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distilled water thing.

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Basically tank 1 is just whatever water, maybe is dirty maybe is clean. Tank 2 is distilled water.


distilled.thumb.jpg.a0268a4a36a2c1954995bd86cda52fc0.jpg

 

is there some commercial version of what i am thinking here that i can just buy to save me from building it?

distilled.thumb.jpg.a0268a4a36a2c1954995bd86cda52fc0.jpg

distilled.thumb.jpg.a0268a4a36a2c1954995bd86cda52fc0.jpg

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I don't know what a bobble valve is, or what the pump does. I guess it speeds up condensation. From your design I assume you need an off-grid version? Not sure what the scale of your design is, or how much water you intend to distill. 

 

My friend probably blew more on a passive solar DIY design than he could have spent buying a 4L distiller on eBay (under $130). For $50 - $110 (delivered via eBay) an argon-welded, stainless steel distiller from 12L to 30L -- distills purifies water as well as alcohol. Power requirements not listed -- presumably it would suck a few hundred watts per hour, over several hours it takes to distill water. 

 

There's always passive solar, sunshine on glass, but it takes time ...


 

 

Edited by fyzygy

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Yea i might have just made the term "bobble valve" up, I basically meant like the little valve thing in a toilet that will allow water in until a level is reach then will shut off, the pump would just periodically takes the distilled water that has collected in the center and pumps it into a tank.

And yea im looking for an off the grid type setup, if looked at a few still like things but they all seem to be along the lines of distilling and collecting 5-50 litres of water at a time and require your input. i'm basically looking for something that will just run constantly to fill up a several thousand litre tank over time as long as it has input water available  and power coming from the panels. It shouldn't need to be super efficient or fast as it should always running without a need to me to do anything.

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If you put tank 2 below the level of the distilled water collection bucket and made the distilled water bucket a double bucket (one inside another) and drilled a hole into the side of the inner bucket towards the top then you could eliminate the pump. Gravity would drain off the distilled water out the bottom of the outer bucket into a holding tank. Reliable commercial pumps draw huge power and the smaller versions would need to be constantly monitored for failure. Keeping the holding tank bacteria free would be another issue I imagine unless you're not needing to drink it directly.

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Wouldn't purity of distilled water held in storage be compromised by chemical leaching from tank walls, plumbing fittings etc.? Not necessarily a problem, depending on your requirements.

 

I suspect that plants (and animals, including human beings) benefit from trace minerals in their water supply -- pure water would leach nutrients (as well as toxins) from living cells. 

 

 

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nice! imagine doing it passively with a parabolic dish rather than heatsink / solar panels. Would probs reduce micro burden if water was boiled in that way too.

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Yea putting tank 2 lower would mean no need for a pump but since tank 1 is gravity feeding into the thing the i would either need to raise tank one or bury tank two, not having to worry about the pump failing would be good but don't think it would be very practical with the big tanks i got, I can pretty much only gravity feed once without a bunch of construction.

The idea for using the water in tank 2 was pretty much to use it as a clean base water, so would still be boiled before use if in food/drink and yea would need some type of additives if it was an always drinking water and to use it with delicate seedlings, but yea the whole leaching thing with distilled water is an issue that i've not really addressed.

I had thought of doing it without the panels and element but i cant think of any way to get nearly enough output without that unless it was really big.

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Should all just collect in the outer drum thing and will need washing out from time to time i guess. Not sure how much there would be or what i would be doing with it.

If it was primarily from the rain water(pretty filthy rainwater due to gutters and guinea fowl crap :( ) it could prob just be mixed into the compost or garden, if was from bore water i assume it would end up being heaps of minerals , prob mainly calcium and magnesium, not sure what i would do with that but don't think it would be good for the garden or compost.

The bore water is pretty much drinkable here i think but not so good for the plants or garden.

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On 28/11/2021 at 5:51 PM, saguaro said:

nice! imagine doing it passively with a parabolic dish rather than heatsink / solar panels. Would probs reduce micro burden if water was boiled in that way too.

 

Yes, I can picture using a solar oven to boil the water in the double nested tanks instead of the usual pot of grub. Someone must have done this on Youtu somewhere. Post a link if anyone finds one (of course, there's all kinds of neat devices being fake-invented on that channel -- anything to draw the views).

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Love it - I want to do the same. But time and money is my issue. Not sure about a commercial version. You can get solar water boilers any the like, perhaps copy the idea. Otherwise you’d use the suns evap power if you didn’t want to use a heating element. I would add a final stage to the drinking water using a ceramic filter like the ones in the water urns you can buy. as a way to reduce the final water collection from becoming stagnet or anything, you can buy these ‘rocks’ to sit in the water. Literally can’t remember what they are called. But there’s a silver one and a mineral one. 

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Commercial water distillers require periodic descaling. 

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Yeah true. The amount of crap they add into the water combined with the age of the pipes etc is a recipe for build up. 

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I seen a basic evap water setup at my local bee keeping supplier - they had it feeding the veggie patch. Next time I go back im going to have to have a better look. I would imagine while only crude evap is used being for plants, the same concept then fed through a filter would do the trick. even a UV light to kill any bacteria.

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