Källa SHELL-ahSwedish for source
Off-grid drinking water · made in Britain

Rain to glass

Safe drinking water for off-grid UK communities, farms, smallholdings, homes and vans — from the rain on your roof, purified by living sand and sunlight alone. No chemicals, no filters to replace, no mains. Below: exactly how it works and how we build it with you.

Get Källa for your siteSee how it works ↓
Who It's For

Built for Off-Grid Life, Whatever Yours Looks Like

Eco-Communities Smallholdings Off-Grid Homes Vans & Narrowboats Campsites Festivals & Events
How it works

Follow a raindrop, from roof to glass

01
Stage 01 · Your rainwater

Källa connects to your rainwater, say from a barn roof — running down the gutter and downpipe into a water butt, and that stored water feeds straight into your Källa. Yours might look different; the collection side stays yours, and we build Källa to fit it.

Rainwater fed Works with your setup
02
Stage 02 · Biosand Filter

The living filter. Pour your rainwater in to top it up; a living layer of microbes — a community of beneficial bacteria and other tiny life that settles on the sand and does the cleaning, the same natural process that keeps a healthy riverbed clear — and a deep bed of fine sand traps the rest. Cleaned water trickles out the bottom into the storage tank.

“No filters to replace.
It gets better with age.”

Nature’s own filter Gravity-fed
03
Stage 03 · The storage tank

The filtered water trickles into a covered storage tank — a buffer that keeps a steady supply on hand, so the UV reactor never runs dry. Use it fresh: treated water is best drunk soon after — don't let it sit longer than you need.

Steady feed Use it fresh
04
Stage 04 · The UV Reactor

The UV reactor — water from the storage tank flows in and a burst of UV-C — the same clean wavelength in sunlight that keeps natural water clear — neutralises anything the sand didn't catch, viruses included, so only safe water flows out. It uses no chemicals at all — none added, none needed — and runs on the sun.

Day & night, solar + battery No chemicals used
05
Stage 05 · The Glass

Fill your glass straight from the UV tap — drawing water through it keeps the storage tank turning over. Each unit makes 60–80 litres a day — plenty for a household.

“Your tap,
off the grid.”

Drinkable from day one Minerals remain
Design · Build · Ship

Built bespoke, shipped to your site

No two off-grid setups are the same, so every Källa is bespoke. We design it around your site, build it by hand in the UK and ship it ready to assemble — with clear instructions, and optional installation if you'd rather we fitted it. Here's how it works and exactly what you pay for.

Most systems come in around £1,000 — itemised after your consultation.

1

Consultation

A friendly chat — no visit needed. We talk through your site and rainwater, then design a system around it.

2

Build & Ship

We build your bespoke system by hand in our UK workshop and ship it to your site — only the parts your setup needs.

3

Assembly & Installation

It arrives ready to put together, with clear illustrated instructions. Installation available for a fee.

What ~£1,000 buys

The whole system, built to your site: the biosand filter (tank, sand, gravel & stones), the post-filter storage tank, the solar UV-C reactor with built-in pump, a solar panel + battery, and all the connectors & fittings — with clear illustrated instructions.

Biosand filterStorage tankUV-C reactor + pumpSolar panel + batteryFittings & instructions

After that, running cost is essentially £0 — no chemicals, no cartridges, no mains. You supply the rainwater collection (gutters, downpipe, water butt), or we add it.

Built for communities, too

Need water for more than one home? Källa scales by the unit — reckon on 2–4 litres of drinking and cooking water per person a day, so one unit covers roughly 15–40 people. Buy as many units as your community needs, with a bulk discount on multiple units — a resilient supply that keeps running when the mains and grid don't.

The numbers

What you're getting, in figures

60–80 L
clean water a day, per unit
10+ yrs
filter life · no cartridges
99.9%
filtration + UV-C disinfection
12 V
solar + battery · off-grid
Daily output60–80 L/day per unit
Flow~0.4 L/min, gravity-fed
Power12 V DC · only while flowing
UV-C sourceLED · 200–280 nm · >10,000 h
Filter life10+ years · no cartridges
Warranty2 years on parts · with proper use & care
StandardsCE · RoHS · WEEE · UK-built

Proven in the field — of 60 systems built on this living-sand-and-sunlight design in remote South American communities, not one has been abandoned: every one is still in daily use. The same approach, now built for UK off-grid sites.

