We are in the process of planning an off-grid system so I am learning a lot from your videos! We appreciate your affordable, simple, doable information.
Great find for me. I’m about 2 years behind you. I’m west coast BC. This year I plan on finishing my roof and walls. Then I’ll be able to set up my solar, rain collection; with pressured domestic water, hot tub… thanks for your info.
Jay good video. You may want to add to your project list. Adding a bypass line around your filters with shut off valves in front and after. It’ll cut down on the antifreeze you put in the system. If you do it when and if you add the cold water line to the shower, it’ll be a two for one check mark off the list. lol I would also think about putting a fitting in after the pump to attach a air compressor line. You can blow out the house water lines and forget about the antifreeze altogether. It would quickly allow you on freezing nights to just blow out the lines then refill the lines when the day warms up. Just a few thoughts. You guys have done so much and have come so far.
@@OffgridwithJayandJen Well done video! Jay love how you go into all the details and even explain the I wish I done different or this isn't working out the greatest! I would melt snow in the winter, have when we lost power to our old place but we don't always get snow down here LOL. Question, How long do you run it before you believe all the antifreeze is out? I know folks do this in campers but they don't usually ever drink the water.
Great recap on the system. I have a similar water system set up at our place although I ran some PVC pipe underground to transfer water back and forth. Just 6" deep. Saves dragging hoses around all the time. I plan on a grey water system like yours next spring. Good thought on the vent. Have a good one, cheers!
I just bought an offgrid cabin and am still fixing and figuring out the water system, so these video's have been very helpful. I just noticed the other day that my kitchen sink drain lines had some small holes drilled on top of them and am now thinking maybe that was to add ventilation to help the drain water flow faster. Not for certain, but that may be an easy way to add air flow to the drain lines.
It would take up far too much rook in loft and if we left in winter we'd have to worry about it freezing and making a massive mess. This works well. Our winter water solution works well too
I have an OFF-GRID cabin in Freesoil, just literally followed your setup, only question I is do I have to drain both my IBC totes when Winter hits ? I just use it on the weekends.
I think you need return pump for hot water it’s help during winter. Anti freeze in a way and stabilize hot water.simply it’s keep hot water circulation.
If you haven't had any failures it means you probably don't do anything or try to make anything. LOL By having done all you're own plumbing it means you are familiar and expert (?) at its repair or maintenance. Thanks for the video.
Thank you for showing us! We have 3 stage then berkey..we charcoal for larger sediment down to threaded .05 micron..it works really really good for 2000 gallon water tanks..i like how we are doing the same thing
couple of more thoughts, ... Do you use traps (J shape pipes) in the drains from the sinks and showers? Also, WellWorker makes 2 plus gallon pressure tanks. I use one with both my systems, 12 V used from a tote or from my regular well 80 feet away .. but I use it in the cabin itself. This works really well and you can use water for sometime before the pump starts and fills ... it helps on the points in the pump relay .. Your RV pump has a part number etc. snd I would buy and keep a new "pressure switch" that easily is replaceable on the pump unit. I even keep a spare pump assembly somewhere . Of course all should be drained in your neck of the woods too but that is a different way of winterizing. Some RVs have the low point drain and the fill area of the system can be used with compressed air after all is drained. Even blowing through 20 psi will clear it.. .. I think you are having almost as much fun as I am but I don't / can't tube it. pb. I am saving the quart of maple syrup ... I save some of my honey from a couple of bee hives .. that I don't take all their stock and feed them sugar syrup ... later.. pb
I do have p traps yes.....little bit of antifreeze in those in the winter too. I had a water bladder tank and was going to install....but I couldn't make it fit. I have a spare motor as well.....Great minds my friend 🧡
I liked the little pool filter socks idea from your last video there where like 200 in a pack seems for the application I'm thinking about great. you are over killing the filtration that's great tho I'm just trying to keep my setup simple and 12v rarely 12v just incase of needing refill mainly just gravity feed but I'm also going to just heat shower water on a cook top and use a pump bucket with shower head wake up while I'm making my coffee water I'm boiling my shower water 🚿 it will take a little to figure out cold water to hot mix to get the right shower temperature but once installed solar is free verses propain its a little more work doing dishes and shower but I'm thinking fixed income retirement cabin good enough is good enough I'm not trying to down playing what and how you're doing things just sharing ideas I'm very poor thats probably is not going to change so preparing for retirement being as coust efecent as possible makes sense just herd you say pump bucket lol 😊 if you have trash pick up for the price of a trash bag a week and cedar chips you could build a custom toilet bulb seal both lids and vent outside don't need the out houses just empty your toilet on trash day I'd probably go with contractor bags lol but pretty resonable and convenient
Your videos are really helping us out over here in Vermont! One quick question about freezing water tanks in the winter.....does it happen? Do I need to have a warmer, or cattle tank warmer? Or do they just stay unfrozen due to their size? We sometimes are away for a month or two at a time. Cheers!
