I picked up my TDS meter today. Did a bunch of testing as soon as I got home. Tap water is 300ppm as I expected. The under sink drinking water system takes it down to 240. My working area should average around 300, nothing but hard water in these parts. I tested the RO water we can buy from dispensers at the grocery store here too, it measured 6ppm. Not bad!
So now I have the idea that I could use that if I need. Just set up with a DI tank to polish it. It is only 8c/litre. (25c/gallon?) Would it be crazy to just use that water? I am just starting with converting to WFP so probly won’t be burning through the tank fulls right off. I will be soliciting some commercial contracts with my new service but once they kick in I can be looking at more of a water system investment.
Well, let’s do the math :). I’ve read claims from WFP backpack users that they use between a pint to a quart of water per double hung window. Figuring conservatively, since you’re just starting out and will probably use more water to begin with, let’s say you use half a gallon per window. How many windows do you plan on cleaning per day? Divide that number my 2 to calculate your water needs. Now multiply by the cost per gallon at the store… Now multiply by your frustration factor- filling jugs, transferring them to your vehicle, transferring them again to your backpack or other tank system.
I’m not trying to discourage you- there may be some positives to buying your water. At 6ppm, you may not have to filter at all- 0ppm is ideal, but many pure water cleaning experts say 8-9ppm is the cutoff point for usable water, before you start getting spots.
Another option to consider is rainwater collection. Depending on your region, rainwater is very pure- in the single digits for ppm. And you can harvest large amounts of water from just one storm. There are threads here on using rainwater- and tons of articles on the web about it.
update. Well, I guess Ive been happy buying water from the store for 6 or so years now. I only use the wfp system to supplement my traditional window cleaning. any high windows on a house usually get the pure water, the rest I walk around and get with hand tools. Doing this I tend to spend approx $2.50 or maybe $3 of water on a house with average high windows. I have good military surplus water jugs that never leak, are easy to carry (besides the weight) and they pack in nicely on the passenger side floor of my van. Still not an ideal set up but I have never had to worry about water filtration. I am still using the same small DI tank with original resin that I started with for a quick polish before sending water up the pole. Some ‘super jiggler’ siphon hoses have made it easier to get the water from the jugs into my Hudson Neverpump. I can turn the system on and complete the work on an entire job before any water needs to be manually transferred to or fro.
Cheers. PS - I like that idea of collecting rain water, might look into that a bit more.
I keep a 25gallon tank in the back of the truck with a 12v pump to my DI, tds varies so much in my area, so I have a few spots I go get cleaner water in my tank, and fill up when needed. If you have an RV filling station they some times have nice potable low tds for free, or in one small town I go to the shop where they do all the drinking water into jugs, he lets me pull my truck into his shop and fill 25gallons worth of 002 water for a hugely discounted price or free, when I go clean his home windows. Having my water on board has saved me $1000’s in DI resin by not using their house water from a tap. Just gotta find good spots to fill up
yes, a bigger tank/pump system is one upgrade I consider. also, I have a couple filling stations I can drive close to so it would be feasible to run a tube from the dispenser to my van. maybe also a rain barrel beside my parking spot some day. Kind of how it goes in this biz, each year there are a couple obvious things revealed that could be improved. It just gets better and better.
Thank you for updating us on this. Nice to see that you came back after so long to tell us how it went. Pretty amazing that you are still on the same resin.
This guy has a really neat system for getting rid of the roof wash of pollen and bird poop for catchment systems. His setup is pretty sweet and simple. I am getting ready to upgrade my catchment system to a setup similar to his in an attempt to collect some near pure water,.
Sweet
Only one time for the rain catchment, then just a little maintenance. I am not in a 300 TDS area, but I want to use rain water so the potable water processed for drinking can be used for that. About 70% of the Earth’s surface is covered with water, but estimated that only about 3% is potable. I don’t want to use a lot of resin if I don’t have to, just for less consumption of resources, and the rain water used for a pure water system goes back to the ground surface for evaporation just like it would have it were left to flow out of the gutters. Nice to know though that the store water will work in a pinch if there is any unforeseen problem with the catchment system. With his results, I think it is much better than burning through resin if you are dealing with very hard water.
That is a great point. Thinking a little higher level than the upstart who is gearing up to launch into business. The multi stage equipment being used to strip the water down has it’s costs that is far outperformed by simple evaporation through solar power across an entire ocean. Along that line, I wonder if there are any solar panel water evaporators out there. Might be tough to make one certified safe for humans but throwing something together for industrial use could be possible for a DIY project.
I have experimented with solar powered (non silicon electron) heaters that used aluminum to capture the heat, but never built a big enough unit to get to a boiling point. I was generating about 185 degree exhaust with a 30 degree intake though on a winter day. I have seen other guys build larger units than mine, and one guy used copper instead of aluminum and actually pumped water through and had steam coming out the other end of the pipe. So, I think it would be doable. Not sure about the method you would need to use to clean the pipes though, because they would collect the sediment.
