Off-grid water systems provide fresh drinking water for homes or other buildings that are not connected to the city’s main water supply. These water systems are typically found in very rural areas where it is too expensive to run pipes so far out into the countryside. They can be as simple as rainwater collected in barrels, solar power RODI systems connected to a well, or most commonly, a countertop system from Aqua Bare that uses gravity to push dirty water through filter elements into a reservoir.
When choosing an off-grid water system, it is important to decide what type of system will work best for you. Which option suits your needs the best can depend on how much water you need to be treated and how often the filters will need replacing.
Countertop Off-Grid Water Systems
Countertop off-grid water systems are popular because they offer very robust filtration, are very easy to use, can be purchased from companies like Aqua Bare for relatively cheap, can be bought in bulk, and usually take less than an hour to install. They work by joining an upper chamber to a lower chamber by robust filtration elements. Water is poured into the top, where it drains through the filters into the bottom chamber, meaning that there is no electricity, pumping, or boiling.
Alternative countertop off-grid water filtration options don’t use carbon filters and instead rely on either ceramic elements or silver to kill bacteria and other harmful particles found in the water.
Rainwater Collected In Barrels:
When you’re collecting rainwater, there are a few things to keep in mind. Primarily, what kind of contaminants can get into your water from your roof, gutter system, or any other possible ways something may get directly into your barrels. Because of this, it is still a good idea to filter your rainwater, although perhaps not as thoroughly as if you were pulling it out of the ground.
RODI
RODI filtration systems are widely used in the saltwater aquarium industry to give people high-quality water for their fish and corals. This is because RODI (Reverse Osmosis DeIonization) is an incredibly effective form of water purification, capable of removing nearly all contaminants found in water. The downside is that RODI requires electricity, which makes it significantly harder to operate in an off-grid environment and essentially limits its viability to established homesteads that can produce their electricity.
Off-grid water systems are used when people don’t have access to clean drinking water. If you’re living off the grid and need a way to filter your drinking water, then an off-grid water system may be right for you. You can also use them if you want a high-quality form of filtering your drinking and cooking water–they don’t need to be deployed in such remote locations as they once were. They still work well with electricity and independent power sources, but they require more R&D than some other types of filtration systems.