Hey there, we drain the tanks from December-march and just melt snow for our water needs. We use a cheap bucket showers system during the winter to keep things simple
The one in the cabin is a 12 volt SureFlo pump. They are the most comment RV pump around. Bought a couple of then on Amazon...they were half the price of the RV dealer.
Jay, could you access the cold water only at the sink ... under the cabernet or something and out in a pet T and run it to the shower so you can mix it? I would also put a feed valve shut off like you have under the cabin .. I'd have to think about where .. it is more or less for shutting off the feee if the sink or shower faucets breach pressure... (seal leaks).
We have 2 propane tanks there. The large 100 pound tank feeds our stove inside.....it last for years. 3 years now and still seems heavy. The water heater for the cabin I use a 20 pound tank and it last 3-5 weeks
Do you have room for one of those big round green tubs. I think they are like 2500 gallons. Maybe half-bury it on property to consolidate all the little guys. Do you have a local water source to get good drinking water (not the lake)?
Hey Jay & Jen the green hose connected to the pump do you keep that outside all year around? Or do yonz bring it in during the winter months? We get harsh winters here in Western Pennsylvania and I'm sure yinz do to. Technically we now have no spring water and as of right now our spring went dry due to no rain. Hard times thats for sure. I do catch rain water but 3 50gallon tanks don't last long. My husband and I are going to be upgrading to the rain catchers that you & Jen have. Which if we ever go through this again we will have water to rely on.
We winterize everything come December. We don't have much need for outside water in the winter and we drain all our tanks around that time too. Melt snow on the wood stove for bucket showers and a dish bottle with spout
Ours was the view and it was already mostly cleared up on top of the hill. This gave us a good solar spot too facing southish......I agree it is a hard decision
Your comment @ 8:42 about sanitize the lines is not true unless the water is flowing. This leads me to an idea: WHAT IF....you could configure the water supply system to circulate during "away" times (add bleach, turn on circulate mode) to actually do clean the lines. Short cycles. Don't need high pass through or pressure. Just enough flow to circulate the lines. Solar would totally keep up with that. Like you don't need more things to do - LOL. Doing great!!
@OffgridwithJayandJen thank you! I live in a partially (for now) converted horse trailer and have not hooked up my water yet because we have a lot of iron in the well water and I am concerned about it messing up my hot water heater. Are they threaded on both ends so I can hook the hose/filter straight to my input valve (or whatever you call it)?
@Beth72958 this style filter just filters out the sides of the filter.....but they do make ones like you are looking for. They have a hose connection on both ends, I have seen then used for pools for just that reason, to filter out iron
Proverbs 13:20 King James Version 20 He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed. Gods blessings over you . Happy weekend .
Good use of a natural resource. You are a hundred steps ahead of most people.
We are in the process of planning an off-grid system so I am learning a lot from your videos! We appreciate your affordable, simple, doable information.
Thanks for watching please ask if you ever have any questions
I really like the way you all have set yourself up for off grid.
Thanks!
Good idea 4 water filter and UV water filter system 😎👍
Thanks! It's worked well for us!
