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Small Cabin Forum / Off-Grid Living / Pillow water tanks?
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Julie2Oregon
Member
# Posted: 4 Oct 2014 06:33
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Hey all!
I'm looking at cistern options and need to make things as potentially easy/trouble-free for myself. One of the options I'm looking at is using the "pillow" soft but durable water tanks.

I haven't discussed foundation options with my builder in detail yet but we had already decided on some semblance of piers with tie-downs and such to comply with the Earthquake codes. (I'm looking at the pole method I saw here with lots of interest!)

With winters on a mountain unpredictable, I thought perhaps having pillow tanks secure under the crawl space would help prevent water and pipe freeze-up in the winter, would be easier for me to fill and adjust year-round, and wouldn't need to be buried, obviously. I would have some sort of sturdy skirting around the crawl space perimeter with access doors to the tank.

I will have all of my water pipes for sinks and shower along one side of the cabin to minimize plumbing. I'm planning one pump and a simple on-demand water heater. Since I will have a grey water filtering and collection system, plus the solar toilet tank on the outside of the same wall, I'd rather not have another tank there for water.

Do you think the pillow tank in the crawl space would work? If not, any other ideas?

bldginsp
Member
# Posted: 4 Oct 2014 10:04
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Interesting idea. It would keep the sunlight off the pillow, which would ruin it in 7-10 years. But in order to put a decent sized pillow under there your floor would have to span a large distance with no support. Usually you have floor supports every 7-8 feet at the most. But you could put in really wide floor joists and get a 20 foot span or more.

Personally I would wonder about chemicals getting in the water in one of those, but I don't know.

Julie2Oregon
Member
# Posted: 4 Oct 2014 18:08
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I wonder about chemicals, too. I won't be using that water for drinking and cooking. I plan to have purified water in a dispenser inside for that. This would be for hand washing, dishes, showers, etc.

The pillows come in a variety of sizes and I was thinking of having two moderate-sized ones in the crawl space. Is it possible to have a pipe and valve in-between them to use one at a time, I'm wondering? My water usage will be light since it's just me and the toilet won't use any water at all.

bldginsp
Member
# Posted: 4 Oct 2014 18:35
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I'm sure you can plumb piping from the pillows any way you want, you'll just need adequate flexible piping where it joins the pillow, cause it is flexible.

Good luck! Send pics!

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