THE HOMESTEAD CISTERN

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[2] The rainwater collection surface—usually a house or barn roof—should not be located near (or downwind of) any source of pollution (such as a major highway, fields or orchards where spraying occurs, or factory smokestacks).

[3] Your water needs must not be excessive. (For those of us who prefer a dry toilet to the kind that wastes up to seven gallons of H 2 0 with every flush, this requirement shouldn't pose much of a problem.) Of course, if you're thinking of building a cistern to supplement your present well, spring, etc., this factor becomes less important. The main thing to remember is that if—like the average American family—you use 100 gallons of water per person per day . . . you're either going to have to cut down on that consumption, or build a cistern large enough to fulfill your needs (which—depending on the amount and frequency of rainfall in your area—could mean a tank of 5,000 to 10,000 gallons' capacity, or larger).

UNDERGROUND OR ABOVEGROUND?

Cisterns can be built above- or below-ground. The advantage of an aboveground installation is that the weight of the water itself (as long as the storage tank is above faucet-level) can be harnessed to pressurize your home's waterlines . . . whereas with an underground cistern, it's necessary to pump the water from the storage vessel to the house. On the other hand, with an underground cistern [1] the water remains cooler in the summer (resulting in less evaporative loss), and [2] there's no danger of the liquid freezing in winter. We chose to build our cistern underground for these reasons.

HOW MUCH WILL IT COST?

Cisterns can vary widely in cost, depending on how fancy you want to get and how much of the installation you do yourself. Our system—which centers around a 13'-deep, 1,100-gallon storage tank built of fieldstone and mortar—set us back a total of about $100 . . . for everything, including gutters, cement, pipes, and an old-style manual pitcher pump. By contrast, some neighbors of ours spent approximately $1,000 to have a contractor install a pre-cast concrete cistern with an electric pump and an automatic chlorinator. As you can see, then, exactly how much you spend on a cistern installation depends largely on what you have more of: time or money.

THE CISTERN'S COMPONENTS

All cistern setups can be divided into three components: [1] the water collection system (roof, gutter, and downspout), [2] the filter, and [3] the water storage vessel (or cistern).

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