Great find for me. I’m about 2 years behind you. I’m west coast BC. This year I plan on finishing my roof and walls. Then I’ll be able to set up my solar, rain collection; with pressured domestic water, hot tub… thanks for your info.
I enjoy watching your videos…Jen is looking great!
Thanks for watching
Thank you! I don't know who asked the questions but I'm glad.😊❤😊
Probably me LOL We are in the process of setting up our off grid home and we have just been hauling in water.
A little question. Here and there in the comments and it all adds up and then we try to make a video for everyone.
Hope it helps you some and always ask questions if you have them
Jay good video. You may want to add to your project list. Adding a bypass line around your filters with shut off valves in front and after. It’ll cut down on the antifreeze you put in the system. If you do it when and if you add the cold water line to the shower, it’ll be a two for one check mark off the list. lol I would also think about putting a fitting in after the pump to attach a air compressor line. You can blow out the house water lines and forget about the antifreeze altogether. It would quickly allow you on freezing nights to just blow out the lines then refill the lines when the day warms up. Just a few thoughts. You guys have done so much and have come so far.
Thank you for your content. You both do such a nice job conveying the lifestyle to us all. Many of us live vicariously through you! LOL!
Thanks for watching
Love and enjoy watching your videos. May the lord bless and protect you and Jen and the water system
Blessings my friend
Great tutorial on rain catchment and water conservation!
Thank you!
What a great set up for your off grid water system how wonderful., Awesome information folks your doing so well . love your videos .
Thanks so much!
Excited to watch, will watch later. Headed to our off grid property
Woot woot
@@OffgridwithJayandJen Well done video! Jay love how you go into all the details and even explain the I wish I done different or this isn't working out the greatest! I would melt snow in the winter, have when we lost power to our old place but we don't always get snow down here LOL. Question, How long do you run it before you believe all the antifreeze is out? I know folks do this in campers but they don't usually ever drink the water.
🎉Another great informative video! You are ahead of the curve on being self sufficient. Thank you for sharing!
Thanks for watching!
Great recap on the system. I have a similar water system set up at our place although I ran some PVC pipe underground to transfer water back and forth. Just 6" deep. Saves dragging hoses around all the time. I plan on a grey water system like yours next spring. Good thought on the vent. Have a good one, cheers!
Hope all works out well Jay and Jen 🤞🏻 God Bless 🙏🏻 Appreciate you always my friends 🫶🏻
I just bought an offgrid cabin and am still fixing and figuring out the water system, so these video's have been very helpful. I just noticed the other day that my kitchen sink drain lines had some small holes drilled on top of them and am now thinking maybe that was to add ventilation to help the drain water flow faster. Not for certain, but that may be an easy way to add air flow to the drain lines.
Cool......love sharing info....thank-you
My FIL had one of those filters on his sandpoint well in central Wisconsin that was about 20 feet deep. Best tasting water ever!
Always learning! Makes it a fun adventure! ✌️🇨🇦🇺🇸❤️
Always 100! Definitely part of the adventure
You can easily add AAV to vent the drainage, then you won't have to dig anything up ! Just gotta be 6" above the P-Trap.
For venting use a "Y" under the sink, putting a vent on the other side (MPT for the vent so you need a PVC adapter).
If you put water tank in your loft , you will have water year-round . 💙💙
It would take up far too much rook in loft and if we left in winter we'd have to worry about it freezing and making a massive mess. This works well. Our winter water solution works well too
I have an OFF-GRID cabin in Freesoil, just literally followed your setup, only question I is do I have to drain both my IBC totes when Winter hits ? I just use it on the weekends.
Ww drain ours once the weather starts staying below freezing 24/7. We melt snow for water in the winter and showers too
You twos are doing great with all the water set up. Nice job!!
Always learn stuff watching your vlogs, guys. Interesting and fun content. Your mate, UK. 😊
Thanks for watching friend!
@@OffgridwithJayandJen always happy too mate. Love your stuff.
😄❤️
Very informative guys. We have a Berkey and a reverse osmosis system as well. They work well
:D
That's a great setup.
