Water Requirements

[SecretPrepper]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24464774
I thought this was an interesting article about the drinking X amount of water a day.
From my own observations in my office where we have around 12 people, from 7 am to 6 pm we drink about 18.5 liters (sometimes less) that is from just talking on the phone with very little physical activity. A lot is used by the tea and coffee drinkers but we all have little plastic cups for the water cooler. Some of us have snacks like cupper soup and pot noodles that also take up water.

Does anyone else notice how much water they drink a day?

[CharlesHarris]

The Mayo Clinic Institute of Medicine determined that an adequate intake (AI) for men in temperate zone is roughly 3 liters (about 13 cups) of total beverages a day. The AI for women is 2.2 liters (about 9 cups) of total beverages a day”.

FEMAS suggest that families store for emergencies a minimum of one gallon a day per person. These preparedness recommendations address short term requirements for up to three days and permit a small amount of water for personal hygiene.

In the mid-Atlantic Appalachian area in which I live, my plan to store at two gallons of water per day. In desert regions, I would probably double that. The reason for the extra emergency water is twofold; 1) during storms if AC mains power is lost, we would be using dehydrated or freeze-dried foods and cooking them requires more water. Anytime you use water in cooking you will lose a percentage through evaporation.

2) hygiene needs, keeping ourselves, our dishes and our clothes clean is necessary to avoid illness. If planning on living with stored water for any period of time, store as much as you can, but not less than two gallons daily, per person.

When our EMAC public works crews were deployed to perform debris cleanup near Gulfport, MS after hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Safety Officers from the US Army Corps of Engineers enforced hydration breaks of 1 pint (500ml) every 30 minutes for personnel performing manual labor and 1 pint per hour for motorized equipment and heavy equipment operators driving non-air conditioned trucks, dozers, loaders, and knuckleboom cranes. We rigged a fog nozzle on a 1-inch hose connected to a Lister bag as an improvised shower facility, and the daily washing requirement was 20L per man, allowing 30 secs. to get wet, shut off, lather and scrub for 2 minutes, then 1 minute for rinse.

[Skean Dhude]

Averages and what others drink is all well and good for when we are planning for a cities water supply. For our little group we need to gather real data. What if your group all drink above average. You plans are screwed.

Monitor you own usage and base your working out on real data, not estimates.

[CharlesHarris]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24464774

[SecretPrepper]

This wasn't my group just the people i work with. Just an observation i had noticed. the amount i drink changes on phusical activity such as if i go to the gym first.

[Scythe13]

With me and my wife, we both have very active hobbies. I drink a max of 2 litres, including cuppa-soup. The wife drinks even less.

[bigpaul]

i'm allowing a GALLON per day for myself and the OH, that's probably on the high side but better to allow more rather than less.

[Scythe13]

(10 October 2013, 14:39)SecretPrepper Wrote: From my own observations in my office where we have around 12 people, from 7 am to 6 pm we drink about 18.5 liters (sometimes less) that is from just talking on the phone with very little physical activity. A lot is used by the tea and coffee drinkers but we all have little plastic cups for the water cooler. Some of us have snacks like cupper soup and pot noodles that also take up water.

Does anyone else notice how much water they drink a day?

Drinking at that level, taken that there will be those above the average and below the average, you'd look at a range of 1-2 litres a day, each person going an average of 1.5 litres a day. It would be easy to get an additional 0.5 litres while at home. But there is an interesting thought on this. The thought is, there is a huge difference between how much you do actually take in, and how much you NEED to take in. For example, can you imagine how much water the nomads in the desert drink a day? I doubt it's the 'scientific' 5+ litres for their effort levels and the temperatures they are in.

What we need, is usually much less than the 'scientific' data we currently have. This new line of research is a real blessing for us all...and for common sense!!!

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http://forum.survivaluk.net/showthread.php?tid=5794

[Lightspeed]

An interesting ongoing experiment here.

The ladies in my household are suckers for the bottled-up-flavour-enhanced stuff marketed by the bottled water companies. They are seldom seen without a large bottle of the stuff within reach, and they sip away at it constantly throughout the day, between pee breaks that is.

If I engineer it to for us to come to the retreat unexpectedly on a Friday night, and also engineer it so that no supermarket stop offs are needed en route as I already have everything stocked up.... The water consumption drops off completely.

Gravity water filter has helped here as well, as refilling it means that drinking water is no longer as convenient.

End result is that we all drink when we are thirsty, not as a habit. Max 2L per adult, per day even in hot summer conditions seems to our empirical requirement.

[SecretPrepper]

For me and my girlfriend i really need to work it out per day. She drinks less than i do and doesn't drink much in the evening.
Its hard to judge in my job as i think we mostly drink to combat dry mouth as we are on the phone a lot.

After a talk with her we were thinking what we go through and it does depend on what we eat. we usually have a load of milk to drink after our cereal and worked out for her it is about 2L maybe a little over. no idea for me

scythe i agree about the desert nomads they have adapted to the heat and water levels. which is pretty cool