Water is absolutely the most important resource for your off grid home. You can live without electricity (humanity has done so for the majority of our existence), but you can’t live without water.
A well is often most peoples first choice for an off grid water source and installing a well is simple enough. You could call in a well contractor to handle the job for you. Your contractor will also handle obtaining any permits that you require.
But sinking a new well is a fairly costly business, with the price inceasing along with the depth of the well.
There is another way to get yourself a well. You can drill it yourself.
Take a look at these links for more information :
An Inexpensive Do-It-Yourself Water Well
An easy option for an off grid water supply is to install a Rain Water Harvesting System.
If you already have gutters on your roof then all you need to add is some water storage, filters and a pump.
We use a rainwater harvesting system here. A big benefit of this is ease of access to the water. When we don’t have enough electrical power to run a pump, we can just go out with a bucket and scoop up some water out of one of the tanks, which are all above ground.
If we were using a well then we would have to run a generator to operate the pump or else install a hand pump as a back up.
Rainwater harvesting can meet your needs if the area that you live in gets sufficient rainfall.
Hello my name is Dee and I truly enjoyed your article on drilling your own well…I’m in the market to purchase land and I noticed that raw land is extremely cheap. I will be buying a 30 foot Yurt which will be my permanent home once the land has been purchased. My reason for the Yurt is that I can upgrade it to my liking and still live mortgage free. I don’t want to be mortgage free at 80 years old and still pay a fortune on taxes…I have been looking at land and getting quotes of how much it will cost to drill a well–it exceeds the property amount. Therefore, I’m left with two options to harvest rainwater or dig my own well…I will be using solar panels to power my electricity which leaves me on how to get my water supply…I’m truly looking forward to living off the grid and a green lifestyle. Your article is very inspiring, thank you…(The land will be in Oregon which gets tons of rain-therefore I think rain harvesting will be my best bet)
Dee.
Hi Dee, thanks for commenting
I like your plan! Property taxes are horrible and forward planning to ensure that they remain as low as possible is definitely the way to go.
If you do opt for rainwater harvesting, make sure that you have enough storage capacity. Last summer we didn’t get a drop of rain for 3 months which was unusual. We couldn’t waste a single drop of the water that we had. We’ve just added an extra 2000 liters storage capacity this month.
Another thing I can’t stress enough is good filtration and since you will be getting your power from solar, a gravity filter ( no need for power) for drinking water will be your best solution. I use a Berkey filter, I think it works out to something like 2 cents a gallon – unbeatable value!