$1. 5m if you can turn air into water

[kwade]

The first place that I lived was pretty much like that.
Oh, um..... So was every other place.

 

[GTUnit]

The trick is, don't use it as a trash dump and waste so much of it flushing toilets, washing cars and watering lawns for rich people and golfers....

Amazing how the most obvious approach escapes all the policy makers.
At least once city in Southern California has a Grey Water system used for watering lawns/city property/non-potable water.

Always blew my mind that we are flushing toilets with drinking water.
The stupidity of that alone is overwhelming.

 

[Tharon]

Always blew my mind that we are flushing toilets with drinking water.
The stupidity of that alone is overwhelming.

I have a well in my front yard, and a septic system and drain field in the back. Pretty sure all the water I'm flushing finds it's way back down into the ground.

 

[kamenges]

Originally posted by GTUnit:

Always blew my mind that we are flushing toilets with drinking water.

I for one wouldn't want anything that went down one of my drains to be sitting in one of my water closets for any period of time. I don't know what you have available in your locale but about all we have in sunny Brillion, WI is what comes out of the ground or something that is too contaminated to use for much of anything.

Keith

 

[jraef]

We've started a "purple pipe" distribution system in my town to use treated effluent for landscaping rather than dumping it straight into San Francisco Bay. They dug up the old RR right of way behind my house for the main trunk line and I asked for a tap off valve, but no. It's all for city street landscaping, golf courses and a local concrete batch plant. We can however get all the treated water we want for free by driving down to the local treatment plant with a container. Lots of people are buying junker pickup trucks and steel caged poly holding tanks for that, you see them parked in driveways everywhere now. There's a little cottage industry for 12V pump systems for these things now.

 

[rootboy]

Take a large fusion thermal engine with a radiating output...

The trick is, don't use it as a trash dump and waste so much of it flushing toilets, washing cars and watering lawns for rich people and golfers....

Silly me. I would have thought that the trick would be to invert a fusion reactor...

 

[Peter Nachtwey]

Thunderf00t says BS.
https://youtu.be/LVsqIjAeeXw

 

[Tom Jenkins]

Water scarcity and quality is a huge problem and not just in the developing world. There are many devices along the lines of the one Peter shows for individual household use, some even simpler. There are also organizations like Engineers Without Borders that are active in providing water to deprived areas around the world: http://www.ewb-usa.org/ I'm involved in a UW Madison student project currently designing a system for Uganda. Donations happily accepted: http://ewb.slc.engr.wisc.edu/donate/

I have to say I object to the use of the phrase "create water" - these methods all simply capture water vapor in the air by condensation.

 

[Tharon]

I'm curious, Tom. Being a controls guy myself my knowledge of thermodynamics/calorimetry is limited to what schooling I had on the subject in high school and early classes in college before specializing.

But the volumes of water being discussed by some of these condensation units just don't seem to work out to me. I guess without revealing any secrets your systems may be developing, are we talking a system that is the size of like... an energy wind farm vs your household wind generator to make the volumes of water these projects want or claim?

 

[geniusintraining]

I have to say I object to the use of the phrase "create water" - these methods all simply capture water vapor in the air by condensation.

It is good clean water for about 8 months a year my dehumidifier is running and gets up to 4 gallons a day (in July)... I have a few plants, herb and small vegetable garden that does very good living on the water (just pure water) its not cheap running it but the house and shop feel better so its a must in the south

There is plenty of water in the air in the south

 

[Tom Jenkins]

I'm curious, Tom. Being a controls guy myself my knowledge of thermodynamics/calorimetry is limited to what schooling I had on the subject in high school and early classes in college before specializing.

But the volumes of water being discussed by some of these condensation units just don't seem to work out to me. I guess without revealing any secrets your systems may be developing, are we talking a system that is the size of like... an energy wind farm vs your household wind generator to make the volumes of water these projects want or claim?

I apologize for being unclear. The system I am assisting Engineers Without Borders in developing is a conventional water system for a village of 4,000 people. It will consist of a drilled well, pump, storage tank, and underground distribution to ten communal neighborhood taps.

This shouldn't be confused with condensation based systems, which are typically single household sized like the one Peter Natchaway mentioned. There are other, larger, refrigeration based systems that could provide larger volumes, but I don't believe they are feasible for larger communities.

 

[kwade]

This shouldn't be confused with condensation based systems, which are typically single household sized like the one Peter Natchaway mentioned.

"passive" condensation-based systems as Peter and I have referenced are not really as effective as the promoters advertise.
The volume of air to be moved through the system is HUGE, the heat that must be removed from the air(and imparted into the surrounding media) is LARGE and the actual amount of water in the volume of moved air is LOW.

In the Thunderf00t videos, the air volumes, water quantities and thermal capacities/requirements are well described.

Like genius, I live in SC. It is humid. I run a dehumidifier in the workshop. I can collect liters per day -- with a GRID-POWERED dehumidifier.
I am contemplating running this condensate into a 55-GAL plastic drum. Next year, I can use the water for irrigation.
It has been a while since I watched the EEVBlog 'FONTUS' video so I will withhold comment on that.