Solar stills

T

TMB

Joined
Jan 1, 2000
Messages
4
Just wondreing if anyone has experience at making solar stills & if they were productive. I've read about them in several survival manuals. ASG ran an article a while back stating that in dry areas ther usually isnt anough moisture in the ground for them to be worth the effort. The point of the article was that you are likely to sweat out more moisture from digging the still than what it will produce. If you were in an area that the ground held enough moisture then maybe there would be easier sources of water?

Tim

[This message has been edited by TMB (edited 01-25-2000).]
 
I've seen this discussed before and haven't actually tried it myself.

First, I'd like to say that two posters on another forum had tried them and they didn't produce enough. This was, I believe, in South Carolina. But other posters had reported some success in their areas.

Personally, I would have to say that the area has to be pretty damp to begin with. After digging enough fence post holes in the heat of the summer on the prairie of ND, I can vouch for the fact that there isn't much moisture there! Now here on the Texas coast can be similar with the "drought" at the moment, but during the rainy season and shortly afterward, you couldn't dig a foot without water SEEPAGE!

So I would have to say, get out with a shovel and some black plastic and TRY IT! Each area can be different!

Good luck!


------------------
Plainsman :)
primitiveguy@hotmail.com

You use what you have on you, then you improvise! :)
 
The trick to a solar still is that you don't have to only use soil. Toss some plant matter in the hole, and you can evaporate the water out of it too. And you can pee in the hole as well. The water you get may taste off, but it will be pure. And flavored pure water is better than unflavored contaminated, or nothing. You could add other scraps, food and animal leftovers, but I'd be careful as I don't know what airborne stuff you could get it it began to spoil, plus other animals might come and see if you made it ino a pit full of animal scraps.

Stryver
 
I have built and used many solar stills. I agree that the yield is probably not enough to warrent the work. That in conjuntion with the fact that it needs to be moved every 2 to 3 days...may not make it an ideal option and the sweat lost may not be worth the fluids gained. Perhaps it should be dug at night
smile.gif
if you intend to do it.

A better option:

If I had vegetation, I would opt for a transperation bag or vegetation bag. It requires very little work... makes water from condensation (just like the solar still). Of course you'll need to make sure the vegetation is non poisonous.

------------------
Greg Davenport
http://www.ssurvival.com
Are You Ready For The Challenge?
Are You Ready To Learn The Art Of Wilderness Survival?

 
Greg:
Why would you need to make sure the vegetation was non-poisonous? You will be creating something very close to, if not entirely, distilled water. I could see some things like poison ivy/oak being bad to use, but I would imagine that if you successfully built one with those plants, the water you'd get would be good...


Stryver
 
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