Subject: "Free" fresh water?
From: DSK
LaBomba182 wrote:
Recent talk of watermakers on another list got me thinking about an idea I
came
up with on may last trip to the Bahamas. And as I well know, few ideas are
original, I thought I would run it by you folks and see what you think of
it.
And whether anyone had tried it or seen it tried.
While sitting in the Exumas I got to thinking about how nice it would be to
have a watermaker while at the same time weighing the pros and cons of the
cost
and maintenance involved.
At that point I started thinking about all the condensation water my A/Cs
were
making and how it was just going overboard and being wasted. So I started
to
wondering about setting up the condensation pans to drain into a shower
sump
and pumping that water, perhaps using a higher pressure pump than the small
bilge pumps that come in most shower sumps, through a media/charcoal filter
and
then through an ultraviolet sterilizer and into one of my water tanks.
I think this is a great idea. It sounds like it would definitely be
cheaper, less bulky, and less maintenance than a RO water maker. You
could run a rain collector into the same set-up.
Yeah, I thought of that one while taking a "rain" shower under the run off from
the top deck. :-)
The A/Cs can make 5 gallons or more condensation water in a 24 hour day.
And I
have 3 units so I'm looking at, at least 10-15 gallons of "free" water per
day.
And on part of the last trip to the Bahamas there were 5 of us on board and
we
made 120 gallons of water last 7+ days no problem.
So at that rate, 10 gallons or more of condensation water per day would be
as
good as a watermaker for me.
So, what do you think?
Has anybody tried it? Down sides? Problems you can for see?
The only problem I can see is that it limited to summer and hot climates
when you're running the A/C (how many hours per day do you run the
genset?) and is dependent on high humidity.
GenSet run time? In the Bahamas, in the summer, 24 hours a day baby! :-)
Capt. Bill