[name-old]

http://www.elementfour.com/products/the-watermill

I've been trying to find the power usage for this product so that maybe a solar panel may be used.

But the idea seems pretty sound.

Thoughts?

 

[CPT Shortcut]

Check out regular old de-humidifiers. I have an armsroom at my company that runs a small one. We had to have a drain installed because the thing sucked so much moisure out of the air.

You'll still need to boil the water or filter it though.

 

[name-old]

Check out regular old de-humidifiers. I have an armsroom at my company that runs a small one. We had to have a drain installed because the thing sucked so much moisure out of the air.

You'll still need to boil the water or filter it though.

Right, and this machine is supposed to do that. Granted that the price is high, but you may be able to do what you're talking about for cheaper.

 

[hanklet0]

http://www.energystar.gov/ia/products/prod_lists/dehumid_prod_list.xls

The above is a list of l/kwh for alot of dehumidifiers.

Below is a dehumidifier you could run all day on solar, 360 watts and produces upto 34 pints of H20 a day. Cost 199.99$
http://www.indoorhealthproducts.com/800-dehumidifier.htm


I like the idea of running a dehumidifier and filtering the water to drink at home. They did it in star wars. Run the dehumidifier on solar and you have free, pure, awsome water!!! Good idea man you got my gears turning.:thumb:

 

[hanklet0]

Ok, here it is. Get two small coolers and stack on top of eachother. Connect the coolers by screwing aluminum angle on the corners of the coolers. Open top cooler and drill two holes through both coolers. Now install two gravity fed Berkey water filters between the two coolers. Close lid and mount a dehumidifier to the top of cooler. Drill hole in dehumidifier colector tub and run a tube from that into the top cooler.

The dehumidifier will collect H20, It will drip into the top cooler where it will stay cold and be filtered and drop into the bottom cooler. You can dispence the cold water from bottom cooler as you need it via the push button drain valve. Dehumidifier is powerd via an inverter conected to a couple deep cycle batts conected to a solar panel.

Set up costs.
*dehumidifier..........................200.00
*coolers................................50.00
*Berkey filters........................100.00
*750W inverter.......................60.00
*China freight solar set............280.00
*two 12v Deep Cycles.............180.00
*Aluminum angle and hardwear..25.00

Total cost= 895.00$

 

[awildchipmunk]

Right, and this machine is supposed to do that. Granted that the price is high, but you may be able to do what you're talking about for cheaper.

It looks good but I didn't see what the price is on this?

 

[DownInABunker]

Total cost= 895.00$

Not worrying about where your next drink of water comes from: priceless :

This is an interesting idea. And if the cost is intimidating you can start small and build it up gradually, say by powering the whole system from the grid rather than solar. Or use the genny you already have.

 

[AlgoRhythms]

Ok, here it is. Get two small coolers and stack on top of eachother. Connect the coolers by screwing aluminum angle on the corners of the coolers. Open top cooler and drill two holes through both coolers. Now install two gravity fed Berkey water filters between the two coolers. Close lid and mount a dehumidifier to the top of cooler. Drill hole in dehumidifier colector tub and run a tube from that into the top cooler.

The dehumidifier will collect H20, It will drip into the top cooler where it will stay cold and be filtered and drop into the bottom cooler. You can dispence the cold water from bottom cooler as you need it via the push button drain valve. Dehumidifier is powerd via an inverter conected to a couple deep cycle batts conected to a solar panel.

Set up costs.
*dehumidifier..........................200.00
*coolers................................50.00
*Berkey filters........................100.00
*750W inverter.......................60.00
*China freight solar set............280.00
*two 12v Deep Cycles.............180.00
*Aluminum angle and hardwear..25.00

Total cost= 895.00$

This is a clever idea but the solar element is WAY too small. You'll won't be able to collect and store enough amp hours to power the dehumidifier long enough to produce a useful amount of water.

Stick to grid or generator power.

 

[ZenEngineer]

To remove power losses due to inverter, why not use a 12V dehumidifier? One I found on the internet (I can't post the URL yet) has a small output (250ml a day at 30%) but the power draw is small at 36W.

 

[CPT Shortcut]

http://www.brilliantstore.com/dehumidifiers_amcor_md250.html

Here's one.

http://www.imarketcity.com/susptsdmipet1.html

This one holds 2 liters.

 

[Macumazahn]

http://www.air2water.net/ look like they have a product that is actually for sale and it looks like it is quite a power hog. Part of that is it does the fancy water cooler/heater stuff.

I saw a design for a way to use water to collect more water. As they explain they use a cooling system to get as much condensation as possible. Anything cool will do the trick. You store water in a buried tank so it remains cool during the day. At night you pump it into metal containers. The one I saw was using large steel pipes for condensers but I expect there would be more efficient shapes. The water will cool the containers and keep them cool for a while. In the morning you collect the condensation (dew) off the containers before it gets too hot and evaporates. Then pump the cooler water back into storage and repeat. Since it is a lossless system (so long as it does not spring a leak) the cooling water is just reused again and again. All the collected dew is usable water.

How much water you get depends on the climate and ground conditions but the show I saw said it actually worked quite well in the desert. Unfortunately, I can not find a link to it anymore.

 

[ZenEngineer]

Here's one.

This one holds 2 liters.

Thanks! I'm still new here so it will be a few posts before I can post URL's.

 

[AlgoRhythms]

To remove power losses due to inverter, why not use a 12V dehumidifier? One I found on the internet (I can't post the URL yet) has a small output (250ml a day at 30%) but the power draw is small at 36W.

