Off-Grid Water Systems: 8 Viable Solutions to Bring Water to Your Homestead (2024)

Did you know the average person uses around 80-100-gallons of water per day? That is a lot of water!That’s whyin my article aboutthings you should considerwhen buying a homestead, water is one of the main things you should be looking for.

However, sometimes you find land that is perfect with the exception of water.

And let’s not forget that emergencies happen too.

What can you do if you have a piece of land with no water? Or if an emergency strikes that ruins your water source?

For such eventualities, I want to share with you how you can fix the issue of water on your homestead.

I will caution you that some of these options can be expensive.However, if you find the perfect piece of land then it might be worth the cost to you. Plus, if it helps to save your family or livestock during an emergency then the cost would be worth it.

Here are some options for you:

1. City Water

The first and most obvious option for water on a homestead is city water. If you live close enough to city limits then you might have this.

And that’s a good thing. It means you don’t have to pay to have a well put in.

However, I would still encourage you to look for a separate water option. Let’s be honest for a second. Most of us that homestead don’t do it because we are bored. We do it for health purposes and because we want to be self-reliant in case an earth-shattering emergency takes place.

Well, if a catastrophe did happen, city water would most likely be a thing of the past. It would be easy for it to become contaminated or simply not work at all depending on what the earth-shattering issue was.

So if you have this as a viable option for your homestead, great. However, consider some of these other options as a solid backup plan.

2. Well, well, well

Well, well, well… have you considered a well?

Excuse my play on words, but have you? If not, why?

I know digging a well can be expensive. Upwards of $10,000 expensive. Still, it is a solid water source completely off-grid. I’m not saying all wells will last forever because we all know that they won’t.

However, it is still a solid option.

If you are looking at land that doesn’t have a water source already on the property, don’t give up. Instead, dig below the ground. There could be a great source of water running right under your feet.

And another perk to a well, if you consider yourself a homesteading prepper, is that even if city water is contaminated your water source most likely will not be.

Plus, even if the entire grid shuts down you still have a viable water source. However, I will go into greater detail with that in a bit.

3. Go Wind Powered

You’ve decided to go with a well. That’s great news. We have one and absolutely love it.

When we lived in the city years ago, we were on city water. I had never been where I had the option of a well. However, now you’d be hard-pressed to make me go back. I love knowing that my water source comes from a river up the road.

My family and I are trying to be prepared in dealing with emergencies. We need to have a solid water source that could keep us and our animals alive for quite a whileif need be.

And what got me thinking about this was a few years ago, we had a huge storm come through our area.

We were without power for close to a week.

Thankfully I had started storing water and it was enough to carry us and our animals through for that time period.

Yet, what if the next catastrophe left us even longer without power? For us, no power means no water.

So I began looking for alternative options for power.

And the two biggest options that keep reappearing over and over are solar and wind power. If you live in a flat area then DIYwind power might be a good option for you.

Or you can even purchase a wind power kit and learn how to build your own wind-powered water pump.

4. Go Solar

I think I’ve mentioned before that I live in the foothills. Wind power probably isn’t the best option for my family and me. That’s why I hope to one day (soon) go solar.

I have multiple reasons for this.

First, I’d love to ditch my electric bill. Part of being a homesteader is living as frugally as possible. And my electric bill obviously requires me to spend more money.

Second, I’d love to know that in the event of an emergency that my power will not go out. As long as the sun keeps shining on my home, my family and I should have power.

The third and probably most important reason is water.

When we first moved to our area, we rented a house for a year.

And this house was an old farmhouse that actually had an old well that they used for water when the house was first built. It still had the pulley system on it. Which was great in case of an emergency, and you needed water.

Once we moved to our homestead, the house that came with it only had an electric-powered well.

Now, when the power goes so does our water. Which is where solar power comes in. If I had solar panels powering my water then even if the whole grid is disrupted, theoretically, I should still have water.

And this is great news for my family and animals. You can purchase one of theserecommended solar panels, and then learn more about DIY solar installations.

5. A Hand Pump

In case you haven’t guessed, it is common for off-grid homesteads to have a well. And the reason is that it is a reliable source of water that comes straight from the ground.

Even so, let’s say you don’t have the money to go solar or wind-powered. And all you have is an electric pump.

Yet, you are looking for a back-up in case of an emergency.

Well, you are in luck. Remember the old fashioned hand pumps? They still work!

And you can actually purchase a hand pumphere.

However, you’ll need to know how to install it. Here is a great article that tells you how to add a hand pump to an electric well.

Honestly, this is something I hope to do very soon. Because though solar panels are great for taking you completely off the grid, they can be very expensive to get into.

However, this option is much more budget friendly.

6. Store Your Own

This is more of a prepping option for those that are looking for a backup to their already solid water source.

If you have a water source whether it be a river, well water or even city water then start saving your milk jugs or other containers. However, remember that if you are pulling water straight from a river you will need to purify it.

After you have the water jugs stored, just keep adding to them to ensure that you have enough water to withstand a small emergency.

Now, I will say this is not a good long-term option. So if you are someone that is looking to be prepared for anything then this might be a good starting point.

Still, certainly not where you would want to stop.

7. Put the Rain to Good Use

I’ve mentioned previously about collecting rain water.

And I’m a firm believer that we should all be doing it. My reasoning is that it helps save water on a daily basis. We actually use our rainwater to provide water to all of our animals.

However, as great of an idea as this is, it is not something that would last for permanent long-term use. It could definitely provide water for your animals for a decent period of time.

Yet, it needs to be mentioned if you are going to try to drink rainwater yourself then you’ll need to do some research to make sure you do so safely. Read this article to learn more about purifying rainwater for drinking. And some off-grid homes actually collect rainwater and then install a purification system so they can use it for drinking.

So though this idea would not be enough to sustain a homestead for long periods of time (in the event of a catastrophe or purchasing a dry piece of land) it could certainly help with the amount of water you use from an alternate resource.

8. Hauling Water to a Large Tank

This was actually an idea I had never considered until watching an episode of Homestead Rescue. The people on the episode couldn’t afford to drill a well right then.

However, they were living on a piece of land with no water at all.

And obviously, a homestead can’t thrive without water. They were fading quickly. That was until the Raney’s rode into town to save the day.However, the temporary solution to their problem was to place a large cistern into the ground and fill it with gallons and gallons of water.

Now, this may not be the most budget friendly option.

Let’s get out of prepper mode for a second. Let’s imagine you found a steal on a great piece of land.And you can see all of the amazing things you can do with this land. The land doesn’t have water access, and you don’t have the money right off the bat to drill a well.

Then this might be a solid option for you. It would all depend upon how much water delivery would be in your area.

I still believe it would be a solid option to last you for a while.

And if you step back into ‘prepper mode’ then this might be a good option to help store a little (or a lot) of extra water on your property simply as a back-up to you well.

You can learn more about the process of hauling in water here. And you can alsobuy a water tank.

Well, I hope these water options helped. And hopefully even got your wheels turning on how you can make your homestead work for you.

Or even how you can better prepare your homestead for a disaster of any kind. Because as we all know, water has to be there or the homestead you’ve worked so hard to build will fail.