Municipal fed cistern system?

[orezok]

I have a sign alongside the road where the tanks are and I made sure there was easy access from the road and installed a fire hose type connection for them to use.

There are signs up and down the road I live on that shows where all the fire hose connections are located.

Warning, those brass fire hose type valves are not cheap but quite cheap enough compared to the house burning down for lack of it. Check with your local FD as to what's acceptable as most fire trucks carry a few adapters so check with them. I remember mine was on the order of 400 bucks or so all told with the covers and such.

A nunber of years back there was a major wildfire east of San Diego. It burned hundreds of homes. A retired firefighter captain happened to live in the area and went to extrordinary efforts to "fireproof" his property and home. After the fire passed, his was the only home standing for a mile around.

He spent the next couple of years living in a burned out desert with burned partial remnants of houses still standing. Insurance companies were very slow to pay out and many were under insured and couldn't afford to rebuild.

In an interview with the local TV station he stated that it was the most miserable years of his life and he wished he just had adequate insurance and let the house burn.

Be careful what you wish for.

 

[Redlands Okie]

Different areas will have different rules with out doubt. In my area you are not allowed to have well water, cistern water, tank water, etc. connected in any form to the rural water supply. No special valves etc are accepted. Failure in the setup will easily "contaminant" the rural water system. Since your having your cistern filled by the rural water system it should be ok. Just be sure to check it out. Be sure to put anti vacuum setup on the supply line to the cistern and of course they are required by most codes on your yard faucets. A broken line in the rural system can easily pull the water out of your cistern if its not set up right.

 

[JRobyn]

We went through a rodeo with a gubbmint-hired contractor for the municipal water system here a few years ago. Wanted PROOF that we had installed anti-backflow devices on stock tanks, etc.. I sent them the internet data sheet for our "Hudson Valve Co." vacuum breaker stock tank valve. That wasn't good enough. Then I e-mailed them and asked exactly how their municipal water system was going to suck stock tank water nearly 190 ft uphill from the elevation where we were using water. I guess they GPS'd our location, 'cause that stopped the assault.

 

[dfkrug]

Is anyone actually on a cistern that can speak to how often you have to clean it out? I haven't heard
much about cleaning them, so I was figuring it was very infrequently needed...

I have a 5000-gal concrete water tank on my 40% hillside, which feeds both my house with fire
sprinklers, and a 4" wharf hydrant. Fed by a well, it provides 75psi head pressure at the house.

I never clean it out, tho I have added 8-oz or so of chlorine a few times over the years
when I got a bit of algae growth. The trick is to keep it circulating. That is why our local
requirements force us to use the same supply for fire...to avoid stagnation.

I also run continuous aeration and ventilation in the tank to eliminate sulphurous
gases.

 

[Raspy]

My wife and I are preparing our property to start construction of our home, and out buildings, and planning for what we would like.

As we looked for property, we had accepted that we would have a cistern system, since well water is out of the question in this area, and a water tap (membership in water company) was fairly expensive.

Fortunately, the property we bought last year came with a paid tap, so we can hook up to municipal water!

I'm not a "prepper", but I do believe in having a stored cache of potable water.

Our house will be about 350' from the water meter. I am considering running smaller water line (1/2"-3/4") and simply using it to fill an underground cistern. We would then pull water from the cistern with a jet pump, and feed our home and faucets via that pump, not the municipal pressure.

We're already planning to have a grid tied solar system with battery backup, so even with no grid power, we'll have power in the house, and so we'll have water.

I think a 1000 gal cistern would be appropriate. This would provide us with a reservoir of potable water that we can draw from at any time, and a good buffer for high demand water use. It would also be easy to haul in water and fill the cistern in the event the municipal water is interrupted long term, and keeps the cost of our supply piping down.

Interested in hearing if anyone else has a similar setup, and how it's working if so.
Welcome thoughts on a variation of this setup too.
Thanks!

It's an excellent idea. If the municipal water system goes down, you're set and if you use the water out of the cistern, instead of just filling it for backup, it will stay fresh enough.

