Don W wrote in news:3FpPg.1781
:

If I built a new house, its would have the RO
system in the garage or a storage building, with a
recirculator and a cistern to use the flush water
for watering the lawn and flushing toilets.


You don't need to wait....

http://waterwise.com/

Find some sucker to dump the RO problem on. A good distiller is MUCH
better. Boiled water is 100% safe when it comes from steam!

Oh, and don't let them sell you all this acid crap to make the inside of
the boiler squeaky clean every time, eating the boiler. Just rinse out the
calcium deposits and gook from the boiler once in a while and it's fine....

You can put mud in a distiller and you get perfect water out of it!...(c;

--
There's amazing intelligence in the Universe.
You can tell because none of them ever called Earth.

Larry wrote:
Don W wrote in news:3FpPg.1781
:


If I built a new house, its would have the RO
system in the garage or a storage building, with a
recirculator and a cistern to use the flush water
for watering the lawn and flushing toilets.



You don't need to wait....

http://waterwise.com/

Find some sucker to dump the RO problem on. A good distiller is MUCH
better. Boiled water is 100% safe when it comes from steam!

Oh, and don't let them sell you all this acid crap to make the inside of
the boiler squeaky clean every time, eating the boiler. Just rinse out the
calcium deposits and gook from the boiler once in a while and it's fine....

You can put mud in a distiller and you get perfect water out of it!...(c;

Actually, my father-in-law has a distiller and
uses it, so I've had a chance to see one up close
and personal. Distillation is a good way to make
purified water, but it does use a fair amount of
electricity.

On a boat it would be interesting to have a solar
powered distiller that used a focusing lense or
reflector to heat the sea-water. Does anyone make
such a device?

Don W.

Charlie Morgan wrote:

On a boat it would be interesting to have a solar
powered distiller that used a focusing lense or
reflector to heat the sea-water. Does anyone make
such a device?

The problem with both parabolic concentrators and reflectors is that
they need to be on a solar-tracking mount to remain focused. Off angle,
they basically don't work. Using any type of prismatic or Fresnel
arrangement to widen the focusing angle just drops overall efficiency
dramatically. A boat's not necessarily the most stable platform for
keeping a concentrator focused...

Don W.


There are solar water distillers. An 8 square foot panel distills
about 1 gallon per day in strong sunlight.

Distilled water is not completely pure. Some VOC's can still (no pun
intened) be present. Running the water through a carbon filter after
distillation can remove those.

Carbon filters are basically bacterial growth media. If you use one,
use it *before* distillation, not after. Distilled water still has some
dissolved solids, metal ions, carbon, and unless the still incorporates
some form of cyclonic separation, may have bacterial endotoxins. In
reality, these residual levels are of no importance relative to drinking
water.

Keith Hughes

Charlie Morgan wrote:

There are solar water distillers. An 8 square foot panel distills
about 1 gallon per day in strong sunlight.

Distilled water is not completely pure. Some VOC's can still (no pun
intened) be present. Running the water through a carbon filter after
distillation can remove those.

Hi Charlie,

With 1Kw per square meter of solar power available
on a sunny day it would sure seem like you could
distill more than 1 gallon per day. I'll bet if
Larry feeds his electric still 1KW for 8 hours he
gets more than a gallon out of it. What's up??

Don W.

Keith Hughes wrote in news:450edfd6$0$10304
:

Carbon filters are basically bacterial growth media. If you use one,
use it *before* distillation, not after. Distilled water still has
some
dissolved solids, metal ions, carbon, and unless the still incorporates
some form of cyclonic separation, may have bacterial endotoxins. In
reality, these residual levels are of no importance relative to
drinking
water.



Nope, I disagree. We use carbon filtration AFTER distillation because
other aromatics distill as good as the water, benzene in particular which
your city water is loaded with. You can taste these enes in the
distillers output. It makes distilled water have a metallic taste. My
commercial monster, 12 gallons per day, uses a carbon column to polish
off the outlet water. My favorite little countertop distiller uses a
carbon packet in the cap of its carafe, which goes into the fridge with
the water.

Either one is quite safe. Bacteria must have FOOD to survive. Distilled
water is not food. Carbon black isn't food, either. I've left the
carbon pack in these distillers for months and never found any bacterial
buildup, no more than is on a clean glass or pitcher, none of which is
the slightest health hazard. No food, no bacteria. No light, no algae,
either.

Your mouth is full of bacteria because there's plenty of food in there.
Without bacteria in your intestines, you'd starve and die. Bacteria are
way overrated, most of them....not ecoli.

This afternoon, I'm enjoying Chef Mavro's signature blend of Lion Kona
coffee that appeared in my mailbox from a friend in Honolulu. I made the
special blend in my Cuisinart beast with pure, fresh distilled water
slowly dripped through a pack of genuine activated carbon from the fish
tank department of WalMart, wrapped in a #4 coffee filter in my distiller
carafe's cap. Chev Mavro's restaurant, where this coffee is served, is
one of the finest restaurant's in Hawaii, my Hawaiian friend tells me. I
love to just try one of his 6-course meals...just once....(c; His coffee
blend is superb!

--
There's amazing intelligence in the Universe.
You can tell because none of them ever called Earth.

Charlie Morgan wrote:
Hi Charlie,

With 1Kw per square meter of solar power available
on a sunny day it would sure seem like you could
distill more than 1 gallon per day. I'll bet if
Larry feeds his electric still 1KW for 8 hours he
gets more than a gallon out of it. What's up??

