Acreage vs smaller block living.

I hear these might be dangerous, I wouldn't want a crapy Real Estate agent to accidentally fall into one.

Thanks for the info. Went and had a look at another house today, the other one we put offers on sold above our offer and above what every realestate agent thought it would sell for. This market has gone stupid.

Good point about the generators, today's property has a dam and noticed there wasn't a generator, small pump but will add that cost in a well.

And for all, how much rain water storage is enough or more than enough for an average family? 10,000lt, 20,000 lt? Just a ball park figure would be good as the properties don't have town water.

 

@Barny the rainwater capacity depends on monthly rainfall in the region, collection area & usage.

If on rainwater only, I'd suggest an absolute minimum of 20,000L. I have about 45,000L storage in 2 tanks on my acreage & it is just a weekender. 25,000L of that is plumbed for household use but if I was there permanently I'd add another tank (~550-600mm rainfall a year)

 

Thanks. I guess I might have to speak to the locals. It shows 60mm/104/40mm roughly per month for the last 2 years and 3 months.

 

Sounds a bit excessive, but if you don't get a lot of rain 20,000L minimum is fairly reasonable.

I get a fair amount of rain where I am and a lot of roof space to collect it and I only have a 10,000L tank and a 2,000L tank.

I probably would struggle over a dry spring but in normal rainfall conditions it should be fine. I nearly had to get the tanks topped up earlier as it was nearing empty but than the rains came and now i'll be good for winter.

But i'd say look at the yearly rainfall for the area and go on from there. if in a dry area defnitely get a 20,000L tank and maybe top it up with one or two 5,000 slimline tanks if you're short on space or another 20,000L tank.

I'd look at having them placed side by side and linking them together so you're drawing from both tanks and having overflow from first tank into the second tank.

 

And if you've got the space and money, you could look at getting one of those massive 100,000L tanks haha.

That should be more than enough,

 

That's why I recommend 20,000L for a family as it should last for ~45 days without rain, from full, for a typical family of 4 usage. Adding an extra tank is relatively inexpensive & avoids worry. No brainer in my book.

 

When we built our new house, we wired it to run of a generator if/when we lost grid power.

We ended up not going that way. We went with batteries and solar panels. We could have gone with batteries connected to a generator as they are cheaper but, if you aren't home (say, on holidays) and the generator runs out of fuel, then you have no power.

With solar panels, you will always get some charge into the batteries. Take last week when TC Debbie can through. I used the grid to get the batteries up to 100% charged prior to Debbie arriving. Then, when Debbie came, we lost power for over 20 hours. We ran our main fridge, effluent plant, lights, etc during this time. During the day, the batteries got close to 100% charged due to the panels.

Another reason we went with batteries is that our fire pump/hose which is connected to a 25,000 litre tank also runs of our batteries. So, in a bushfire, should we lose grid power, we can defend our house as we are self sufficient.

Just something to think about.

 

Yep definitely like battery storage, called for a tesla battery storage quote not long back. It will be at least 5 years till that comes along as prices are dropping yearly and storage and efficiency is also increasing. But generator for now would be a cheaper option.

 

Might be a silly question, do water tanks ever need cleaning? Does sludge form on the bottom.

 

Then, when you get batteries, have the generator connected to charge your batteries. Have solar panels as well and you have the best of all worlds.

 

Yes & yes....generally. There are many products on the market to limit the build up though such as downpipe 1st flush systems.

The prevalence of build up can vary greatly depending on local climatic/environment conditions.

This is also another reason to have multiple tanks.....

 

Ok cool, so much more to learn. Cheers

 

Do you think it's possible to set up an automatic tesla battery or generator fire sprinkler system to turn on and operate whilst your away from the property? I'm interstate a lot and if bush fires occur would be nice to use an iPad or iPhone to start the system to spray the home and surrounds.

 

Sorry to interject but it is absolutely possible....
Bushfire Protection Options Bushfire Protection Sprinklers - BUSHFIRE PRO

 

Awesome, I'll call tomorrow

 

As @Indifference stated, the answer is yes.

These days, with an internet connection, one can nearly do anything, from anywhere in the world - open/close a gate, arm/disarm a house, raise/lower a garage, open/close windows and curtains, raise/lower blinds, turn on/off air-con, turn on/off lights, run a bath, ... all from a smart phone or tablet.

All you need is money .

 

Is there a detailed thread on your magical house? Sounds amazing

What sort of effluent plant do you run? Are you plumbed onto mains or an enviro cycle, tank type system?

 

No magic; just batteries.

We have mains water but no sewerage. All our waste goes to an effluent plant as sceptic tanks weren't allowed by BCC.

Our effluent plant is from Ozzi Kleen. It is unground tank system. From memory, it costs about $18K fully installed.

 

Our joint is on mains water but house and every shed etc has at minimum a 27,000L tank attached to it. We have just over 130,000L of tank water randomly plonked all over our property (all currently full to the brim) and no tanks are actually hooked up to anything currently. Still trying to figure out what we are going to do with it all, one 27,000 tank is being used for the horses and one for our fruit tree orchard.

 

So no need for 130,000lt.