Water Cisterns

[cobraboy]

I think that you are talking about seawater. I used an RO system with river water and sea-water. It was very efficient. With river water I could turn the pressure right down for gallons of drinkable water to flow.

No. RO can purify any water. Bottled water in the DR is purified with RO filters.

I had a small RO filter in the kitchen of my FL home for sink drinking and fridge ice/through-door drinking water. The only downside attached to a municipal water system is pressure drop.

 

[tommeyers]

"For drinking, install a .4 micron ceramic filter on your drinking water line and you're good to go."
Would you have a link to what might be suitable to purchase for this? tks

To complete this process I believe you need a UV component to kill the microbes.

I just evaluated RO systems for my kitchen. UV was necessary.

The initial system cost plus maintenance effort and cost led me to a 5 gallon jug pump for under the sink to supply the refrigerator and a sink faucet.

 

[jstarebel]

"For drinking, install a .4 micron ceramic filter on your drinking water line and you're good to go."
Would you have a link to what might be suitable to purchase for this? tks

BigBrand Water Filter, reverse osmosis, water testing, filtration, purification would be good to see whats available, but look elsewhere to buy. Systems and filters are all over the internet.

 

[cobraboy]

We have city water that comes from wells & a river. It goes into a 2000g cistern and pumped high to to a 500g tinaco on top of the third story and pump/gravity fed to the house & hose bibs.

What kind of whole-house filtration system could make this system potable? What kind of filtration system would folks recommend for new construction? I would love to get rid of 5gal. & water bottles for drinking water...

WW-I think the dual system you suggest makes sense, rainwater storage for bathrooms, outdoors & pools. Although ideally, one system for everything would be ideal.

 

[tommeyers]

CB those 5 gallon electric pumps are cheap and you can get a dual 5 gallon pump too. The cascada is as pain that Iam solving with one of those.

 

[jstarebel]

Something I just remembered about small ro's. There is a device called a permeate pump that reduces the waste stream some by reusing a portion of it in the feed source. Be sure that your machine has an auto shut off device on it too.

 

[cobraboy]

CB those 5 gallon electric pumps are cheap and you can get a dual 5 gallon pump too. The cascada is as pain that Iam solving with one of those.

Pumping isn't the problem. Bottles & storage of them are. We keep 8 around here and they are a hassle and take up a lot of room. Plus, the bathroom sinks are not potable.

At minimum, the kitchen & all sinks of a house should denseness potable water. Ideally for dish washing also. Toilets and showers, not so much, but would also be nice. Pool and outdoor landscaping, no need at all.

Surely there is a filtration option for this.

Perhaps an automatic chlorinator for incoming street/well water could work...

 

[jstarebel]

We have city water that comes from wells & a river. It goes into a 2000g cistern and pumped high to to a 500g tinaco on top of the third story and pump/gravity fed to the house & hose bibs.

What kind of whole-house filtration system could make this system potable? What kind of filtration system would folks recommend for new construction? I would love to get rid of 5gal. & water bottles for drinking water....

exactly what I posted above. Using for drinking, the only thing I would add is a small chemical feed pump to insure proper chlorine disinfection takes place. When the pump comes on. Using a well? Same difference just use the well pump for its power. I know a lot of people do the UV thing, but there are way too many variables to make them effective and user friendly on home systems usually.

 

[william webster]

I plan on chlorinating the 5,000 gal cistern, and UV to the drinking faucets...... all other water will not be 'treated'.... separate pipes , I guess

 

[Meems]

Who uses water from the cisterns anywhere in this country for drinking or cooking?

 

[william webster]

My friend has the UV system...
she pumps the well into her cistern and UV's all water into the house..... she drinks from every tap.

we all do when at her house... ice, the works

 

[Drperson]

thanks for your help. I think I should install something for drinking water on my tap. It s probably cleaner than the ones you buy

 

[AlterEgo]

Who uses water from the cisterns anywhere in this country for drinking or cooking?

Our well water was tested and came up remarkably pure, and for many years I used it for cooking. The last couple of years I've been chlorinating both the cistern and the tinaco, so no more of that.

We go through the bottelones like water, lol.

 

[tommeyers]

My friend has the UV system...
she pumps the well into her cistern and UV's all water into the house..... she drinks from every tap.

we all do when at her house... ice, the works

When I was studying that for my use I found that UV needs to pass filtered water so the solids that would obscure the UV light are removed. So UV is necessary for drinkable water and filters are necessary for UV.

 

[william webster]

The place in Sosua sells the system.
It may filter and UV - I don't know all the details yet

but my friend's system works.... I know that much...

 

[cobraboy]

The place in Sosua sells the system.
It may filter and UV - I don't know all the details yet

but my friend's system works.... I know that much...

When you get the info, please pass it on...

 

[william webster]

ECOSERVE Home - Home

I am away until end of October...... check these guys out and let me know
if you have time...

 

[william webster]

from reading it... yes, it filters and UV's


pool pumps and chemicals too

 

[cobraboy]

So a cistern->tinaco->sediment filter->carbon filter->UV treatment->pressure tank->whole house system might work?

Or bypass the tinaco altogether and use a 120v pump with the inverter for power outages (our pump is 220v...only tinaco pressure when the power goes out...). Or, I guess you could get really fancy and have a small 220v inverter just for the water pump system.

 

[bdablack]

That's interesting. A tank instead of a cistern.

A buried 2-3,000 gal. polypropylene tank properly plumbed and set up for easy removal of silt would make sense.

I guess both words, cistern and tank are being used synonymously. I have a relatively new house, 17 years old, with two tanks (cisterns), one 16X16X20 another 12X12X10 a total of 6,560 cu ft and which translates into a capacity of 49,069 gallons.
Many years ago the cistern (tanks) were smaller and above ground but for a long time now they have been the first part of the house to be built, a requirement for the passage of plans and construction of the house. We do have a supply of well water on the island from two main sources Government and a private enterprise water producer who has a RO plant also. Additionally many people have wells.

As you can image the cost of the house increases dramatically with the building of a tank(cistern) but we could not survive without it. The well water supplied by the firm is conditioned, potable and metered. Water was such a scarce and prized resource, that many hillside had a catchment hacked into them by our people many moons ago.