The lid will heat up over time because it absorbs the heat from the condensating water vapour.

You might get more condensation if you filled the lid with cold water.

Would you really add bleach to your slightly gunkey water before drinking it? We always have a couple of gallons of water in the freezer for all sorts of reasons, so that might get us through the day...

Roland --- Excellent tip about filling the lid with cold water! I'll have to try that next time.

Christian --- I'm not sure I'd add bleach to slightly gunky water except in an extreme emergency, but FEMA suggests adding a quarter of a teaspoon of bleach to a gallon of water and letting it stand for 30 minutes before use.  Be sure to use plain bleach, not the fancy versions labeled "scented", "color-safe", or "with added cleaners."  The water should smell a bit bleachy (like swimming pool water) after standing --- if not, add some more bleach and let stand again.

Boiling will only kill micro-organisms and maybe remove some volatiles. Distilling will remove pretty much everything from the water.

But our bodies need the minerals dissolved in normal drinking water. When you're drinking nothing but distilled water for long periods your body will loose essential salts and minerals.

I've heard from colleagues about a guy working at a nearby chemical etching plant where he drank demineralized water every day (in the mistaken belief that it was very healthy) and eventually got sick enough to require hospital treatment.

It's fascinating you should say that because Mark told me he'd had the exact same experience. He went through a phase where he only drank distilled water, and ended up getting sick. On the other hand, I suspect that if you're faced with drinking flood water or distilled flood water for a week until environmental conditions calm back down, you'd be better off with the latter. Do you know how long you'd have to drink distilled water before it made you sick?

After the big quake, we had no running water at our house for 4 days. But down in the city, they were dry for weeks. We got our emergency water from the neighbor's spring fed creek. He has a tank and a filter attached. But after the second day, the filter plugged up, and we had to boil the water. We could probably drink it from the creek, and have indeed sometimes. But boiling it was a safer option.

Safe water is indeed a very important thing, and thanks for bringing the subject up! We should all think about this!

It's amazing how we take water for granted...until it's gone. We've been very lucky during our extended power outages because I tend to have gallon jugs of drinking water around in case our water line freezes in the winter. Sure, that water tastes pretty stale a year or two later, but it's definitely appreciated!

You've got an excellent point about knowing neighbors with safe springs. That's our real backup plan since a friend just a mile or so down the road has a copiously flowing spring that he doesn't mind us filling up at.

Anecdotes are not data. So I couldn't tell you how fast symptoms occur atfer switching to distilled water. It would certainly depend on your condition and diet. From what I've read on wikipedia food and not water is our main source of minerals. But as soon as you start drinking distilled water, the concentration of minerals in your body fluids will go down almost by definition. Unless you're getting plenty of minerals from your food.

Have you ever had the water from your creek tested for non-biological contaminants and dangerous mineral content? (since you can pretty much do away with biological contaminations by boiling, AFAIK)

My gut reaction was the same as yours when Mark told me that --- that we get a lot more of our minerals from food than water. On the other hand, I could see how lack of minerals in distilled water could change the osmotic potential in such a way that we would be excreting a lot more minerals. Unfortunately, my understanding of the chemistry of our digestive system is so vague, I have no clue if that makes sense.

We haven't tested the creek because we don't use it for anything except washing and irrigation. It would probably be worth testing, though, to know what we'd be working with if we ever needed to use it as a backup.

I was thinking along the same path.

But there are other ways of thinking about it that give the same result. Consider the systems approach. Think of the total volume of your body's water, Now add a pint of distilled water. By definition the overall concentration of minerals will decrease. Now assume you lose a pint of urine. This will contain some minerals (presumably in some sort of equilibrium with the amount of minerals in your bloodstream, depending how good the interface between bloodstream and bladder is at retaining minerals). Assuming that your dietery intake doesn't change, you'll start losing minerals. How much that is indeed depends on a lot of unknown factors.

I never thought about flipping the lid upside down. But it would work in an emergency.

My short term plan is to make use of our well. I have an emergency generator to run that in case of emergency.

Long term plans are to put a hand pump on that well so I can use either the well pump or the hand pump. I don't have all the details worked out yet. I also plan on getting a Berkey water filter. From my research, they are the best solution for my homestead.

Roland --- Both points make sense, but we also have to keep in mind that biological systems can work to counteract loss of minerals in various ways. (For example, "pumps" in cell membranes.) Still, it probably makes sense not to risk it by drinking distilled water for too long.

Fritz --- Mark bought a hand pump for our well last year for that same reason, but we haven't gotten around to hooking it up yet. We've been pondering building a sand filter --- it would take a bit of doing, but would be a very long term solution to filtering the water just using gravity.

Thanks for the pointer! After some reading and searching I found active transport. Just goes to show that one can learn something new every day.

Roland --- I remember just enough about cellular biology to be dangerous...