Cisterns
The source of water for most American households is a municipal water system, from which purified water is delivered under pressure to each home.
But in outlying areas, water must either extracted from private wells or from cisterns. People have been living with these systems for hundreds of years, but many are not familiar with how they work.
Wells and cisterns both provide water, but they do it in different ways.
A cistern is an unsealed storage container for holding water. A cistern may be placed above or below ground.
In dry or rural areas a cistern may be used as the primary source of water for a household, or as a back up source of water to the regular water supply.
A below ground cistern can be quite large, and tends to be more efficient than an above ground cistern, since it does not lose as much water through evaporation as the above ground type. If the cistern below ground, some type of pump is required to get the water out of it. The pump can be manual or electric, or in extreme conditions, a bucket on a rope will do the job.
When a cistern is used to store water for household use, it must be treated to make it drinkable (potable). Depending on the location, treatment can be done with filter, boiling the water, or the use of water treatment tablets>
When used for irrigation, water treatment is usually not necessary.
Unlike a well, a cistern must be filled from an outside source. There are 3 types of filling methods:
- Gravity-Fed (rainwater) System
A gravity-fed cistern is a round or rectangular, above ground storage tank that collects rainwater through an opening at the top, or via a gutter system.
This type of cistern is normally mounted on a platform or tower, which elevates it above the home or garden, and typically has a cap or cover to keep animals, plants, and insects away from the water.
The pull of gravity draws (sucks) water into piping for irrigation use or home plumbing, which allows the cistern to supply water without using power. The rate of water flow can be controlled with valves, or increased with the assistance of a pump.
Gravity-fed cisterns are installed by specialized contractors, often in cooperation with a builder who installs the rainwater collection system, but once again, a plumbing contractor usually installs the pumping and filtration system.
- Pumped/Poured Water
A cistern may be filled with water via a hose from the house when a public water supply is used, or it can be pumped in from a private well.
In the event an extended power outage this cistern can be used as a backup water supply if access to the contents of a private well, or public water supply is cut-off.
- Hauled Water
Many people elect to arrange for water to be delivered by truck. This works well as long as the cistern is replenished before it runs dry, but the available source of water is finite, and may not be readily available in certain circumstances.
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