hot water heater and water backup

Welcome to the forum Rambla!

Solar water heaters are a sensible addition to your home's water system.  Most often they are passive, meaning that cold water flows through narrow black pipes exposed to sunlight, heating the water as it flows.  Others incorporate a hot water storage tank and cycle water through the narrow pipes to maintain a reservoir of hot water.  They are pretty basic, and the passive type is essentially maintenance-free.

Rainwater collection is also an excellent feature to incorporate into your home's water system.  There are a host of configurations possible, but commonly rainwater runoff from your roof is directed (frequently through a gravel/sand filter) into a cistern, which is a big tank that collects the water.  The water is then pumped as needed.  In an "off-grid" system the cistern is the sole source of water.  In your case the cistern is probably connected to public water which will only flow into the cistern when your supply runs low, during extended drought.

I can't really tell you more about your water system without seeing all the parts, but if you are searching the internet, a good word to look for is "cistern".

EDIT:  Just found this site.  Looks like a pretty good primer for you.

Thank you WarnerW for the welcome and providing the information in layment terms. I have pictures of it that I tried to add to my post with no success. I'm going to check out the site you provided!

I ended up buying one of those instant hot water heater’s, and installing it into my system it runs on propane, it’s extremely efficient,  and perfect for my three bedroom home  it takes a couple months to go through a 5 gallon bottle, I also have a 250 gallon cistern on my roof as back up, With a three-quarter horsepower pump, city water runs into the cistern   Through a bypass, so I always have city water when it’s available, sometimes the water gets shut off by the city, when that happens I just open the valve turn on my pump and I have  good water pressure again from the cistern,  when the city water comes back on, it fills up the sister in again.  Very reliable and inexpensive system, when the power goes out I have a generator that runs my  water pump, As well as all the lights so I Always have running water.

Spencerazac, I am actually buying a 3 bedroom @1,100 square feet house.  Good to know it takes a couple of months in general to go through a 5 gallon bottle. I'm thankful and fortunate that the house is coming with both so all I need to get is a generator.

5 gallon? Is that a typo?

I was thinking the same, Rey. Maybe 50?

A 5-gallon tank is the same as a 20-lb tank.  Basic tank for a gas grill.

Hi SpencerAzac, would you mind clarifying if you mean 5 or 50? Thanks!

I recently purchased a water storage tank and solar water heater from HD (the brand name is Universal).

I have had several problems with the system, incorrectly installed pipes & valves, pressure issues with the tank and pressure pump.

The hot water is dangerously hot! 153 degrees!  The company tells me that there is no temperature control on the system, just run the cold and mix hot to desired level.  ( this doesn't seem right to me, a child could get scalded).

On top of all these issues there service is poor.  I have to wait several days for a service tech to fix the problems!!  I am not a happy camper     I think the system cost about 5K.