Producing Drinking Water from Rain Water

It is possible to produce pure drinking water from rain water
using a combination of devices costing around $300 total.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Install a roof
   washer and a rain
   barrel ($200). A roof washes diverts the first ten gallons or
   so of rain water away from your barrel — it contains such things
   as dust and bird dropping from the roof.
2. Put the water caught in the barrel
   into a counter-top ceramic
   gravity drip filter ($220) or this portable,
   inexpensive model ($100). The water will be filtered
   free of cysts, bacteria, metals, pollutants and pollen. (The Red
   Cross use this type of filter in the field to purify questionable
   water for drinking.)
3. Come back an hour later and drink the pure, highly-filtered, rain
   water from the filter’s faucet.

The water than comes out of
this system will be purer than commercial bottled water, faucet filtered
or tap water. It will retain the taste of rain water because the drip
filter does not flatten the taste of the water. You can produce up
to four gallons a day.

This is a basic outline of the process. Doulton has
the detailed information on Drip
Filters. Their site is full of information, although it takes some
digging to find. You might want to start with their FAQ.

For extra protection, you can use an ozonator to
kill viruses in water smaller than .02 microns. Ozonators use less
energy than UV Light, Reverse Osmosis or Distillation.

Read more! Related stories:

1. How To Filter Your Drinking Water Very Efficiently
2. A Clever Rainwater Diverter
3. Heated Pools and Rain Water
4. Octagonal Rain Barrels
5. Recycled Rain Barrels