Don W.


Where are you getting that figure, and what are you measuing? I'm
talking about a solar still. Sun heating water. No electricity
involved.

CWM

Charlie,

Re-read what I wrote above again. I'm not
referring to electricity--but to the heat power
available from the sunlight. In engineering
school, we measured the power in one square meter
of bright sunlight, and it averaged 1Kw per square
meter in Kansas. It is probably higher than that
closer to the equator.

You mentioned a panel that was 8 square feet that
produced 1 gallon of water per day. 8 square feet
is fairly close to 1 square meter (actually, to be
precise, a square meter is 10.76 square feet, but
close enough).

I had a hard time understanding how a panel with
nearly 8 KWH of energy input could only make one
gallon of distilled water. It must be terribly
inefficient.

And yes, we _both_ are talking about a solar still
with the sunlight heating water--no electricity
involved.

Don W.

Charlie Morgan wrote in
:

Distilled water is very flat tasting. It's not what I would cal "good
drinking water" Your coffee would no doubt taste better with water
that was purified by other means. Maybe skip the distilling and just
run it through the carbon filters.



The flat taste is caused by the enes, like Benzene. Carbon filtered
distilled water is available. It's called Dasani in any convenience store
and is delicious. Mine tastes just like Dasani, here. Great water. Costs
me about 25c/gallon distilling it myself.



--
There's amazing intelligence in the Universe.
You can tell because none of them ever called Earth.

Charlie Morgan wrote:

Here's a typical commecially available solar still. I feel these specs are a bit
on the optimistic side.

http://www.solaqua.com/solstils1.html


Here's a do-it-yourself version:

http://www.permapak.net/solarstill.htm

CWM

Interesting stuff. Not very suitable for a boat
though, and the output rate is way too low for a
watermaker. SolAqua (Spanish for SunWater btw)
claims that their Rainmaker 550 makes 1.5 gal/day
and is 60% thermally effecient by their
calculations. I guess that even 100% effeciency
wouldn't get them 3 gpd. Makes a 70 gpd RO
watermaker sound pretty good by comparison.

I started getting interested in this stuff after I
saw that little 70 gallon water tank on our new
boat.

Don W.

Larry wrote:

Keith Hughes wrote in news:450edfd6$0$10304
:


Carbon filters are basically bacterial growth media. If you use one,
use it *before* distillation, not after. Distilled water still has

some

dissolved solids, metal ions, carbon, and unless the still incorporates
some form of cyclonic separation, may have bacterial endotoxins. In
reality, these residual levels are of no importance relative to

drinking

water.




Nope, I disagree. We use carbon filtration AFTER distillation because
other aromatics distill as good as the water, benzene in particular which
your city water is loaded with.

Uhmmm...if you use the carbon before the still, they are not there to
carryover are they? With the added benefit of chlorine removal, which
is plus for life of stainless steel (assuming you're not trying to
distill seawater, that is).

You can taste these enes in the
distillers output. It makes distilled water have a metallic taste. My
commercial monster, 12 gallons per day,

Monster??? Sorry, I'm just more used to 1000-3000 gp*H* being "monsters" :-)

uses a carbon column to polish
off the outlet water. My favorite little countertop distiller uses a
carbon packet in the cap of its carafe, which goes into the fridge with
the water.

Either one is quite safe. Bacteria must have FOOD to survive.

Which can be found in your distilled water...in the 500-5000 ppb of
organic carbon residual.

Distilled
water is not food. Carbon black isn't food, either. I've left the
carbon pack in these distillers for months and never found any bacterial
buildup, no more than is on a clean glass or pitcher, none of which is
the slightest health hazard. No food, no bacteria. No light, no algae,
either.

Your mouth is full of bacteria because there's plenty of food in there.
Without bacteria in your intestines, you'd starve and die. Bacteria are
way overrated, most of them....not ecoli.

E. coli is not a problem either, as long as you keep it in the right
places. Not a typical water borne bug...unless you're drinking
effluent. Mostly a lot of gram negative bugs with lots of endotoxins.

This afternoon, I'm enjoying Chef Mavro's signature blend of Lion Kona
coffee that appeared in my mailbox from a friend in Honolulu. I made the
special blend in my Cuisinart beast with pure, fresh distilled water
slowly dripped through a pack of genuine activated carbon from the fish
tank department of WalMart, wrapped in a #4 coffee filter in my distiller
carafe's cap. Chev Mavro's restaurant, where this coffee is served, is
one of the finest restaurant's in Hawaii, my Hawaiian friend tells me. I
love to just try one of his 6-course meals...just once....(c; His coffee
blend is superb!

Ughhh! You're talking to someone who can't even stand the *smell* of
coffee, let alone the taste. And yes, carbon afterwards is fine as long
as you change it frequently, don't store it wet, and keep it from all
sources of contamination. Not issues when carbon filtering before
distillation (except changouts of course).

Keith Hughes

Charlie Morgan wrote in
:

Bzzzzt! Incorrect. The flat taste is caused by the lack of oxygen and
minerals. Mostly by the lack of oxygen.

CWM



Bzzt...Bull****. I've been fooling around with distillers for 20 years.
Just leave out the carbon filtration in water with benzene in it. Yecch.



--
There's amazing intelligence in the Universe.
You can tell because none of them ever called Earth.