BajaNomad

Water tank question

Donjulio - 6-18-2010 at 08:43 AM

For those of you full-timers that have water tanks. Roughly how many gallons do you find yourself using per month? Need to figure out tank size for someone.

El Camote - 6-18-2010 at 08:52 AM

From our own experience: In an RV with a more water efficient toilet, 10 gals. /person/day. This is using grey water for watering plants and doing clothes laundry out. Also daily bathing turning off water while soaping up.

This translates to an 1100 liter tank filled twice a month for two persons.

Riom - 6-18-2010 at 09:05 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Donjulio
For those of you full-timers that have water tanks. Roughly how many gallons do you find yourself using per month? Need to figure out tank size for someone.


For a house on the mountain side of El Dorado, 3000 gallons a month (for two people) seems fairly typical. A cistern size of 2200-3000 gallons is the most efficient, as it can take a full 2000 gallon or so pila load to refill (about every three weeks). Water is more expensive by the part-load.

Some have said they use over 5000 gallons (mainly if they have a fancy garden) and many use under 2000 gallons.

Those in RV's in the solar areas use much less (more efficient fittings, more likely to do laundry elsewhere). I'm sure many there use well under 500 gallons a month.

Rob

Usage

MrBillM - 6-18-2010 at 09:29 AM

100-125 Gallons per week (two people) + 60 Gallons per week for Laundry (Conventional Electric Washing Machine - 3 Full loads) = approx 750 Gallons per month. All Grey water generated used on plants.

bajalou - 6-18-2010 at 10:20 AM

We use about 500 gal every 3 weeks or so. laundry done elsewhere. Solar area, RV under a Ramada.

DENNIS - 6-18-2010 at 10:33 AM

It all depends on the size of your garden.

comitan - 6-18-2010 at 11:35 AM

Very conservative here use 10,000 Liters per month, also the delivery truck holds 10,000 lts.

DavidE - 6-18-2010 at 12:39 PM

Wash dishes in salt water except during red tides, rinse in fresh. Two five gallon buckets fill 1/3 with clothing, fill to 2/3rds with water and detergent, grab a god book, shuck the huaraches stick one foot into each bucket and then start agitating. One chapter per load. Use dishwashing and bathing rinse water for flower pots. You'd be surprised at what you can grow using recycled water. The stink of proper use or proper use + chemicals in an RV make a headache in more ways than one. If I lived near the water I would consider the use of a ceramic marine toilet that dumps SEA WATER EFFLUENT into a correctly constructed septic. PLANT COCONUT PALMS AROUND THE SEPTIC TANK and they will use salt water and whatever else they suck out of the leach lines. Whole green coconuts can be planted in places where you'd swear they won't grow. Young palms need FRESH WATER for the first two years of growth. Find an arroyo that has a silt deposit, fill the bed of your pickup and pack silt (you'll need lots) around the planted nut. The silt will retain fresh water moisture. It'll take a number of years but there is no reason on earth why a person cannot be shaded in a miniature grove of coconut palms. This works best if a person can haul or pump water up from the sea. Coconut palms? Yeah, you wouldn't believe how much water, a goodly shaded camp or home site saves.

Use a catch bucket for air conditioner condensation and then toss that daily onto the stuff growing in the flower pots along with sink and shower drainings.

The most efficient use of fresh water when dishwashing is a twenty to thirty PSI fine spray out of a good quality sink sprayer. You can do a whole load of dishes on 10-liters of water.

Ferreterias sell shower heads that really save a lot of water. The trick is to have an ability to spray water only when you actually need it. Laugh on, but that kitchen dish rinsing sprayer mentioned above using the same water pressure can allow a 2-gallon shower that seems like you stood under a waterfall.

Hope This Helps

Bob and Susan - 6-18-2010 at 03:12 PM

donjulio

all these guys use way too little water:biggrin:

we use 50 gallons per day per person

this includes
toilet flushing
2 showers per person per day
1 washer per day (40 gallons)
mopping the floors
dishes
plants
hosing off sand
washing the truck
etc

the tank should be built to the size of the water delivery truck
if the normal truck delivers 3500 gallons
then the tank should be double 7000 gallons

the difference in size from a small tank to a larger tank is very little in construction cost
you'll be way happier in the future


remember you're in mexico and just because you need water you may not get it right away:o

that way when it 1/2 full of water you can fill it

Desertbull - 6-18-2010 at 03:26 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by El Camote
From our own experience: In an RV with a more water efficient toilet, 10 gals. /person/day. This is using grey water for watering plants and doing clothes laundry out. Also daily bathing turning off water while soaping up.

This translates to an 1100 liter tank filled twice a month for two persons.


what about when you and I are drinking tequila and we need to be cleaned off

Thread Hijack to my friend!

