1 Gallon per day

[greenbeetle]

Tomorrow marks the first day of my 1 gallon per day experiment. I have doubts this is feasable and want to see for myself. Will try a full week utilizing only 1 gallon of water (or any other liquid) per day. Includes hygiene. I'll measure liquids consumed at work. All meals will be freeze dried. Snacks will be either fruit or prepackaged items.

Since pooping in a bucket is frowned upon at work, I'm still using a toilet.

[Tetra Grammaton Cleric]

Tomorrow marks the first day of my 1 gallon per day experiment. I have doubts this is feasable and want to see for myself. Will try a full week utilizing only 1 gallon of water (or any other liquid) per day. Includes hygiene. I'll measure liquids consumed at work. All meals will be freeze dried. Snacks will be either fruit or prepackaged items.

Good luck!

Since pooping in a bucket is frowned upon at work, I'm still using a toilet.

lol

-

[Murph]

Good luck with the test. I'm interested to hear your results.

[WhoShotJR]

What are you using for hygiene? I assume hand wipes and sanitizer.

[greenbeetle]

What are you using for hygiene? I assume hand wipes and sanitizer.

Yes, I decided on hand wipes this morning. I could reclaim rinse water and usw it for the next day lather water but its difficult to reclaim a significant amount and, well, it looks gross. That said: I am trying to wash my hair everyday so I cut it short last night prior to the test - not sure that's going to be doable either. It took about 500ml but I washed it this am and used the rinse water to scrub my "danger areas". Hey! No one said the PAW was pretty!

I'll post amounts of water used for different stuff tonight.

[Chef]

If I were trying to stretch water, I'd nix the daily hair washing. It really doesn't need it. Combing thoroughly works great in between washes.

[nathat]

time to learn from someone elses work . Marked.

[greenbeetle]

1 Gallon or 3780 ml of Water



Activity and Water Used:

HYGIENE
Brush Teeth x 2: Saliva, no water used.

Wash hair, face, body: 500 ml used.
I wet my hair with 250 ml water collecting the runoff in a glass bowl and then lathered shampoo. I combined the rinse water and another 250 ml water together and used that to rinse the shampoo out of my hair carefully collecting the runoff again as below. That runoff and a small amount of soap was used to wash and other areas of importance and the runoff was NOT collected this time. Heheheh.


Wash hands and feet with hand wipes. No water used.

Clean dish/fork: 200ml used.

CONSUMED

Drinking: 1300ml consumed throughout the day.

Food Preparation
Breakfast - grape fruit, apple and nutrigrain bar (250 calories): no water consumed.

Lunch- MH Freeze Dried Chk ala King 3 servings (700 calories): 350ml consumed.


Dinner - MH Freeze Dried Scrmb egg and ham 3 servings (500 calories): 400 ml consumed.

Snacks - apple, 2nd nutrigrain bar, packet of m&ms, brownie (600 calories): no water consumed.



ACTIVITY

My smartphone pedometer says I walked .49 miles at work.
Walked 2 miles in 82 degree sunshine wearing slacks and long shirt/undershirt in neighborhood.
Various activities of daily living.
any water consumed as above.


Total Water Used = 2750ml or .72 gallons. Leaving 1100 ml.



Concerns:
1. I was in air conditioning most of the day and aside from walking 2 miles in moderate temperatures did no real strenuous activity.
2. One needs to save water each day to be able to wash clothes at some point.
3. One has to either poop in a hole or re-purpose urine and leftover water to flush a toilet.
4. Over 700 ml went to reconstituting freeze dried food.

Tomorrow I may save my urine and attempt to reclaim it. Will be interesting to see how much can be recycled. Need to attempt more sustained exertional activity some point this week.

[KnightoftheRoc]

I'm going to be watching with interest on the urine reclamation, I can't wait to see what your results end up like. May I suggest, tho, that you simply test the results with a PH strip or something? Drinking it, especially if you messed up somewhere, just seems....yeah, no- don't do that.

On the hair washing- I like the system of reclaim and re-use, but I'm wondering- how much time does this add to your normal grooming habits? It doesn't seem like something you can just wash and go with. I figure, in the PAW, being late for work probably won't be the issue it can be now, but till then, we need to adjust schedules for these things.

[bluebone]

cut the hair off!! that'll take care of that problem.

