Rite and Ritual

Water – An Apocalyptic Primer!

Posted on July 3rd, 2009 in Important Matters, Planning, Zombies, future reference Desalination, house-boats, Renewable energy, Solar energy

For a while now I’ve considered water the best solution to weathering out the zombie apocalypse. After all, zombies can’t swim, and as long as you stick to deep waters, they’re out of reach. Its also something that struck me while reading Cormac McCarthy’s The Road.

house-boats come in all shapes and sizes...

The best solution to The Road apocalypse is the house-boat, or rather the live-aboard boat. These come in various sizes, from the rough to the luxurious (afterall, woudn’t just a trailer on a raft qualify as a house-boat?), but I’m interested in long-term potential. As the folks at http://www.all-about-houseboats.com/ will enthusiastically tell you, not only can these beauties come equipped with a full-size bathroom and shower, living room and kitchen (complete with an island, one owner boasts), properly fitted with solar panels they can run all your electronics, including laptop, tv and fridge/freezer. (That takes about 3 good size panels on the roof, apparently – but can be done.) Solar power depends on the sun (or lack of), which makes it intermittent, so maybe a small wind generator for the nights? they have them too.

It should be noted that ‘green’ houseboats – houseboats that rely on renewable energy for their electric consumption -  still require gasoline for the engine. Also old-timers are quick to point-out that equipping a fully fledged green energy system on board might just cost you more than you’ll ever save with it. But then many people report success with it, and many more feel the sacrifice worth it for the freedom, allowing them to ‘live at anchor’ for longer (in the middle of water, rather than docked in town).

While a person can last a number of weeks without eating, dehydration will kill in a matter of days. This could be a great problem for the survivalist in a post-apocalyptic future. After all, clean-water springs, or uncompromised brooks and streams aren’t easily found when there are roving bands of cannibals roaming the wastes, or zombies crawling in the open.

However, this still requires a water source. Currently drinking supplies come from large on-land or underground clean-water reservoirs; but these are even now subject to pollution by the same chemicals that are sterilizing the fish in our rivers – and gods know what else. (I’ll have to post more about this later.) The earth is two-thirds ocean, so the best solution to the water problem might be desalination. However this is a very energy-intensive operation, which is why commercial plants are relatively rare (that I know of). Solar desalination is the only viable alternative for a post-apocalyptic zombie future, I’m afraid.

Like I said, the major problem for solar desalination is efficiency. On the one hand, in the process of boiling water, solar energy is transferred into heat, which turns water into steam to be collected again into clean water – but the left over hot air is then just released. A massive waste. On the other hand, efficiency and economy run head-to-head in this. Everyone knows how long it takes to boil a full kettle of water compared to just a cup’s worth. To make water evaporate faster, you need to do it in very small quantities, but the quantity has to be large enough to live on (drink, wash dishes, grow crops, etc.)… Its almost a catch 22. There’s a dimension involved as well. Anyone familiar with boiling points will be aware that this also depends on air pressure. Water boils at a much lower temperature at high altitudes than at sea level (go high enough and your boiling water might be cool enough to drink!). This fact is used in solar desalination by holding the water in a vacuum, and thus greatly increasing the efficiency of the system. However, as remarked on globalwarmingsolutions.co.uk, the use of a vacuum in large scale requires a very strong infrastructure because it has to support the weight of the air above and around it. (People who have done some diving know this feeling!) I really don’t know much about these things, but this might be one of the reasons many solar desalination plans rely on electrical solar power, rather than just direct solar energy.

There is definitely some interesting ideas and work done in this field, and I have a feeling there’s going to be quite a lot of innovation before the end is nigh.  So far, most interesting to me is this Energy Globe winner: The Watercone.

(http://www.youtube.com/v/c9fepEyGRx8)

The Watercone (details here) is such a simple, easy and utterly genious design – just beautiful. Its small, portable, light-weight; low-cost and low-concept. While the size of 60cmx80cm diameter was specifically chosen for efficiency and transportation, the small scale is also a problem. It according to the site, it produces about 1.0 – 1.7 liters of water per day (24hrs). While this will sustain a child, the daily survival requirement for an an adult is about 2-3.7 liters a day (link).

You would need at least three of these cones to sustain one person – and sunlight of course. Maybe trail a smaller vessel from your house-boat, with a number of these cones? A little water-farm of sorts?