On Mar 2, 9:41*pm, Janet wrote:
In article ,
says...



What is the best way of keeping rainwater-butt-water clean and unpolluted
so that it remains safely drinkable? The rainwater will be collected from
the roof of my house via the guttering downpipe.

* Roof water isn't drinkable quality imo (take a look at what collects
inside inside your gutters and what's wriggling in the bottom of the
waterbutt). You'll still need to filter and boil it.
* *We used to use it just for washing, and flushing lavs.

* * Janet


What a lot of fuss.
When I was little, around 5 years old (1947)we lived right out on the
Llyn peninsula in North Wales, we had a galvanised rainwater tank,
with a tight fitting lid and a pump to get water from a well which we
shared with 2 other houses for when the tank was low.
Then in the 50's we lived outside Hastings and had a borehole and a
large concrete tank under the garage that stored our rainwater and the
water we pumped up from the borehole, though we mostly used the rain
water as the borehole water was very rich in iron so turned rust red
within hours of pumping up so had to be left to settle before you
could use it; though it tasted great fresh;
It was pumped into a pool that had newts and dragonfly lava in it,
then through gravel filters and down to the tank.
From the tank we pumped it into a tank in the roof and from there to
the taps.
We drank water straight from the tap and never had any problems, but
then we hadn't been pampered with a streile world.

David@ the wet end of Swansea Bay

In article 6865b563-8510-4e27-8fb1-275133d79dd5
@v2g2000vbx.googlegroups.com, says...

On Mar 2, 9:41*pm, Janet wrote:
In article ,
says...



What is the best way of keeping rainwater-butt-water clean and unpolluted
so that it remains safely drinkable? The rainwater will be collected from
the roof of my house via the guttering downpipe.

* Roof water isn't drinkable quality imo (take a look at what collects
inside inside your gutters and what's wriggling in the bottom of the
waterbutt). You'll still need to filter and boil it.
* *We used to use it just for washing, and flushing lavs.

* * Janet


What a lot of fuss.
When I was little, around 5 years old (1947)we lived right out on the
Llyn peninsula in North Wales, we had a galvanised rainwater tank,
with a tight fitting lid and a pump to get water from a well which we
shared with 2 other houses for when the tank was low.
Then in the 50's we lived outside Hastings and had a borehole and a
large concrete tank under the garage that stored our rainwater and the
water we pumped up from the borehole, though we mostly used the rain
water as the borehole water was very rich in iron so turned rust red
within hours of pumping up so had to be left to settle before you
could use it; though it tasted great fresh;
It was pumped into a pool that had newts and dragonfly lava in it,
then through gravel filters and down to the tank.
From the tank we pumped it into a tank in the roof and from there to
the taps.

You had TAPS? There's posh. In my childhood home there wasn't a tap in
the house, for anything. Every drop of water we used for every purpose,
was fetched in a bucket from an outdoor hand-pump 30 yards away, shared
with next door. Fortunately we had no flush lav or my arms would be even
longer. To this day, turning on a tap gives me a tiny thrill, especially
hot ones.

We drank water straight from the tap and never had any problems, but
then we hadn't been pampered with a streile world.

David@ the wet end of Swansea Bay

I lived on a similar private water system until 10 years ago. All too
often, in very cold or very hot weather, turning on a tap was a big
disappointment :-) The rainwater butts collecting roof water were our
back up supply for whenever something went wrong with the water system.

I still would not drink the roof water without boiling it.

Janet.