[Mr. Warren Peace]

another vote to skip the shampo treatments. no one is going to look like brad pitt or george clooney if we are truly restricted to 1 gallon a day.

thanks for sharing, and i am looking forward to reviewing you next entries.

fyi.. also, please keep us posted if you experience any headaches, cramps, or difficulties taking a dump.... seriously because these are usually signs of not consuming enough water/liquids.

[Black Spruce]

In an emergency situation, which I presume you're trying to simulate, are you really going to wash every day? I understand that your workplace would probably frown on going days on end without bathing for the purpose of this experiment, but in a widespread emergency or major socio-economic change, I think daily hygiene standards would change pretty fast. Working and camping in the bush, I've found after 5 or 7 days, you just reach a point where you stop getting dirtier.

[greenbeetle]

In an emergency situation, which I presume you're trying to simulate, are you really going to wash every day? I understand that your workplace would probably frown on going days on end without bathing for the purpose of this experiment, but in a widespread emergency or major socio-economic change, I think daily hygiene standards would change pretty fast. Working and camping in the bush, I've found after 5 or 7 days, you just reach a point where you stop getting dirtier.

I have to stay clean for the job so going a day or two without washing isn't possible in this case. We'll just have to look at how much water I spend on washing and add it back to the consumable column for your own calculations.

I've been out in the wild for a week more than a few times and agree, most won't wash everyday. That being said, hygiene and sanitation are the backbone of modern society and should be a part of everyone's plan to some degree or another, right?

[duodecima]

In an emergency situation, which I presume you're trying to simulate, are you really going to wash every day? I understand that your workplace would probably frown on going days on end without bathing for the purpose of this experiment, but in a widespread emergency or major socio-economic change, I think daily hygiene standards would change pretty fast. Working and camping in the bush, I've found after 5 or 7 days, you just reach a point where you stop getting dirtier.

I have to stay clean for the job so going a day or two without washing isn't possible in this case. We'll just have to look at how much water I spend on washing and add it back to the consumable column for your own calculations.

I've been out in the wild for a week more than a few times and agree, most won't wash everyday. That being said, hygiene and sanitation are the backbone of modern society and should be a part of everyone's plan to some degree or another, right?

Everybody's different - I've been going to work without washing my hair more than every other day (commonly twice a week) for years. On me, it might look iffy on day 4. But that's based on my hair and my usual exertion pattern. But the point is, everybody needs to know what they, personally, need to be sanitary.

And in some emergencies, you might still be going to work trying to look normal, or at least clean.

Fantastic stuff, props to you for really doing this!

[Murph]

The lack of straight water consumed worries me too. Perhaps you look for foods that don't require reconstituting, so you can drink the water that is being used to prepare them.

Stay safe!

[Jamie]

Interesting thread...thanks for the updates!

I would skip the shampoo and body washing also, wet-wipes are awesome, and I've used them on lengthy camping trips...

I think that you could reclaim water from wash-water and urine and even feces through evaporative separation and filtration, but it'll be a bit nasty, and will fry your filter cartidge...put all the stuff in a black garbage can in the sun, with a container for evap-water in the middle...cover with a black garbage bag and weigh the garbage bag down in the middle so evap-products can drip into the container...run evap-products through filter...profit!

Good luck and stay safe!

Jamie

[greenbeetle]

Day 2

Hygiene routine repeated from yesterday. No problems here, I feel as clean as if showering. maybe a bit grimy in areas where I rinse with already soapy water but wet wipes help that. 500ml water used.


Food is identical to yesterday, water used to make 6 servings of same mountain house #10 cans from yesterday. Hope to run out of the eggs soon because I'm losing my taste for them. A grapefruit, 2 apples, banana, 3 nutrigrain bars and two packets of M&Ms. I didn't count calories today but I feel hungry, will probably add another few servings of MH tomorrow. 700ml water used.

Consumed 1550ml water today. Not sure why more than yesterday.

Activity. Walked .88 miles at work and 1 mile after work. Skipped rope, pushups, situps x 10 min.


Urine reclamation. I came home from work and combined my morning pee and noon pee.


Made this crude solar oven, temp got to 110 before I left the house to head back to work. Wind blew it over into my driveway. Bad science tends to end badly!


Proof of concept over low heat at wife's protest. Took two attempts as I turned heat up too high first time and melted the plastic wrap. 2nd time I inverted the pot's lid on top of the pot (it's a convex glass lid).


Worked well but it looks to me like some water was lost in the process probably from escaping unsealed lid.


I'll reattempt the solar concept tomorrow. My oven will need some tweaking - it was made hastily and without any real investigation. Although if its too efficient it will probably melt the plastic. To ponder overnight.



