Project Tatooine Pt. 1
Tatooine moisture farm. This image is probably copyright Lucasfilms or Disney or whoever. Used without permission and a general lack of giving a shit.
With solar panels meeting my electrical needs, I am not worried if the grid goes down due to an extended outage, either from some natural disaster, or a man-made one. But if there is no water available, that poses a different problem. I live in a residential neighborhood with a small yard, so it’s not like I could drill a well even if city code allowed it. Besides, due to fracking that has taken place just a few hundred meters away, I don’t know if I could even trust the water to not be polluted even if I could drill. I am nowhere near a creek or river, and there is certainly not enough annual rainfall for me to actually capture enough rainwater to live off of - particularly with drought conditions that keep cropping up.
I have managed to store up a sizable amount of bottled water (a habit from the early pandemic days), but this is rather impractical for sustaining me if there is an extended outage. I know how I am, I will want to help friends and neighbors that are also impacted, so during an extended outage I will most likely end up sharing a decent amount with others in need, and that supply won’t last long.
So when I was watching Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (Han shot first!) for what was possibly the 600th time, I thought wait a minute - Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru were moisture farmers, why couldn’t I do that? After a few Internet searches, reading blog posts, and watching about a dozen videos I settled on a few ideas that I could put together as a “system”. So this is my plan on how I will attempt to become an urban moisture farmer, a plan I am referring to as Project Tatooine.
Why?
I think a big question right now is why would I even do such a thing. So let me discuss a bit of my reasoning.
I already have issues with paying so much to the city for water to keep the lawn from dying, and watering is actually quite important in this region for other reasons as well. Where I live the clay-based soil tends to shift and react to dry conditions which can reek havoc on a house - one really needs to keep the yard somewhat moist to keep the ground from shifting, causing foundational damage to one’s house. As someone who has experienced inside flooding during storms due to improper rain runoff as well as foundation problems that cost thousands to repair, over the past couple of decades I’ve begun to really pay attention to the weather and weather patterns.
I monitor drought conditions periodically via drought.gov for my area. Last year we reached Stage 1 drought conditions which lasted longer than they ever had previously. The stages are defined by the city of Arlington’s drought contingency plan. Also in recent years we’ve hit Stage 1 multiple times, and it is happening more frequently. As I write this, most of the county I live in is at the D0 Abnormally Dry level. Climate change has been impacting things, and whether you believe that climate change is real or not (I think it is real), weather patterns with less overall rain and drought conditions in most areas of the country (including my area) are on the rise.
And while this isn’t the best reason to be doing this, the hacker part of me sees this as “beating the system” with that system being the sky, the rain, the weather, and of course The Man who is gathering water then selling me what would normally be a free resource if gathering it myself were a little easier.
The Dangers
Most of these dangers will never happen, but I wanted to consider every possibility. As both a paranoid security professional and tech nerd prepper, I put on my tin foil hat and did a quick thumbnail threat model of what I wanted to address.
Extended grid down scenario. While most likely to happen from a storm, it could be any type of extended outage to the grid, denying large sections of full grid power. As large parts of the water supply system require electricity to run, a scenario could happen that impacts water. Living in all of my life in tornado alley (born and raised in Oklahoma, long time Texas resident) I’ve experienced extended outages first-hand, even in recent years.
Water supply in question. Again as a result of weather, having either a partial or full regional outage of electricity or having flooding that causes problems for the water supply, I’ve experienced issues where there is a “boil notice” issued regarding tap water. For some reason the water is deemed unsuitable and cannot be consumed unless it is boiled for 15 minutes. This isn’t easy to deal with, but it does cause issues if you need a lot of drinking water in a short amount of time.
Drought conditions. In the event of a severe drought which reaches the point where water it is short supply, there might be rationing. I’d like to be able to handle such a situation and still meet my water needs.
Bartering means. During any extended grid-down scenario, there will be shortages of all kinds. If I have a resource of some sort, I could not only use that resource to help neighbors but also be able to potentially bargain for things I am in need of. Drinking water could be that resource.
Infrastructure issues. There are multiple reasons for short-term and long-term infrastructure impacts, and additional scenarios as already mentioned could simply exacerbate the problem. Old and malfunctioning sections of the water supply infrastructure could have cascading impacts to access to fresh drinking water.
This is not just me speculating thinking it could happen, in some places it is happening for all kinds of other reasons, and anything from colder-than-normal temperatures to massive flooding to failing infrastructure can happen. One needs to look no further than the situation in Jackson, Mississippi to see this. While this is an extreme case, parts of this are still plausible in other locations. As an FYI this video where I first learned about Jackson came out after I had this blog post drafted, so I only recently added a reference to it. However it does strengthen my resolve.
Basic Requirements
My requirements for drinkable water are simple:
The moisture farming system should be capable of producing a minimum of 6 liters per day (that’s a bit more than 1.5 gallons) to be harvested for drinking and cooking purposes. Anything more than that can be stored or used for other needs.
The main “harvester” needs to run off of electricity. If the grid power is out, running it off of the battery system would prevent dependency off of gas. If it can be powered with its own solar power, even better.
