water tank, above ground, or below?

I live in south east Ohio were we have fairly cold winters (except this year). About 18 years ago we moved onto our property knowing we wouldn't have any water for 3-5 years. We bought a 1500 gal above ground tank. We plumbed it directly into a pump house. We insulated the pump house and heated it with a light bulb. We ran an electric heat tape from the base of the tank into the pump house. I remember getting ice on the top of water but we never had a freeze up. We hauled our own water most of the time. since the tank sat higher than the small tank in my pick up. We had to pump from the smaller tank to the larger tank. This was fine when it was 80 deg. Not as fine when it was zero. Our boys found out we didn't haul as much water when the toilet wasn't flushed as much. They provided our grass and trees plenty of nitrogin for that time from. I don't think you'll have any problems. Good Luck

 

My old man is a once a time Combat Engineer Sgt. His solution was to put a large elevated tank at the back of an underground cabin garage that gravity fed to a smaller air-pressurized tank for service to the cabin. Then he had a smaller service tank on a trailer parked in the front of the garage.

This solves many access, contamination (no bats or rats or droppings etc into the closed system), and maintenance problems involved with a stationary underground tank. It also allows you to get a quick filtered refill in a pinch if the generator or well goes or you lose a pipe etc.

 

above ground

i have a neighbor friend that has a cabin in Cloudcroft, new Mexico, and the cold there can get -15 and lower...He has what i believe is a 1500 gallon steel tank...and says he has never been frozen out, again, except for the very top....where i am is on a ridge line on the leeward (less wind) side...i was figuring on getting either a dark green or black tank, so that ANY solar heating can be a help....I had even thought of stacking hay bales around it IF needed....plus the wildlife wouldn't mind it in the winter....maybe i'll look around in a month or so when i head up there...there are a couple houses with in a mile or so....check with them.....Thanks for all the help, keep them coming...rsbhunter

 

I lived down in Ketchikan AK for a couple of decades, where a very large majority of the house water comes from rainwater saved in tanks. The weather doesn't get particularly cold there for long stretches, but one old-timer did warn me that it's best to run your feed pipe (coming out of the tank) in to somewhere near the middle of the tank. Any freezing issues won't get to the middle of a thousand gallon tank very quickly. I've never seen problems with the tank freezing up, but then, it only stayed down around zero for a couple weeks. Not -20 for months.

 

feed in the middle of tank

Putting the feed tube in the middle (diameter wise) of the tank is a great tip.....i probably would have just tapped into the outlet that is on the bottom of the tank...i'm sure i can rig a perforated pipe into the outlet of the tank...they run 2" dia..... Thanks for the tip...might save alot of grief in the future....rsbhunter

 

draw point

BTPost, you are right, i tried to make it clear that i meant middle of tank by diameter measurement...but mentioning the off the bottom idea is another good point i hadn't considered....on my main tank, the water will be by delievery, so it had better be clean, potable water.....On my collection tank, that would be THE way to go....Would having a valve on the bottom of the collection tank, for flushing once a year be a good thing? That way, if it ever needed flushing out, i could wait til it was at a low point (level) and flush out with an appropiate soloution??? Thanks for the tips and ideas....alot of things that i wouldn't have thought of... and in the matter of placing the tank, should i try to set it a foot into the ground, or on railroad ties, or just compact the dirt, or????rsbhunter

 

flushing

Thats exactly what i was thinking.....great minds think alike.....we do too! LOL...Thanks for the help...rsbhunter

 

There already are, tho mostly in the third world. India, Africa, Bolivia. Google for 2000 Cochabamba protests.

Water is being privatized all over the world now, including the US.

 

As per my practical experience, there is somewhat less chances of water being frozen if your water tank is underground and there will be enough sunlight coming to that place.

 

Ideally,
One tank should be inside a glassed cabinet for solar hot water.
One tank in the ground for cold water , and other tanks strategically located at higher levels, if possible, for gravity feed to the house plumbing .
Some folks have built whole glassed rooms adjacent to the house with barrels like wine bottles collecting the sun's heat and then pumped using base board radiators around the house or even cast into concrete floors in the home both up stairs and down for heating the house. Additionally there are folks that run pipes in their drive and walk ways and circulate antifreeze heated via heat exchangers for keeping the snow from accumulating on their walk areas .(one could also apply this to the eves as well.)
If the system is completely closed, the pump required isn't very big . Fractional.
I don't believe in one big tank, but several , because "when" there is a failure, loosing one of many isn't that bad.
I am working on a pond for raising fish , but not more that 1500 gallons or so . This water wold be cycled though the garden,filtered used in the home and cycled in the garden again.
In survival mode, an out house would replace the toilet.
Currently a septic tank takes care of toilet bathroom waste but kitchen waste goes to the garden.

 

The water still has to pass through the outside edge of the tank, unless you go straight out the bottom. I remember being in the field in Germany, they would rotate water buffalo trailers back to a heated shop because the spigots would freeze. There would be icicles hanging from them, this didn't necessarily mean we couldn't get water though.

 

I wouldn't know how to act, if a (READ: any) government agency told me that I could not do this, or not do that, on my own land. I guess, me ever considering returning to the US to reside full time, will be completely out of the question.

 

Aha!

There are a bunch of different types.

 

Pictures, or link?