We design only off-grid homes and consult too.
For a great water systems we recommend rain water catchment, with a clean surface and a properly sized cistern system. These water reserves could be placed in several places upon the landscape or In just one location such as at the home, initial gravity flows can give you less than normal line pressure, but enough to draw water without electricity. On the landscape we have even run a ram pump, to redirect water to higher ground, to multiply that gravity pressure for landscaping, so throughout the land, water is available. WE CAN Custom design this to your needs !
The last well we had dug for a home we designed, cost $20,000, and smelled of sulfur with a bad taste ! That was a lot to spend, to get bad water. It could be cleaned up by open air pond, with constant agitation, then filtering & UV Stabilizing , but in the end it was just used to water the animals and landscape, so NOW we advocate for our clients to only build rainwater cisterns in place of wells initially and this is cheaper, than what we spent on that last awful well.
As partially stated above, cisterns and collection is sometimes located upon several parts of a project, [all depending upon the projects size requirements of the several systems and/or as may be needed ] a properly designed cistern (build of concrete and not plastic) will allow us to triple filter our drinking water supply and also to UV stabilize all that drinking water portion too. It's possible to capture naturally distilled water and use that too, but the natural way is far less of a supply, than almost anyone needs and distillation equipment [can be a simple home pressure cooker and copper line] to provide ample distilled water quickly, should that be required from time to time easily, and other products could be distilled from that same set up too, (all of which is easily stored in the ample closet space that a Georgia Adobe Home(TM) has). Buying a thousand or two gallons of fresh water initially, just to fill 1 of the cisterns the first time, is often available in most urbanized areas, just until the house collection surface is built & complete, so you have water as the house progresses, and "it's normally very affordable once", and after the metal roof of the home or collection area is complete, with directional gutters, the roof starts collecting lots of rainwater. Stand alone cisterns can be built from many local components, and they can also have their own collection surface, made best of metal or cement. Always a manhole must be included in the top for access, and plumbing to dispense the water to your usage and we like to have connections to other cisterns installed for later additions of water reserves, plus always a flush valve & pipes, to empty the tank away from the building, during our normal yearly cleaning of each of our cisterns. By having more than one tank built, (a plastic tank if you must), one can clean and empty one, then allow it to refill, before tackling the other tanks, so as to conserve 75% plus of your water reserves, with a four tank system., so this 4 tank system, is our standard plan for our clients.
A 1000 sq ft roof area, will collect around 600 gallons an hour, from just a 1 inch of rain fall, so build at least 10,000 gallons of storage for ample supplies, in perhaps 4 small [or more] - 2,500 gallon plastic water tanks is the best minimum system we suggest ( a better system would be five times this ( Think Olympic Pool Size ) and we normally set them across the Northern buried side, of the new structure, at minimum of about 4 ft higher than the interior finished floor, for gravity feed of water by pipe into the building. Insulate them well and the back of the building too, using closed cell foam insulation, thereby allowing them to converge to one 2 inch pipe point, all inside the building, ( we like in a water closet ) with all the shut off's and tees on each displayed inside. Gravity delivery, then gives one ample water pressure, and a spigot just before the pump, pressure tank and filters, always allows bucket or hose connection, to draw water from just gravity pressure only, thus no power required, when other equipment may fail ( for example if your area is hit with an E.M.P. attack or the pumps electricity flow stops ) .
This is part of how we design and build Georgia AdobeTM, Earth sheltered, passive solar, passive ventilated Rammed Earth Home, that can basically heat and cool themselves, make their own water, power, gas sometimes, lots of food and are generally paid for, when built as we plan and consult to our clients to build for themselves, upon the day one moves in.
Give us a call to start your home project at 706-363-6453