Inside and outside the humidity varies - inside it is more stable but generally lower than outside. Outside it increases at night and decreases during daylight hours from the heat of the sun. Therefore the system would need to cover that.
Using more than one “harvester” could allow for multiple sources.
Storage of excess needs to happen, in case of dryer times of the year than others resulting in less harvest.
While I would gather water year around and assume the grid is up most of the time, there will be times during a potential extended grid outage, so the harvesting system would need to be able to act as independent as possible.
Potential Main Harvester
While I plan on having multiple harvesters, the main one I am considering right now would be the Source Hydropanel system. It system seems the most complete. Here are a list of pros and cons:
Pro: It pulls water from the air as its primary function.
Pro: It processes the water until it is pure, including adding of minerals.
Pro: The fans, filters, purification, and pumps to get the water into the house run off of built-in solar panels.
Pro: Minimal maintenance, with annual filter changes and mineral replenishment every five years.
Pro: Multiple indoor dispenser options, including a bottle-filling dispenser.
Pro: It would meet the daily needs for water harvesting with the potential for excess.
Con: Units are 4 x 8 feet (1.2 x 2.4 meters) and weigh 340lbs without water, and two units would be needed. That’s a lot of roof space, which might need to be reinforced.
Con: Expensive. The equipment, shipping to the house, and its installation and setup could run $5500-$6500. This assumes no modifications to the roof.
Con: Noisy. The reviews state that the units can be noisy. They do run in “quiet mode” on a timer so assuming they run in quiet mode at night and potentially not disturb the neighbors. A “barrier” to add sound dampening could be fabricated and installed, but this is obviously an additional expense.
Con: Impacted functionality when the sun isn’t out. A heavy cloudy day limits their effectiveness, and obviously they will only last into the night until their batteries are depleted.
Con: The system shuts off at freezing temperatures, and waits until the system thaws before restarting, rendering it ineffective in case of freezing temperatures. This isn’t a common occurrence in Texas, but it does happen.
Additional Harvesters
There are other sources of water I could potentially use. These will be set up to provide a more robust supply. None of these options will purify the water, and they would require purification and potentially mineral additions, but they could actually work quite well. With a combination of my Berkey water purification system (which I’ve had for a while) and some pink Himalayan sea salt as a mineral source, I could turn some of these sources into actual drinking water. Otherwise they could be used to fill toilet tanks, water plants, or wash clothes.
HVAC System. The Daikin HVAC system I have has a built-in dehumidifier to “even out” the air. For those with AC units you are aware of how much water can be produced by an AC system anyway, but with the addition of a built-in dehumidifier this certainly increases the amount of water pulled from the air. In the summer it is estimated to produce several liters in a day, including at night when the humidity is at the highest levels, so this could end up being an easy source of water during the summer months.
Dehumidifier. Building a portable system using a standalone dehumidifier and gathering the water from either indoors or outdoors could generate as much as a liter or two per day. This is non-optimal as it would require a decent amount of electricity to run, but it could allow for harvesting in a pinch - particularly at night when the humidity extremely high. It would also make sense to run it in the bathroom during and after a shower, or in the kitchen while cooking with pots of food on the stove.
Heat pump dryer. The dryer is easily the largest drain on the pocketbook from an electrical perspective, and I’ve already considered switching to a heat pump dryer which uses way less electricity. These use no vent hose heading outside the house, and moisture pulled from the clothes is either fed out of a draining tube or goes into a removable tray for dumping. This could easily become another small harvester, but as I use the dryer regularly then this could be a resource.
Rain barrels. While my guttering around my house is not set up in an ideal way for harvesting rainwater into barrels, it could be done. Through the county I was able to purchase a high-quality rain barrel for a mere $25 that I can experiment with. My intent is not to use it for potable water, but it certainly could be used for watering the house foundation, watering plants, filling toilet tanks, and even washing clothes if need be. My guess is based upon rainfall patterns they will be filled quickly when it is raining but for most of the year will be empty. All of our rainfall here tends to fall at once, with the majority of it seeming to happen in the spring. Again, this would be rather passive, but free water from the sky should not be passed up.
Summarizing Pros and Cons
I have a few options to consider here as far as harvesters go. It seems to make sense that regardless of what the harvester components of Project Tatooine end up being, that I should have more than one. Some make sense to start using right away, such as an HVAC system or rain barrels. Others will cost money.
A lot of what I’ll be dealing with will be dependent upon the seasons. Winter seems to be the toughest time of year for most harvester solutions, so storage will have to happen to cover slower months. In general there is no “one size fits all solution” and it will most likely be a hybrid system. Ideally the Source Hydropanels will work for long term potable water, and the rest of the harvesters will supplement non-potable water needs like the toilet tanks and laundry. I am not 100% sure this will all work, but it does give me a basis for a plan.
‘xcuse Me, While I Hack the Sky
I’ve started the project, and I will keep updating everyone with my progress as things happen. Like I’ve mentioned before, I’ve purchased a rain barrel which I will experiment with this coming spring, I’ve also purchased a dehumidifier to build a portable system I can move indoors or out, or even room to room. I already monitor temperature and humidity inside and outside, and will continue to do so.
I’m treating this like a standard hacker project, and will follow things wherever they lead. Wish me luck, and remember - Han shot first!