How it compares

Källa vs the alternatives

KällaReverse osmosisBoilingJust rainwater
Free of pathogens~
Removes sediment & dirt
Keeps natural minerals
Nothing to buy or replace
Runs off-grid on solar~~

Reverse osmosis strips the minerals back out — so it needs a re-mineraliser and re-alkaliser — and its filters need regular changes — and it needs mains-level pressure, usually a booster pump, to run off-grid. Boiling leaves the sediment and burns energy every time. Untreated rainwater varies — it depends on your roof, the season and what's landed on it. Källa is the only one that does it all — on rain and sunlight, and makes it reliably safe, every glass.

Caring for your Källa system

A few minutes' care keeps it running for years

The biosand filter is alive — a living layer of microbes does the work, so it actually improves with age. Your water is safe from day one — the UV reactor disinfects every drop — while the living filter strengthens over time. Keep this simple rhythm and it'll keep giving you clean water.

Each top-up

Pour in settled rainwater to top it up. Keep 4–6 cm of water standing above the sand, and never let it dry out — away a while? Ask someone to keep it fed.

Let it rest

Let each fill trickle all the way through, then pause before the next — the living layer needs the breather to do its work.

If flow drops

Swirl & skim the top of the sand, scoop the cloudy water, repeat till clear.

Do ✓
Same sourceFeed it the same water each time.
Let it settleLet cloudy water clear before pouring in.
Keep it coveredKeep the filter lid on between fills.
Keep it toppedHold 4–6 cm of standing water above the sand.
Covered storageStore finished water covered, with its own tap.
Don't ✕
Don't overfeed itToo much water with no rest between fills overwhelms the living layer.
No chemicalsChlorine or bleach harms the living layer — keep it out.
Don't move it fullIt's heavy and the sand shifts.
Don't open the UVNo user-serviceable parts inside.
Water onlyNever run any other liquid through it.

What Källa can't do

Källa clears microbes and sediment — the living-and-light process doesn't touch dissolved chemistry like glyphosate or metals. Keeping those out starts with a clean source (see below); for sites near intensive agriculture we're looking into an optional activated-carbon stage to target glyphosate and other dissolved organics. Keep oils and chemical spills well away — they can harm the living layer.

Start with a clean catchment

Källa cleans your water, but it starts at the roof. Collect off inert roofing — avoid lead flashing, asbestos-cement, or freshly-treated or painted roofs, as it can't remove what dissolves off them. Keep your gutters clear, and feed it the clearest water you can.

Winter & frost

Frost is the one thing to plan for in the UK. Keep the filter, tank and UV unit somewhere that stays above freezing — an insulated outbuilding, or lag the tank and pipes. A frozen filter recovers, but a tank, reactor or pipe that freezes can crack. Leaving site in a cold snap? Drain the UV reactor and any exposed pipes first.

If it dries out or freezes

Lift off the top layer of sand, wash it and put it back, then run a couple of full batches through. The living layer rebuilds over a few weeks (a full biolayer takes about a month). While the biolayer is rebuilding, play it safe and boil or test the water before drinking; the UV keeps running throughout.

Staying safe with your water

Proven tech, and a couple of sensible checks

Källa is built on field-proven technology, and we test every UV reactor and pump before it ships. Your system arrives ready to assemble with clear, illustrated instructions — assembled correctly and fed a sensible source, it makes safe drinking water. Because every site's rainwater is different, we recommend a simple independent water test (any UKAS-accredited lab) when you first commission it, and an occasional check after. Källa clears microbes and sediment, not dissolved chemicals or metals — so a simple test tells you what's in your rainwater: knowledge, not worry.

Supplying more than your own home?

If your Källa serves another household or any commercial use, it counts as a private water supply under UK law — your local council can risk-assess and test it. We'll help you spec and document the system so it stands up.

Designed & assembled with bare hands in the UK
Built and tested by hand before it reaches your site.