08 Feb 2011 10:52:26 -0500, <bill.allen at verizon.net> wrote:

> I'm in the middle of the woods and was thinking about a rainwater  
> harvesting system instead of drilling a well.  Can anyone comment pro or  
> con on RWH systems, especially for drinking water?

Years ago when I lived at RR2 Drumbo ON (that's "Dumbo" with an "r".  Eh?   
(Postal code "(k)Nob 2 go"). Just a hoot and a holler from Ayr and Paris  
in the Banana Belt of SW Ontario), I lived in an old farmhouse that had a  
rainwater cistern in the basement which supplied all of the water for  
drinking,cooking,washing etc.

There was also a drilled well (with very hard,sulphurous, iron-bearing  
groundwater water and a mob of well-fed and watered poopin'/pi$$in'  
Hereford steers surrounding the house) to be used in the event the cistern  
went dry in winter but that situation never arose in all the time I lived  
there, about 3 years.

The cistern was open on top (no lid, no screen) so I suppose that I  
shouldn't have been surprised to find mouse carcases and a cat carcase at  
the bottom when we went searching for a missing freaked-out cat (freaked  
out by my very large Alsatian) that had come with a girlfriend who was  
visiting for the weekend.

(The cat found at the bottom of the cistern sort of melted into an ooze  
when I scooped it off of the bottom with a spade and brought it to the  
surface at which point, the GF, a soon-to-be-Veterinarian, "Urp!"'ed,  
clasped her hand over her mouth and scooted up the stairs ... so it wasn't  
GF's cat who was later found elsewhere in the house.)

In all the years living at that farmhouse and drinking that "cat tea"  
(spiced with the odd mouse) I was never sick -- not even a cold.

And I suspect that my experience was not unique for that area. Most of the  
old farmhouses and old houses in the nearby villages in that area had  
cisterns in their basements, some of them (ie in the century-old cut-stone  
houses) with impressive vaulted masonry ceilings over them. Others in  
newer houses, were in the foundation space under the attached garage floor  
slab.

I'm guessing (and this is just an uneducated "opinion") that being exposed  
to whatever gross crud that might be found in the very dilute  
concentrations that might be found a rainwater cistern is like getting a  
flu shot -- it helps to strengthen the body's immune system.

The RWH "system" was pretty basic:  A manually-operated damper in a "Y" at  
the base of a rain leader (aka "downspout") flipped one way, the runoff  
 from the roof would be spilled onto the ground, flipped the other way, the  
runoff would be diverted down into the cast-in-place concrete-walled  
cistern in the basement.

Jet pump that could be used to draw water either from the well or the  
cistern to circulate through the house plumbing.

For those who might be a little squeamish about drinking/washing with cat  
tea, I suppose a first 5 gallons run-off diverter at the inlet + a lid on  
the cistern + a whole-house filtration system would help to alleviate some  
of the squeam.

-- 
=== * ===
Rob Tom
Kanata, Ontario, Canada
< A r c h i L o g i c  at  Y a h o o  dot  c a >
manually winnow the chaff from my edress if you hit "reply"
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