Drinking water - where does yours come from?

tonylittle

Whn i live in London it came from the chap next door !


Tony

mphaar

I was just throwing around some ideas with my brother, and it occurred to me that a dehumidifier might be able to produce clean drinking water. Has anyone ever heard of this being done? Anyone think of any reasons not to?
I'm going to be studying at the University of Hyderabad soon, so I'll be in one place for most of the time and this seems like a very simple solution- ample supply and limited spending, an upfront investment but no hassle finding and spending on bottled water.

singsub

"any water" drinker here !! PS : i see i am in good company here. indiamike himself drinks any water.

Haylo

Yes, a company called Air2Water produce a product called a Dolphin which is a combined dehumidifier and water purifier.

Before drinking from it, I would want to see details about the purification process. As one reviewer pointed out, there are other volatiles & evaporates besides water...

Absolutely! From an ordinary dehumidifier, I'd be very concerned about potentially fatal bacterial infections such as Legionellosis (Legionnaire's Disease) which is more commonly associated with air conditioning units, but which can also inhabit dehumidifiers.

singsub

^^^^^ now we need to understand chemical engineering processes to drink a sip of water !!!

mphaar

I read the wiki on dehumidifiers since posting the question and alot of that came up in the potability section. The machines aren't designed to keep the water pure and certain pollutants in the air can get mixed with the condensed water as the air is sucked through, then it sits for a long time where things can grow, etc etc.

Dolphin sounds like a really cool product! I also saw one called Vapaire that's being developed in Colorado, but it doesn't seem like either one is on the general market. Just a side note, but I recall reading that DARPA is developing an industrial strength/size model particularly for use in the Middle East. The design sounds excellent for providing pure water to any large group- all the world could one day have 100% pure drinking water from these condensers!

Okay, so condensers sound great in theory and do indeed produce pure water, but it doesn't stay pure long.


I looked into the Katadyn tablets someone else mentioned and they look great, except for the time constraint. From what I've heard, it sounds like the camping pumps are the quickest way to cycle water through, though probably would be pretty awkward to use anywhere in a city. But tablets wouldn't work in a restaurant either, unless you (taking the Katadyn as typical) planning on staying at the table for at least 30 minutes before drinking the water. I guess some risk is inevitable.

Boiling sounds inconvenient. A hot plate could be cheap and wouldn't take up much space, but I've heard to really kill everything the water has to be boiled at a pretty high temperature for awhile.


People have mentioned finding chemicals or a bitter taste in bottled water, but both the poll and hearsay recommend this as the simplest and generally safest option. This is fine for buying water in public if necessary (making sure, of course, that the original seal is intact), but is the purifier pump a good choice for saving some money, purifying your own water at night?
It sounds like bottled water is doable, found almost everywhere (in various states of repair), but I don't know the price.

So...
best=bottled water
2nd=pump? or tablets?
The condensers remain a pipe dream for now, maybe a great choice in the future.

mphaar

Oops, I was wrong about Air2Water. They are selling the Dolphin and other products for residential use. Here's the dealer locator if anyone's interested: http://www.air2water.net/dealers.html

They say this kind of distillation technology produces 1 liter at a cost of only 4 cents. I wonder about capacity for this kind of thing.. could it be refined to the extent that it will replace aquifer draining?

vistet

Standard hospital decontamination units goes up to 85 degrees, the complete cycle is around three minutes , after it´s safe by mouth : where I work we use the same unit for bedpans and the instruments for cleaning mouth, tracheostomies etc : standard practice.

Water is also safe after being brought to boil at altitude , see High Altitudes water page.

Lower temperature at longer time is also quite efficient , a 60 degree wash cycle will kill intestinal flora.

Low temperature + UV radiation is a well documented method : pour clear water in bottle , put it on the roof in the morning , drink in the afternoon. See www.sodis.ch

High intensity UV units can be carried in your hand,complete cycle within a minute, and run off batteries : Steripen is the most well-known.

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