Just got to figure how to get a 275 gallon tote inside my apartment 😊
Lol.........hummm.....good one
The system works well!! J & C
Thanks!
Thank you great set up.
Thanks for watching
I think you need return pump for hot water it’s help during winter. Anti freeze in a way and stabilize hot water.simply it’s keep hot water circulation.
If you haven't had any failures it means you probably don't do anything or try to make anything. LOL By having done all you're own plumbing it means you are familiar and expert (?) at its repair or maintenance. Thanks for the video.
So true!
Nice Information,, well explained! Cheers!
Thank you =)
@@OffgridwithJayandJen Most Welcome!
Thank you for showing us! We have 3 stage then berkey..we charcoal for larger sediment down to threaded .05 micron..it works really really good for 2000 gallon water tanks..i like how we are doing the same thing
Awesome.....sounds perfect
Very interesting video.
Thank you
couple of more thoughts, ... Do you use traps (J shape pipes) in the drains from the sinks and showers? Also, WellWorker makes 2 plus gallon pressure tanks. I use one with both my systems, 12 V used from a tote or from my regular well 80 feet away .. but I use it in the cabin itself. This works really well and you can use water for sometime before the pump starts and fills ... it helps on the points in the pump relay .. Your RV pump has a part number etc. snd I would buy and keep a new "pressure switch" that easily is replaceable on the pump unit. I even keep a spare pump assembly somewhere . Of course all should be drained in your neck of the woods too but that is a different way of winterizing. Some RVs have the low point drain and the fill area of the system can be used with compressed air after all is drained. Even blowing through 20 psi will clear it.. .. I think you are having almost as much fun as I am but I don't / can't tube it. pb. I am saving the quart of maple syrup ... I save some of my honey from a couple of bee hives .. that I don't take all their stock and feed them sugar syrup ... later.. pb
I do have p traps yes.....little bit of antifreeze in those in the winter too. I had a water bladder tank and was going to install....but I couldn't make it fit. I have a spare motor as well.....Great minds my friend 🧡
enjoyed. Thanks
I liked the little pool filter socks idea from your last video there where like 200 in a pack seems for the application I'm thinking about great. you are over killing the filtration that's great tho I'm just trying to keep my setup simple and 12v rarely 12v just incase of needing refill mainly just gravity feed but I'm also going to just heat shower water on a cook top and use a pump bucket with shower head wake up while I'm making my coffee water I'm boiling my shower water 🚿 it will take a little to figure out cold water to hot mix to get the right shower temperature but once installed solar is free verses propain its a little more work doing dishes and shower but I'm thinking fixed income retirement cabin good enough is good enough I'm not trying to down playing what and how you're doing things just sharing ideas I'm very poor thats probably is not going to change so preparing for retirement being as coust efecent as possible makes sense just herd you say pump bucket lol 😊 if you have trash pick up for the price of a trash bag a week and cedar chips you could build a custom toilet bulb seal both lids and vent outside don't need the out houses just empty your toilet on trash day I'd probably go with contractor bags lol but pretty resonable and convenient
It's a very nice set up Jay!!
Thanks
What about a hand crank well for water?
I hope younchange out the filters after using anti freeze in the lines. That or remove the filters and put back after flushing the lines..???
Ya i never let them touch or mix with the antifreeze
응원합니다 🇰🇷
It is very much appreciated my friend. Thank you
@@OffgridwithJayandJen 영상 잘 보고 있습니다
nice tutorial!
Thank you! Cheers!
Have you given any thought to putting a water tank in the ground to prevent freezing,Thanks
Always a possibility
Your videos are really helping us out over here in Vermont! One quick question about freezing water tanks in the winter.....does it happen? Do I need to have a warmer, or cattle tank warmer? Or do they just stay unfrozen due to their size? We sometimes are away for a month or two at a time. Cheers!
Hey there, we drain the tanks from December-march and just melt snow for our water needs. We use a cheap bucket showers system during the winter to keep things simple
Love the information provided
Can I ask what is the brand of the water pump you use to run your cabin water system
The one in the cabin is a 12 volt SureFlo pump. They are the most comment RV pump around. Bought a couple of then on Amazon...they were half the price of the RV dealer.
