Urban Survival: How to Store Water if you live in a Micro Apartment, Downtown or Major Urban Center

Urban Survival: How to Store Water if you live in a Micro Apartment, Downtown or Major Urban Center


With the practical reality of a voluntary national quarantine now in place, people are hoarding supplies such as toilet paper and bottled water, creating pockets of chaos at stores in the process. Simultaneously over the last few years, we’ve seen a huge influx of people migrating into densely populated cities for work, driving up real estate prices and leading to the creation of what is known as the Micro Apartment. For Micro Apartment residents, IcePlate® presents three distinct advantages for emergency water storage over single-use bottled water or jugs: cube space storage density, wearability/portability and environmental sustainability.

how to store water for a medical quarantine in a micro apartment

A Micro Apartment is approximately 450 square feet in size for a studio here in Washington DC. As of March 2020, the average rent for a Micro Apartment in Logan Circle (Washington DC’s Micro Apartment hotbed) is $1785 for a studio ($3.96 per square foot per month). For context, just 20 miles away from Washington DC in Sterling, VA (where Qore Performance® Headquarters is located), the average apartment is 1019 square feet and rents for $1789 per month or $1.75 per square foot per month or 44% less expensive!

water storage for micro apartments

 

Pundits will argue the likelihood of water service going out is low, but my wife and I lost water service this morning for a couple of hours. Imagine if that had happened, but our water utility was understaffed due to quarantine and they were unable to turn the water back on? Now is not the time to be underprepared. Alas, we are now in the midst of an official global pandemic, so prudence demands that we take responsibility for our own survival and minimize our dependence on public resources. 

First Responder resources are scare and must be preserved for those in greatest need during a global pandemic

If a medical quarantine is implemented at any level that impacts you, it will most likely require everyone to shelter in place for at least two weeks. We just saw this happen in San Francisco (another hotbed of Micro Apartments) and it has been happening in Italy and France for a number of days now. If you live in a Micro Apartment, that means you need to have two weeks of food and water on hand per occupant (more details on how much food and water you need for two weeks here). By definition, space is at a premium in a Micro Apartment which is where IcePlate® comes in because it can store about 25% more water in a given cube space compared to bottled water. Using IcePlate®, 75% of available cube space is occupied with water. By comparison, a five gallon jug occupies just 51% of available cube space with water. For a detailed review on the different emergency water storage solutions on the market today, click here.

IcePlate stores more water in the same space compared to bottled water

In addition to storage density, IcePlate® has other advantages over various forms of bottled water like wearability. IcePlate® can be worn to provide conductive cooling/heating if power is available. If power isn’t available, IcePlate® can still be worn as the thinnest, flattest and most durable hydration solution on the market today for plate carriers, body armor and backpacks. When stacked, IcePlates® can be carried using a carry harness easily assembled from PVC pipe and 550 cord from Home Depot for about $2.00 in materials and a good dusting off of your knot skills from Boy Scouts or your High Angle Rescue Class. Using stacked IcePlates®, you could easily carry three to four gallons of water or more in one hand. With a simple one gallon jug (which cannot be worn), carrying this same amount of water in one hand could be difficult unless your nickname is Shaq or Gronk. 

IcePlate Curves stack for high density water storage

The last major benefit to using IcePlates® for emergency water storage is environmental sustainability. The negative environmental impact of single use plastics is well known. IcePlate® is made from fully recyclable, FDA-certified, BPA-free HDPE sourced right here in the United States. IcePlates® are designed to be used thousands and thousands of times. IcePlates® are only shipped twice (once from our blow-molding OEM partner to our warehouse for finishing and assembly and once to you, our customer). This keeps the carbon footprint to an absolute minimum because we are only shipping 12 ounces of weight twice. By comparison, bottled water gets shipped from the bottler/source plant to a distribution facility to a grocery or convenience store and then driven home by you after purchase. Each of those movements is also done with a full bottle of water, weighing significantly more than an empty IcePlate®. A single 16.9 fluid ounce bottle of Dasani water weighs 1.1 pounds, which means a case of Dasani bottled water weighs 26.4 pounds! Now, imagine the carbon footprint that comes from moving 26.4 pounds of bottled water from a spring in Washington State to a distribution center say in Nevada your convenience store in California to your home! To make matters worse, almost none of those single-use Dasani bottles will be used a second time, which means the carbon footprint is going to get worse everytime you take a drink. Compare that to IcePlate® which is just 12 ounces and shipped only twice, then refilled for years to come!

IcePlates are environmentally friendly and have a lower carbon footprint than single use plastics


IcePlate®: this is the way.

IcePlate Curve

We believe in only being part of the solution here at Qore Performance®. We refuse to be part of the problem. In an effort to reduce the fear, hysteria and negative environmental impact that the panic buying of single-use bottled water creates, we have activated our IcePlate® Curve Seconds Program. This program will make it more affordable to those who live in densely populated urban centers to maximize their storage efficiency and keep three gallons of water (the CDC minimum of 72 hours worth of water in a wearable container using a scant 0.49 square feet. We are also implementing volume discounts for the first time for those who live in densely populated urban centers/downtowns. We want to reduce the lines at the grocery store and Costco to help the nation and the world contain Cornoavirus sooner rather than later. 


2 comments


  • Qore Performance

    Hi Christopher,
    Our IcePlate Curve Seconds Program was totally depleted just days after that video and this article were released. If we ever get more, we’ll release them via our LaunchPad emails:
    https://www.qoreperformance.com/blogs/running-the-business/qore-performance-restocks-and-new-product-drops-how-do-i-get-in-on-them-and-when-do-they-happen


  • Christopher Law

    Hey,
    I just found your product. I do live in one of those small urban apts. How do I access your icePlate® Curve Seconds Program. I can’t seem to find it on your website. —Take care


Leave a comment

Please note, comments must be approved before they are published

This site is protected by hCaptcha and the hCaptcha Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.