Date: Thu, 04 Sep 1997 12:08:26 +0200 From: Gordon Wells <wells@iri.upc.es> To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg3362$foo@default> Subject: free distilled water?
Hi Matt,
On Sept. 2, Matt Drake wrote:
> I have a germination tray about 2 to 3 inches deep. If I
> fill this tray with tap water, put the clear plastic lid on it, and
> set it out in the sun, won't the water that collects on the lid from
> evaporation of the water in the tray be distilled water free from the
> salts and minerals, etc., of tap water?
Yes, in fact this is exactly how home solar distillers are
often made - just a shallow black water tray with a clear
plastic lid and a tray underneath it all to collect the
distilled water that condenses on the lid. I recently saw
a book with all sorts of do-it-yourself projects for making
solar distillers, water heaters, stoves, and the like. The
only problem with a small solar distiller (say, with a tray
of 1 square meter) is that you can only obtain about one
glass of water at the most on a very sunny day, which is
usually not enough for a typical small collection of plants.
Even if you make a very efficient one, you only end up with
about half a liter. There are some very large solar
distillation plants in southern Spain which I hear produce
about 300m3 per day. In any event, to get enough distilled
water , you either need a very large solar distiller, or else
buy a small electric distiller.
A few weeks ago I did a thorough search on the Internet for
home water distillers and reverse osmosis units, and posted
a list of links on the list for anyone interested. There
are some very nice little electric distillers you can buy for
only about $120.00 which produce up to 4 gallons of water per
day at about 25 cents per gallon. This is what I bought, and
I'm very happy with it - it's saving me lots of money and all
the hassle of carrying home bottled water. Plus it's cheaper
and easier to use than an RO unit, and there are no expensive
filters to replace.
For the moment, you can find my list of links at:
ftp://debussy.upc.es/cp/ro.html
I hope to try to get it included in the CP archives soon, if
possible.
Hope this helps,
Gordon
-----------------------------------------------------
Gordon Wells
Instituto de Robotica e Informatica Industrial
Edificio Nexus, planta 2
Gran Capitan 2-4 Tel: (343) 401-5805
Barcelona E-08034 Fax: (343) 401-5750
SPAIN e-mail: gwells@iri.upc.es
-----------------------------------------------------
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Tue Jan 02 2001 - 17:31:09 PST