water tower for pump system?

I'm considering buying an off-grid weekend home. I've only seen the ad and not the actual property at this time.

From what I know of well systems, they pump water from the ground and the pump pressurizes the system.

Large buildings usually have a water tank on the roof that is fed by a pump so that higher floors can get water. Why don't homes use a water tank instead of pump pressure? I would think a 50 gallon tank in the attic should do the trick.

Surely you jest, Simon!

Certainly you can live with 2 or three psi, but you would have to devise a large diameter piping system, and forego most water using appliances. Your shower head would have to be directly overhead, and cold to boot, as plumbing up the water heater would be interesting. That system worked in the 1850's and you heated the water on the stove.

You would need a big tank about 30 to 100 feet above the house to have a viable system. Probably not wanted for a weekender.

Solar guys have many DC pumps that mimic standard well systems.

No free lunch on pressurizing water- pumping up to a tank or pumping up a pressure tank will cost you about the same KW's

Those high rises with the tanks are for emergency/ backup water and have pressure pumps for the outflow also.

By off the grid I am assuming that you mean no electric lines and probably no generators!

Some of the responders are probably to young to know water basics.

My grandparents lived on a farm and sometimes cooked and provided showers for as many as 40 harvest hands. There was only a 3 gpm windmill (when the wind blew) for water and a 100 gallon gravity tank 10 feet in the air. The shower was directly below the tank. Heated water was provided by the sun heating the water in the elevated tank. . . some days warm and some days cold. There was a 1" line to the kitchen which provided sufficient water. Hot water was provided by a kettle over the wood stove. To my recollection they seldom ever ran out of water.

Most people in developing countries only have gravity feed water from a storage tank on their roof and it works great.

A 50 gallon tank in the attic would be great for a camping out weekender without appliances.

Porky Cutter, MGWC
www.dci-inc.us