Jay, could you access the cold water only at the sink ... under the cabernet or something and out in a pet T and run it to the shower so you can mix it? I would also put a feed valve shut off like you have under the cabin .. I'd have to think about where .. it is more or less for shutting off the feee if the sink or shower faucets breach pressure... (seal leaks).
Great minds again buddy.....I might grab that cold water from the sink line like you said. I would just have to make a new shower head as well.
7:57 I see you've got that fixed up with a small rechargeable tank. About how long does that last for heating water?
We have 2 propane tanks there. The large 100 pound tank feeds our stove inside.....it last for years. 3 years now and still seems heavy. The water heater for the cabin I use a 20 pound tank and it last 3-5 weeks
Have you looked at electric tote blankets
I actually have a couple small heater pads under my solar battery bank. I'm moving them over to the water system when we do our solar upgrades
Do you have room for one of those big round green tubs. I think they are like 2500 gallons. Maybe half-bury it on property to consolidate all the little guys. Do you have a local water source to get good drinking water (not the lake)?
Just rainwater.....or a neighbors well
Hey Jay & Jen the green hose connected to the pump do you keep that outside all year around? Or do yonz bring it in during the winter months? We get harsh winters here in Western Pennsylvania and I'm sure yinz do to. Technically we now have no spring water and as of right now our spring went dry due to no rain. Hard times thats for sure. I do catch rain water but 3 50gallon tanks don't last long. My husband and I are going to be upgrading to the rain catchers that you & Jen have. Which if we ever go through this again we will have water to rely on.
We winterize everything come December. We don't have much need for outside water in the winter and we drain all our tanks around that time too. Melt snow on the wood stove for bucket showers and a dish bottle with spout
Will the antifreeze protect the water heater or do you drain that separately?
Anti freeze gets pumped into the heater when we shut it down
what do you have for your waste drain setup? a septic tank?
We have a grey water waste DIY system. Barrel in the ground pretty much
How do you deal with winter so it doesn't freeze
We winterize the cabin and melt snow....then use it in pots
How did you decide where to put you're cabin? I'm having a difficult time deciding where to build on my land. Each place I pick has pros and cons.
Ours was the view and it was already mostly cleared up on top of the hill. This gave us a good solar spot too facing southish......I agree it is a hard decision
Your comment @ 8:42 about sanitize the lines is not true unless the water is flowing. This leads me to an idea: WHAT IF....you could configure the water supply system to circulate during "away" times (add bleach, turn on circulate mode) to actually do clean the lines. Short cycles. Don't need high pass through or pressure. Just enough flow to circulate the lines. Solar would totally keep up with that. Like you don't need more things to do - LOL. Doing great!!
How do you attach the filter to the hose?
Just screws right on
@OffgridwithJayandJen thank you! I live in a partially (for now) converted horse trailer and have not hooked up my water yet because we have a lot of iron in the well water and I am concerned about it messing up my hot water heater. Are they threaded on both ends so I can hook the hose/filter straight to my input valve (or whatever you call it)?
@Beth72958 this style filter just filters out the sides of the filter.....but they do make ones like you are looking for. They have a hose connection on both ends, I have seen then used for pools for just that reason, to filter out iron
@@OffgridwithJayandJenthat is the info I needed! Thanks again. I love watching y'all!
Good stuff thanks
👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
The circulation system could be good to flush out the anti-freeze lines too. Where is your water flow diagram? LOL
Suction from tank.......discharge explained in video..super simple
❤❤😊😊
Do you see yourself ever moving to your cabin fulltime? Selling suburban home living off grid full time?
We are basically here full time. House downstate is so we have somewhere to stay when we wanna see friends and family
Proverbs 13:20
King James Version
20 He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed. Gods blessings over you . Happy weekend .
🖐😎👍
Hey bud, hope you're enjoying your vacation
Higgly piggly
😀
Great Video!
Thank you