Storing Water
The Seattle Office of Emergency Management (OEM) recommends storing 1 gallon of water per day for 7-10 days for each member of your group.
“Water is essential for life. After a disaster, safe drinking water can be in short supply and those without it may find themselves waiting in long lines to get it.” – https://www.seattle.gov/emergency-management/prepare/prepare-yourself#storingwater.
In the same breath they also have the following recommendations on storing and rotating water to keep it drinkable:
- Make sure the bottle is clean. Put about 1/8 of a teaspoon of bleach and 2 cups of water in the bottle. Put the lid on and shake the bottle gently. Be sure to wash around the lid and the top of the bottle.
- Empty and fill with fresh water all the way to the top of the bottle (leaving as little air space as possible). Screw the top on tight and label the bottle as ’emergency drinking water’ (download a 1 Gallon or 1 Liter label). Make sure to put the date you filled the bottle on the label
- Empty and refill the bottles every 6 months (we recommend doing it when you change your clocks and check your fire alarms). Don’t just pour the water down the drain, use it to water your plants, rinse your dishes or even drink it
- We don’t recommend using glass bottles as they break easily during earthquakes. Plastic milk jugs are hard to seal and degrade quicker than plastic soda bottles. Stay away from bottles that have had bleach or other toxic chemicals in them
This is – frankly – a lot to stay prepared for a disaster of unknown date. The DayZero water box allows you to avoid most of this work.
The UV-H20-Box disinfects water a gallon at a time using ultraviolet light (UVC) – the same technique used by municipal water systems worldwide. Instead of disinfecting water on the way into your storage bottle, our water box allows you to disinfect on the way out.
Unlike other solutions it requires no filters/chemicals or other consumable components that might run out in an extended emergency, AND unlike most filters it is 99.99% effective against viruses.
The only requirement is electricity to power the UVC germicidal bulb. In the event there is no electricity – our WB-GX model comes with a robust hand-cranked generator that we have subjected to a 14 day test simulating the disinfection of 100 gallons of water per day.
The problem the UV-H2O-Box solves is disinfecting water (lots and lots of water) when you need it, where you are without using consumables like filters/chemicals.