Water Storage

Many of you know how important it is to keep a supply of food storage in preparation for hard times that can come at any moment. Anything from losing your job to an interruption in food supplies or natural disaster can turn your life upside down overnight. And having a year supply of food can go a long way to putting you at ease. As part of your food storage, you need a solution for water. This can be quite a daunting task since crunching the numbers according to recommended daily intake of water means a whole lot of water taking up a whole lot of room if you aim to have a year supply.

According to the Mayo Clinic, you should drink roughly 64 oz of water per day (half a gallon). In that case 1/2 gallon multiplied by 365 days in a year comes to 182.5 gallons for one person per year of storage. If you use 55-gallon barrels to store your water in, you're talking about 4 barrels per person. Not too bad if you're on your own with some decent space. But if you have a family of say, a spouse and 4 children, that turns into 24 barrels. And if you're one of those who has 10 kids, that's 48 barrels. With a 2-foot diameter for each barrel, the 4 barrels will take up 16 sq. feet. The 24 barrels will take up 96 sq. feet. The 48 barrels will take up 192 sq. feet. Depending on your family size, that's a lot of living space taken up by just water, which isn't even being used until disaster strikes.

Now, lets look at the cost of just the barrels. If you buy a 55-gallon food-grade water storage barrel from me, you're going to spend $79.95 for each barrel. That's no cheap purchase when you have a family. Based on the 3 family sizes mentioned above, you're looking at, $320 for the single person, $1,919 for the family of 6, and $3,838 for the family of 12. Despite this cost, it's important to have water storage, and if you buy your barrels from me, you'll certainly make my day, but there is another option. What if I told you that you can buy a water unit that will generate water without being hooked up to any water supply, and that the unit will produce up to 7 gallons of water per day out of thin air? Some of you will know what I'm talking about already, and some of you might think I'm smoking crack in between my postings. Well, I'm happy to say I don't smoke crack. I can't afford it in this economy. There is, in fact, a unit that looks much like a standard water cooler that you might find in any office environment.



The difference is that this particular unit doesn't rely on a water supply line because it pulls moisture (humidity) from the air into it's intake and then collects and filters it into a reservoir, ready for you drink. If this unit generates 7 gallons of water per day, that's 2,555 gallons of water per year (the equivalent of 47 55-gallon barrels). And it takes up no more than 2 sq. feet. You can purchase this unit from a company called EcoloBlue for US $1,250. And right now they have a promotion where for $1 more you can get a gas-powered electric generator.

You might want some barrels for storage anyway, but at least with this unit you can have peace of mind while you build your water barrel supply, since you will have a continuous supply of fresh water. And with the generator that comes with it for only $1, you can still get water if the power goes out. My plan is to run one on solar so I don't have to be concerned about getting gas for the generator. Generators are great and very handy, but if whatever crisis comes along involves an interruption in gas supplies, a generator with only work for us until we run out of fuel (and storing large quantities of gas would be bloody expensive, not to mention dangerous and likely to require a permit for large quantities).