Do you have a backup water system?

Do you have a backup water system?

  • Yes

    Votes: 153 46.1%

  • No

    Votes: 95 28.6%

  • No, but looking into it

    Votes: 73 22.0%

  • Other

    Votes: 11 3.3%
  • Total voters
    332
Silly question - but do you have re-plumb to connect to it to certain things (ie just the toilet or irrigation) ?
 
Dolby said:
Silly question - but do you have re-plumb to connect to it to certain things (ie just the toilet or irrigation) ?
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No, all your pluming should be on a single circuit. You only need to replumb if you want to isolate certain things like drinking water (which is a good idea).
 
Yes. 2500l tank and pump connected to mains.

Can't survive without one on the Sout Coast. Regular outages ranging from days to weeks. Latest one was a week (last Tuesday to yesterday)
 
I have a wellpoint filling a 2.2kl tank. The water doesn't stain, but I won't use it for anything else than irrigation, and in case of emergency (and if we still have a functional sewage system) I'll use it for the toilets.
 
Nineteeneightysix said:
I did mine over a couple of months. Start with the tank - 2500l Africa Tank at BuildIt for R2200. A least you'll have a place to store water so long. From there get a pump, then the pipe and fittings and then the labour if you don't want to do it yourself.
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So you fill this tank with municipal water. What type of float do you use? A simple ball float like a toilet cistern on the intake?
 
Nineteeneightysix said:
I did mine over a couple of months. Start with the tank - 2500l Africa Tank at BuildIt for R2200. A least you'll have a place to store water so long. From there get a pump, then the pipe and fittings and then the labour if you don't want to do it yourself.
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I saw a lot of houses in Kimberly when I was there last year with a similar setup. Water outages were so frequent they said they had little choice.

Here in PE it's considered "stockpiling" and frowned upon. I've seen a lot of FB posts claiming it's actually illegal but, when pressed, they can't seem to qualify that with actual legislation.
 
bwana said:
I saw a lot of houses in Kimberly when I was there last year with a similar setup. Water outages were so frequent they said they had little choice.

Here in PE it's considered "stockpiling" and frowned upon. I've seen a lot of FB posts claiming it's actually illegal but, when pressed, they can't seem to qualify that with actual legislation.
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Here by us it's actually a bylaw for townhouse complexes and apartment buildings to have backup tanks.
 
Currently busy with my install.
Ive laid the slab, run the electrical cable, and placed the tank on the slab.
Just have the plumbing, pump and electrical connections to complete to have a 2500L municipal backup.

Considering a filtration system and rainwater harvesting for the future.
Maybe a borehole as well but they are pricey
 
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We have a 5000l water tank at home that we use for rainwater harvesting, run through a three-filter system for general household use and a reverse osmosis system for drinking water.

Load shedding is a bit of a teef as it means we cannot run the pump, but we work around it by either moving our errands that need water to other times, or switching to municipal supply if we cannot avoid it. Living in PE, a water tank is definitely a must-have.
 
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20 000l rainwater tanks - Used for garden and flushing toilets.
2 000l tank for municipal water storage.
Our municipal water is all pumped and loadshedding has been playing havoc with water supply. May need to consider a borehole too.
 
Our's was a journey; I first asked for gutters for my birthday. Then next was two water tanks; and after that another two; then all fixtures and fittings and on 1 March 2020 we went off the water grid. Have a 3 phase filter system and *touch wood* not yet run out despite the 8 year drought here in PE
 
I have 12 500 liter rain water capacity using two Jojo tanks and a pump. I installed this during the previous big drought in the Western Cape. Feeding this to the house into the house water supply is easy in my case, but the Municipal regulations require very expensive switch over valves (health and safety reasons?). I have not added filters for providing potable water - that is next phase!
 
Just a thought, if a backup water system is not elevated above the house, you will use a booster pump, probably 750w or 1kw.

Loadshedding will still be problem if you don't have sufficient backup power?
 
ebendl said:
I have a borehole that I've tested - it is perfectly safe to drink. Just very hard, so I need an ion exchange before I can hook it into my geyser.

But I probably need to lay down a slab, put up a jojo and put in a variable power pump so that I can more easily hook it up to my solar system - don't want to run the borehole every time.
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Pressure tank? Should also work and/or a pump controller.
 
I have 7000l JoJo tanks with pump and plumbed into the house. Toilets use tank water all the time the rest of the house has filters. Live in an Estate where the water is very good.
Summary. I don't trust the government so, I have ( relative) water security, Full solar, electricity security, and live in an Estate so (relative) Security. I know I must be one of the fortunate people but you can't be too prepared.
 
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