Water Well Off the Grid

This page contains information about why and how to have your own water well while living off the grid. If you want to grow your own plants and raise your own animals, then having your own water could be a good idea. Water is the most needed element for animals and plants, therefore you will need a good quantity of this precious commodity. If you're charged too much for your municipal water, then everything else related to it will be costly (from showers to watering the plants). That's why many individuals prefer the option of having a private well, instead of having to pay too much for your water consumption. Below are some benefits of well water.

Benefits of Well Water

Part of living off the grid is having your own water well, instead of being part of the city water syster. Having your own water gives you many benefits.

• You will be able to provide water for your plants and animals for less money.
• Your water will not be as heavily treated with chemicals as the city water.
• Well water's filtration system is far more eco-friendly than that of big water plants in urban areas and greatly decreases both chemical and industrial pollution during the filtration process.

Cost and flexibility are the two biggest advantages of well water. You can do what you want to with your water, which means you won't have a municipality telling you that you can water your grass today but tomorrow you can't. You're also not being charged outrageous water bills if you decide to start watering your grass or plant this week more.

After sufficient food, a good clean water supply and adequate sanitation system are considered to be the most important factors in ensuring good health in a farm. Improved water supply and sanitation systems are major elements of the health measures of people living in farms that drastically cut death rates and improved health levels. Having a clean water could be more important than curative medicine in contributing to good health, long life expectancy and low infant mortality.

Well Water Vs Municipal Water

Well water facts:

1. You do not have to pay for your water.
2. You should get your water tested from time to time, you simply need to send it to a local lab.
3. Your Well could run dry... but, that's not very common.
4. You're responsible for maintaining your own well.
5. Well water is more pure and naturally soft.
6. Usually a well is located on your property and therefore no one else can put things you don't want in your water.
7. Not available to everyone. You need to be in a rural area, or have a permit to build one.

Municipal water facts:

1. You pay the municipality to provide you with the water.
2. Water testing can be done for you.
3. You are less more likely to run out of water, unless there is a severe drought.
4. You have nothing to maintain. (exept the pipe from your house to the main pipe in the street).
5. Treated with chemicals more than a well water (less bacterias, more chemicals).
6. Not environmentally friendly, water processing and treatment causes pollution.
7. Not available to everyone. Usually public water is accessible to homes in cities.

Water is essential for growing food; for household water uses, including drinking, cooking, and sanitation; and for its role in sustaining the earth's ecosystems. Threfore the more plentiful and less costly it is, the better. Clean and cheap water will have an impact on the whole farm, because it's involved in the production of many farm products, either directly or inderectly.

Before Digging a Well

Before digging a well, you should first check if there is enough ground water available to meet the pumping requirements of the wells before digging. Individual homes’ domestic wells may meet their needs with as few as 1 to 5 gpm, depending on local regulations. To determine whether the desired amount of ground water is available at a particular location and whether it is of appropriate quality, drillers and groundwater consultants rely on their prior knowledge of the local groundwater system, experience in similar areas, and a diverse array of information such as land surface topography, local vegetation, rock fracturing (where applicable), local geology, groundwater chemistry, information on thickness, depth, and permeability of local aquifers from existing wells, groundwater levels, satellite or aerial photographs, and geophysical measurements. In most cases, the well location is further limited by property ownership, the need to keep surface transportation of the pumped ground water to a minimum, and access restrictions for the drilling equipment. When locating a well, one should also consider the proximity of potential sources of contamination such as fuel or chemical storage areas, nearby streams, sewer lines, and leach fields or septic tanks. The presence of a significant barrier between such potential sources and the well itself is very important for the protection of the well.

More information: We hope this page was helpful and provided you with some information about well water off the grid, you can also check our other page Raising Animals. Or for more information check out our main page for more survival scenarios here Survival Guide, knowledge is light, and knowledge can enhance your life. good luck!

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