Moving from Las Vegas to BI (Hilo: house, neighborhoods, buying)

[MaileinHawaii]

Thanks 67, I seen that list.

[hotzcatz]

Cost difference of maintaining a catchment system versus County water is catchment has a pump (probably around a couple hundred dollars if you have to replace it, that's just parts, if you have someone do it, triple or fourple that estimate.) There's usually a filter as well, although houses on County water will sometimes have filters to take out chlorine. There's also a pressure tank so the pump doesn't have to cycle all the time. Pressure switch, too. Plus the pool which is the same as an above ground swimming pool like you'd see on the mainland. Usually a corrugated metal walls with a plastic liner. Usually a cover, too, to keep out leaves and such.

Figure about once every ten years, you'll probably need to do some sort of repair to the system. They periodically get cleaned, not sure how often that happens.

County water runs about twenty to thirty dollars a month, more or less for an average house. They bill once every two months.

Here's everything you need to know about catchment systems. The U of H wrote a paper on it, it should be pretty definitive. https://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/oc/free...tedJan2018.pdf

[harrypritikin]

With regard to the spigots on the highway, when I used to live in Waa Waa ( ;-) ). I remember once around 1982 there was a serious drought. We went without rain for so long the leaves were falling off the waiwi trees in the jungle. We put a waterbed in the back of our pickup. The county had a row of spigots on a fire hydrant just outside of Pahoa. We would put 350 gallons into the water bed (which took awhile much to the chagrin of the others lined up with their gallon jugs), drive back to the jungle and empty it into our Doughboy pool with a 12 volt water pump. Ahhh, those were the days!!

BTW, a truck load of water is only $200 to $300 for 5,000 gallons. Anybody....does that sound about right? Should last about 3 months. The drought should be over by that time. The guy who owned the gas station in Keaau had two or three milk trucks that he had cleaned up and painted up real fancy; and he used to deliver water personally. I wonder if he's still kickin'? He built this beautiful mansion you can see on the mauka side of the Pahoa Road.

[harrypritikin]

Post script. I copied and pasted the catchment link in Chrome and it didn't work. Try this one:

www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/oc/freepubs/pdf/rm-12.pdf

It's old but detailed. The new modern systems take care of everything. There is a system to keep silt out of the tank, a system to purify the water (ultraviolet filter), and if you put a roof over the tank you can keep leaves and bird poof off of your cover. The people at Water Works can set you up. I've installed two. It was a *****. If I had to do it again I'd pay someone.

Catchment water should not be an issue for anybody.

[grantw]

We recently had two 2k gallon loads of water delivered to us in Ocean View. It was $200 total.

[Grassyknoll]

I have never had an issue drinking the water from my home catchment system. The company I work for bought a new property and we went from county water to catchment. To allay any of our employees concerns, we send water samples to an oahu lab every month. So far all results show it to be some very clean potable water coming out of our system.

[MaileinHawaii]

Mahalo you guys, this is really helpful. ����

[iuki001]

Originally Posted by hotzcatz

Cost difference of maintaining a catchment system versus County water is catchment has a pump (probably around a couple hundred dollars if you have to replace it, that's just parts, if you have someone do it, triple or fourple that estimate.) There's usually a filter as well, although houses on County water will sometimes have filters to take out chlorine. There's also a pressure tank so the pump doesn't have to cycle all the time. Pressure switch, too. Plus the pool which is the same as an above ground swimming pool like you'd see on the mainland. Usually a corrugated metal walls with a plastic liner. Usually a cover, too, to keep out leaves and such.

Figure about once every ten years, you'll probably need to do some sort of repair to the system. They periodically get cleaned, not sure how often that happens.

County water runs about twenty to thirty dollars a month, more or less for an average house. They bill once every two months.

Here's everything you need to know about catchment systems. The U of H wrote a paper on it, it should be pretty definitive. https://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/oc/free...tedJan2018.pdf

The link regarding catchment systems was very informative. My hubby read the whole thing. We decided if we build, we will build only where county water is available. The cost of installation plus maintenance would be like paying our water bill in advance for the next 15 years. If we purchase a home that is already built with a catchment system, it would have to be a great buy.

The info you have provided has been valuable in our decision regarding where to build or buy a home.

Mahalo.

Judy

[Arktikos]

Originally Posted by iuki001

The link regarding catchment systems was very informative. My hubby read the whole thing. We decided if we build, we will build only where county water is available. The cost of installation plus maintenance would be like paying our water bill in advance for the next 15 years. If we purchase a home that is already built with a catchment system, it would have to be a great buy.

The info you have provided has been valuable in our decision regarding where to build or buy a home.

Mahalo.

Judy

That will drastically limit your options in Puna.
Comparing the cost of my catchment in Puna to paying for City water in Alaska over the past 25 years it’s been WAY more in Alaska. Probably by a factor of ten at the least.

[Open-D]

Originally Posted by iuki001

The link regarding catchment systems was very informative. My hubby read the whole thing. We decided if we build, we will build only where county water is available. The cost of installation plus maintenance would be like paying our water bill in advance for the next 15 years. If we purchase a home that is already built with a catchment system, it would have to be a great buy.

The info you have provided has been valuable in our decision regarding where to build or buy a home.

Mahalo.

Judy

Wise thinking. I would try to apply that logic to the other side of the water in, water out situation and be on a bonafide sewer system. I have little faith in the long run on septic systems etc.