How's the kiddo?

Man, I just had my 18 year old graduate high school and she's off to Europe and then college!

Let's catch up...heading south for a week soon.

BAJA.DESERT.RAT - 6-18-2010 at 07:44 PM

Hola, while we are on the subject, how does a pila work ? we don't need one until the storms happen along and there is no electricity which translate into no water pressure.

is it just gravity fed
how does it get filled with a city that has plumbed water
how can pressure be moderated for good water pressure
does one need some type of pump
how does one keep it sanitary..no algae or
what is the recommended height..on top of a bodega
what capacity for two people for a week..two weeks
costs

ANY OTHER SUGGESTIONS

GRACIAS

BIEN SALUD, DA RAT

DavidE - 6-18-2010 at 08:09 PM

Pilas are gravity feed and deliver roughly a half pound of pressure for every foot of elevation above the faucet or outlet.

An aljibe is a subterranean tank that has a pump controlled by a float in the "tinaca (more in use than pila)" for automatic refilling. Aljibes can be constructed of tabriques (bricks or blocks) that have a thick coat of mortar like concrete slapped onto them. When construcing an aljibe run a vertical vent pipe and then at a very convenient height place a screen filter to thwart entry of mosquitoes. Aljibes should have a manhole opening for cleaning, with a smaller access port for a pipa to drop its load.

Don't forget to fit a Rotoplas filter element on the discharge line. Super clorination works wonders to clarify tinana and aljibe bulk water.

Also, city water many times arrives with weak pressure. If city water doesn't have to climb up onto a roof it can make the difference of filling two thousand liters in two hours versus six or eight. Sometimes this means having enough water. Gravity feed the aljibe first then have an automatic (float controlled) pump lift it up to the tinaca. Do not forget to have a second electric float switch in the aljibe --- you do not want to run the pump dry. This means putting in a Float Valve in both the aljibe and the tinaca, and an electric float switch for the pump motor in the aljibe and in the tinaca.

If you run filtered water to a washing machine, you can do so through one inch plastic tubing which will act as a solar collector and provide hot water.

Bob and Susan - 6-19-2010 at 05:42 AM

good info david

i have my tanks below ground
maybe a mistake...
they would have been easier to work on
if they were above ground

i use plastic tanks inside the concrete "bunker"
that way i can "control" the water
no animals and "sea-page" of salt

i add clorine for "bugs"
no clorine sold here in mulege
i have to "bring it in"

i do loose some room with plastic tanks
but i sleep better and fill more often

here they use a float valve in town to fill
tinacas from the city water
it's sold at the local store
looks like a toilet ball with no bends

city water goes out from time to time

you really need to be careful if using a electric pump
not to run out of water
the pump will burn if "run dry"

i've seen a couple already melt

we are currently using a 4 amp cast iron pump
with a pressure tank...less electricty for solar

e get regular city (USA) pressure from this setup (40lbs)

the water from our tanks does get hot in the summer but
for the washer you need HOT water for "really clean" cloths

we use a on-demand unit
it's working really well with the washer
1 tank of propane is lasting a year and
we do at least a load a day

on-demand heaters do not work well for us in the showers
too much pressure change with the pump and it shuts off
so you either burn or freeze
a plus is you take a SHORT shower and conserve water:light:

we now use small regular water heaters

Osprey - 6-19-2010 at 05:58 AM

I guess I qualify as a full timer (15 years with only 2 days in the U.S.). We have a 1500 galllon pila built into our wall. It has a small pump and bladder tank. When our city water goes off (a billion times) the system works well. When there is a major power outage we just get a low pressure gravity feed for dishes and WC. Here's the good part -- emergency water, when the power is off for weeks, comes by tanker truck and is free. The truck has no pumping system but it can fill our pila from the street. Tanks on roofs can have problems we don't face. I'm still thanking Mike O'dell for his foresight on this one.

capt. mike - 6-19-2010 at 07:05 AM

Bob - can't you use chlorine bleach? does it have to be straight chlorine?
the city uses bleach to decontaminate lines regularly.

Bob and Susan - 6-19-2010 at 07:52 AM

bleach is different
it turns into a poison

i buy liquid clorine
way better for tap water

the city pumps dry clorine mixed with water into the city system
at the pump
there's a 50 gallon tub of it with a separate pump that pumps it in

the "real" problem with trucked water is the dirt in it
the dirt will cause real stomach problems...sometimes

Bajajorge - 6-19-2010 at 08:33 AM

I live in an RV, but I have a 300gal underground water tank. I need a fill about every 6-7 days. Only occasional showers in the RV, daily showers and laundry at another location. Tank water used mainly for cooking, dishwashing and toilet flushing with afterward hand washing. Drinking water is reverse osmosis water in 5gal jugs.