Water Without the Grid

A tap that runs dry gives no warning. It simply stops, and the people who feel it first are the ones who live far from a water main.
Many owners of off-grid homes, cabins, and small properties try to solve this with a barrel and a downspout, then meet the real problems. The roof is smaller than they guessed. The tank was sized for the wrong season. A local rule nobody checked forces the build to come down. And over every gallon hangs one question: is this roof water fit for anything beyond the garden?
This book answers those problems in the right order: arithmetic before hardware, then thirty buildable projects that follow the water from gutter to tap, with the limits of every treatment stated plainly.
What you will be able to do

• Measure your catchment from the ground, work out how many gallons a year your roof can deliver, and compare that with what your household uses.
• Size storage for your longest dry stretch, not a yearly average that hides the dry months.
• Set aside the dirtiest first runoff with a standpipe first-flush diverter or a compact bucket flush chamber sized to your roof.
• Build rain barrels, linked barrel chains, and tote-tank manifolds with screened inlets, safe overflows, and level gravel pads.
• Understand what settling, filtering, boiling, and household bleach each do and do not do, so clear water is never mistaken for safe water.
• Keep a source-water log and a laboratory testing plan, and maintain, winterize, and troubleshoot the whole system.