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Salagatle!


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Thursday, October 21, 2010

For my next project

Apart from the power outages, probably more serious is water outages. Yup, it happens, and it's no problem for a few hours, but when it goes overnight, or worse still, for 2 - 3 days, you realize that water is definitely more important then electricity!

So, we have a few options here. One would be to install a tank in the roof of the house. This would fill up, and feed the rest of the house. In the event of water cuts for whatever reason, you would still have that amount of water available to use. This would be limited due to the weight on the roof beams. Probably 200 - 400 liters I suppose.

Another option is to put a tank in the line outside. In my case, I have a steep downhill driveway, so I could bury a tank into the ground, with the municipal water feed feeding into the tank, and from there feeding to the house. This would give me more water storage capacity. A JoJo tank of about 5000 lt could easily suffice.
Available from 1,000lt to 20,000 lt
Problems could be with digging the hole. It's all rock down there, and could require serious jackhammers, or even controlled blasting. But it's an option, and under consideration. I could just surface mount it, and have the same availability, just not a nice feature. (Maybe I can install it under the entrance, in the space currently utilized as sleeping quarters for the dogs, now there's a thought!)

Apart from this, I am also looking at installing 1 or 2 5000 Lt tanks below the driveway (at the garage end) to catch rainwater. Due to the steep fall of the driveway, and the size of the houses roof, there is a big catchment of rainwater available. Currently it runs down the drive, across the lawn, and seeps into the ground. Storing this would have dual purpose. In the event of water cuts, it could be used for grey water purpose (flushing toilets) and under normal condition's, for watering of the garden and lawns. It would be easy to install a low pressure pump, and irrigation system, and put it all on a timer, and have the garden watered every night.
In this case, their positioning would be such that they would not be an eye sore, and well hidden. All that's required is a concrete slab (will have to be reinforced due to their weight when full).

The above solutions are all on the drawing board, as well as on the back burner due to financial constraints. Any comments on the above, (or advice Fishman) would be most welcome. Fishman, for those of you who don't know, is a fellow blogger, but also a personal mate. No, we don't live on each others doorsteps, but he's a damn fine guy, and a handy man like myself, and usually has some good advise to share.

Salagatle!

3 comments:

Fishman said...

Jojo's do not like to be buried! Unless it is the septic versions.

Jakkals said...

Pre 94 we didn't have to worry about shit like this. I know Fishman's answer to the our water problem. Emigrate to a place where things still works.LOL

Wreckless Euroafrican said...

I knew Fishman would have a valued comment- Thanx boet. Will look into alternatives then.
Jakkals, U r so right! But emigrating might not be an option...

Salagatle!