In Nicaragua, we are experiencing a drought year. The same is true in many other countries. Even where there is no drought, pumping down the water table is the norm. Unfortunately, we tend to not think about our domestic water use as long as water comes out of the pipe.

If you happen to want to get an idea what your use looks like, I found a handy calculator. Just fill in your usage pattern and it shows the totals. You may be suprised.

The calculator is at http://www.csgnetwork.com/waterusagecalc.html

I live off-grid. While I have an inverter to supply 120VAC, I have tried to run as many things either directly off the batteries (24 volts) or off one of the three 24 to 12 volt DC-DC converters. One such choice was a 12 volt RV-style water pump for water pressure in the house. When I initially hooked it up, it tended to cycle a lot when using water. While it wasn't a serious problem when washing your hands or doing dishes, the pressure variations in the shower were a bit irritating. The solution was to add a pressure tank.

I was just asked about how to build a low-cost solar water heater. It's actually the subject for a planned how-to article but let me toss out two basic design ideas. If you are creative you should be able to construct either one. Solar water heaters used to be inexpensive but, today, they seem to have out of control prices. It just makes no sense why someone would be expected to spend $1000 or more when they are such simple devices. The two ideas I will present are a "box heater" and a "plastic pipe" heater.