About 1 Liter leftover water today.

[duodecima]

I'll reattempt the solar concept tomorrow. My oven will need some tweaking - it was made hastily and without any real investigation. Although if its too efficient it will probably melt the plastic. To ponder overnight.

Oven bags (aka turkey roasting bags) will not melt at any temp a solar panel cooker can reach. Use a piece of that (or your clear pot lid) to catch your evaporation. Put your entire pot set up inside another oven bag to hold the hot air around it and slow the convection heat loss (and any evaporation from leaks) way down.

There was another post around here somewhere (one of our australian members I think?) about using a pot, topping it with an angel food cake pan or bundt cake pan (the kind with the hole in the center) and then covering that securely with plastic film& pot lid. Water in pot, pot gets heat source, presto evaporation from pot, condensing onto plastic film/lid, and dripping into the bundt cake pan to collect. I can't find that post, anybody remember where it is? (search-fu not strong tonite, sorry.) I am not sure if this could be made to work in a solar panel cooker or oven. (Fresnel lens to heat the bottom pot might work, but those things require serious caution if you are not going to be a hazard to self and others.)

[KnightoftheRoc]

kudos to your Mrs. for allowing this nonsense in her kitchen!
So- on the urine reclamation, how much urine did you start with, and how much water did you end up with? Also, you might want to throw up a quick Paint sketch of your arrangement- I recognized it, but others may not, nor have the literature it appears in. Could also possibly lead to an improvement as many minds consider the idea.

[Jamie]

A big black garbage can topped with a black garbage bag with some rocks in the bottom of the can will heat up enough to evaporate the water, shouldn't tip over too easily, and can be rinsed or chucked after the experiment...

Jamie

[anonymac]

I've always understood the "1 gallon per day" rule as drinking/cooking water only. Thus hygiene and other uses are eliminated. I've never done the experiment such as you, but I know on a typical day I usually DRINK at least 3 quarts of water.

I really think 2 gallons per day is closer to reality in a disaster situation. For drinking and cooking ONLY. Personally i want to store 3 gallons per day, which gives me an extra gallon for hygiene or cleaning, and may give a bit of surplus. YMMV.

[Jamie]

I've always understood the "1 gallon per day" rule as drinking/cooking water only. Thus hygiene and other uses are eliminated. I've never done the experiment such as you, but I know on a typical day I usually DRINK at least 3 quarts of water.

I really think 2 gallons per day is closer to reality in a disaster situation. For drinking and cooking ONLY. Personally i want to store 3 gallons per day, which gives me an extra gallon for hygiene or cleaning, and may give a bit of surplus. YMMV.

I plan on 2 gallons per day, per person in my house for emergencies, but I also have standing and running water aplenty all over the place around my home...due (at least partly) to an autoimmune disorder, I drink about 1-1.5 gallons of water each day.

Jamie

[KnightoftheRoc]

I've always understood the "1 gallon per day" rule as drinking/cooking water only. Thus hygiene and other uses are eliminated. I've never done the experiment such as you, but I know on a typical day I usually DRINK at least 3 quarts of water.

I really think 2 gallons per day is closer to reality in a disaster situation. For drinking and cooking ONLY. Personally i want to store 3 gallons per day, which gives me an extra gallon for hygiene or cleaning, and may give a bit of surplus. YMMV.

My personal leaning is more toward this, as well. However, if pushed to, I think I could make do on 2 quarts a day, as I've done it for short stretches on only one quart a day. I don't recommend it.
I also think that the water usage is averaged out- if you had X gallons of water for so many days, somewhere in there, say, once a week, you'd wash your body, simply for the hygiene aspect of it. I think I could set aside a little bit each day for a weekly wash without dying from it. Even if all you managed was a pint a day (1/2 liter), that doesn't mean you wash every day with just that one pint- you let it build up to the gallon you need, or whatever, and THEN wash.

[greenbeetle]

The idea is to evaporate the urine from the big pot, have it condense on the plastic "lid" and then run down the sloped plastic to the center where it drops into a clean, empty container sitting on the bottom of the pot.

I slept on it and for today I'm going with this:


It's a pot of pee inside a black plastic bag. The "stand" in the middle will create a tented surface over the pot so when water condenses it will run down the sides of the sloped bag and collect outside the pot in the plastic bag. Will tie bag so it is airtight.

Noon Edit: I've plastic wrapped the bottom of the wooden apparatus so that urine will not be lost in the wood. 700 ml urine added. we'll see what happens.