I have a similar system that runs off my well. It fills whenever the tank is low and, if the well fails, I have the tank to get my by until I get it fixed. The two of us are using, on average about 100-150 gallons per day when we're not being careful. If we had a failure, we could cut that down to not much more than required for drinking. Sometimes I have to give the tank a couple capfulls of bleach to freshen it up a bit.

You could use a simple float valve to keep the level up, or a more fancy electric system. An old fashioned float ball on an arm, with a brass valve, would probably be perfectly reliable. You could also use a cheap plastic tank above ground if you'd like. They come in all sizes and are rated for drinking water. Look at Tractor Supply for sizes and rough prices. It might be best covered to keep it cool and out of the sun so the water stays fresh longer. Mine is. This would be an easy installation and it would gravity feed your pressure pump. I used a 1 HP Goulds pump to feed the house and it is very nice.

Municipal systems are generally pretty reliable, depending on how rural they are, etc. But they certainly are vulnerable. In your case, a 1/2" PVC or, better yet, a black poly line would be plenty of flow.

 

[bcp]

Different areas will have different rules with out doubt. In my area you are not allowed to have well water, cistern water, tank water, etc. connected in any form to the rural water supply. No special valves etc are accepted. Failure in the setup will easily "contaminant" the rural water system. Since your having your cistern filled by the rural water system it should be ok. Just be sure to check it out. Be sure to put anti vacuum setup on the supply line to the cistern and of course they are required by most codes on your yard faucets. A broken line in the rural system can easily pull the water out of your cistern if its not set up right.

I was just reading recently where the preferred anti-backflow system was an "air gap" with no direct connection between the systems. The float valve could let water fall through the air several inches into the cistern, with an overflow to prevent it rising higher if the float valve failed open.

Bruce

 

[1stDeuce]

I was just reading recently where the preferred anti-backflow system was an "air gap" with no direct connection between the systems. The float valve could let water fall through the air several inches into the cistern, with an overflow to prevent it rising higher if the float valve failed open.

Bruce

This was my thinking too, but I suppose if the valve failed and the cistern overfiled, and then the municipal water system failed, you could get some siphon/back feed. But now you're in the territory of double failure... Probably not a big concern. I'll be doing mine exactly like this, so the water level stays below the fill level.

 

[SirReal63]

Our system is not much different, except instead of municipal water we have a solar powered well. We used a 2550 gallon tank to feed a Gould jet pump and pressure tank. Our tank has three sealed float valves but you wouldn't need three, ours are for protection of the well pump and to signal the well pump to fill the tank.

The only things I would suggest, a bigger tank isn't much more expensive than a smaller one, at least here. The 2550 gallon tank was $1,000 delivered and the 1000 gallon tank was $500 so it made sense to get the bigger one. I would also use a larger feed line though it may not be absolutely necessary. The larger line would be helpful if something happened and you had to use municipal water for a while. Less friction loss and more water.

After a few years I have zero complaints about how we set up our system, the tank allows outgassing of the water, this will help you if your municipal uses chlorine but will not help with chloramine. Some people in our area have a sulphur smell in their water but we do not, the tank helps with this.

 

[dfkrug]

After a few years I have zero complaints about how we set up our system, the tank allows outgassing of the
water, this will help you if your municipal uses chlorine but will not help with chloramine. Some people in
our area have a sulphur smell in their water but we do not, the tank helps with this.

Our water comes out of the ground with a sulfur smell, which will go away in a few hours if left
uncovered in an open bucket. Inside a tank, which is closed, the outgassing is retarded or stopped,
from what I have experienced. Hence the ventilation and bubbler.

I did not know this would not work with chloramine, a common municipal chlorinator.

 

[dickfoster]

Our water comes out of the ground with a sulfur smell, which will go away in a few hours if left
uncovered in an open bucket. Inside a tank, which is closed, the outgassing is retarded or stopped,
from what I have experienced. Hence the ventilation and bubbler.

I did not know this would not work with chloramine, a common municipal chlorinator.

Don't know about your's but most tanks especially plastic tanks like mine have to be ventilated or they'll collapse from atmospheric pressure. Yes there is a filter on the air vent to keep bugs and other critters out of the water.