This is better, but still uses more power than the proposed solar system can provide.

Let's see what we DO need:


First, how many hours will the humidifier need to run in order to produce a liter of water? (250 ml isn't very much)

Next we need to determine how many liters of water we want to produce per day.

Then we need to multiply the number of hours needed to make 1 liter times the number liters we want per day and then multiply that number by 36 to see how many 12 volt watt/hours we need to have on hand to meet our goal.

Next we need to design a solar array to meet our requirements.

I'll do that next post.

 

[arisinwind]

Ok, here it is. Get two small coolers and stack on top of eachother. Connect the coolers by screwing aluminum angle on the corners of the coolers. Open top cooler and drill two holes through both coolers. Now install two gravity fed Berkey water filters between the two coolers. Close lid and mount a dehumidifier to the top of cooler. Drill hole in dehumidifier colector tub and run a tube from that into the top cooler.

The dehumidifier will collect H20, It will drip into the top cooler where it will stay cold and be filtered and drop into the bottom cooler. You can dispence the cold water from bottom cooler as you need it via the push button drain valve. Dehumidifier is powerd via an inverter conected to a couple deep cycle batts conected to a solar panel.

Set up costs.
*dehumidifier..........................200.00
*coolers................................50.00
*Berkey filters........................100.00
*750W inverter.......................60.00
*China freight solar set............280.00
*two 12v Deep Cycles.............180.00
*Aluminum angle and hardwear..25.00

Total cost= 895.00$

Why filter the water? Isn't the water already clean. It's condensation.

 

[hanklet0]

To remove power losses due to inverter, why not use a 12V dehumidifier? One I found on the internet (I can't post the URL yet) has a small output (250ml a day at 30%) but the power draw is small at 36W.

250ml is about worthless, 12v is a good idea though.

yeah I did the math on the china freight set up. Id get 3.6 hours of run time on the 120v dehumidifier off a single battery. Sooo if I ran two batteries, I could run the humidifier for a full 7.2 Id get 30 pints of water. Then would need 4 days to completly charge the batteries back up. I calculated the charge time for a 75 amp/hr batt. getting 8 hrs of sun.

Yes you need to filter the water because the condenser coils get dirty.

 

[Dwind]

if you want something that DOESNT require electricity- you might thing about a greenhouse. with plants insideand in a humid environment- you can recover quite a bit of water- especially if you use that same space to render fat or urine. Kind of a walk in distiller.

Oh, btw- the chinese rendered down human urine for the salts, which were used in hormone replacement therapies, and also for producing ammonium or potassium nitrate. I forget which offhand.

 

[danpauselius]

My dehu's used 7.5 Amps, and the AHAM rating was 140 pints/day. They cost about $2200 each.

 

[AlgoRhythms]

250ml is about worthless, 12v is a good idea though.

yeah I did the math on the china freight set up. Id get 3.6 hours of run time on the 120v dehumidifier off a single battery. Sooo if I ran two batteries, I could run the humidifier for a full 7.2 Id get 30 pints of water. Then would need 4 days to completly charge the batteries back up. I calculated the charge time for a 75 amp/hr batt. getting 8 hrs of sun.

Yes you need to filter the water because the condenser coils get dirty.

What are the specs on the China Freight set up? I suspect you're being a bit optimistic in your calculations.

Specifically:
What are the amp/hour ratings of the batteries?
What is the voltage, wattage and current figures for the solar module?
How many modules did you spec?
How far away are the modules from the batteries and charge controller? (gotta allow for voltage drop in a 12 VDC system)

You'll need the charge controller to prevent the batteries from getting overcharged during the day and to prevent the batteries from sending current back up to the modules after the sun goes down.

You will also need to know your latitude and average available sunlight per day, as well as the worst case temperature extremes in your location. Heat makes the modules less efficient and low temperatures make the modules produce voltages higher than the nominal 12 volt rating.

I would NOT use 12 volt solar modules. 24 or 48 VDC systems are much more efficient. The charge controller can step the voltage down to 12 volts or any other configuration you may need.

 

[hanklet0]

THESE ARE THE CHInA FREIGHT SOLAR CELL SPECS.

Power center is completely weatherproof and works under all light conditions
3, 6, 9, 12 volt DC adapter outlets
Easy-to-read LED charge indicator
Includes mounting hardware, light, 12V socket and battery clamps
Requires 12 volt storage battery and 300 watt power inverter (not included). Maximum current, 3000 mA. 15 watts max per panel. Peak voltage: 23.57 volts open current. Panel dimensions: 12.40'' x 36.42'' x 0.75''
Weight: 9.7 lbs.

the batteries are 75amp/hrs. that will give me 900 total watt capacity. (12v X 75amp/hrs = 900watts)

The dehum is 250watts (900w/250w=3.6 hours of run time)

If I double my batts (1800amp/hrs) thats 7.2hrs run time. Humidif is rated at 34 pints of water at 70% humidity running 8 hours. So I figure 30 pints running for 7.2 hours. The humidifier is 120v not 12v so I dont need to calculate voltage drop.


Recharge...the panals are 45watts. I live in San Diego. So (45watts X 8hrs of intense sun=360watts per 8 hours)=5 days to recharge. (1800watts/360=5days) Fack I was off a day in my original calculations!!!

So this device will make you 30 pints of water every 6th day. I think the key is higher quality solar array "more money" and higher efficency dehumidifier "more money" .

Summary; Good idea, lot of money to make efficient.

 

[arisinwind]

I think there is an error in your calculations. The dehumidifier removes 34 pints of water a day - 24 hours - not 8 hours.