shinester
Senior Member
China's white trash
Posts: 3,119
Likes: 3,578
Email: shiny@ausprep.org
|
Post by shinester on Apr 19, 2016 13:35:47 GMT 10
I've been inspired by a video that's going around to talk about this topic, what if we wanted to make enough water through a dehumidifier to drink for our family of 4 and run the whole thing on solar power. Can we do it? Simple answer is we can but it would be at such a giant cost. linkMakes 250ml/day [probably their best] Uses 540Wh/day. Would need about min of 270W of panels & 100Amph battery. Total cost $650 It also uses peltier's which are not very efficient. linkMakes 7L/day Uses 4000Wh/day Would need a minimum of 2000W of panels and 350Amph battery. Total cost $3300 So we can quickly see that making small amounts of water from dehumidifying air and powering that via solar panels becomes fairly expensive. Better we invested that money in storage tanks for rainwater that is always there, will have a far bigger capacity and will always replenish itself at some point.
|
|
|
Post by graynomad on Apr 19, 2016 14:44:59 GMT 10
Also if you live in a dry area there's bugger all humidity to dehumidify.
Have you seen the "fog catchers" or whatever they are called, just fly wire or shade clothe that catches the moisture from fog, still gotta have fog though.
|
|
shinester
Senior Member
China's white trash
Posts: 3,119
Likes: 3,578
Email: shiny@ausprep.org
|
Post by shinester on Apr 19, 2016 15:30:26 GMT 10
Absolutely bud.
Merely showing the 'best' case for it [its a terrible idea!] and most likely if you've not got much rain you sure as hell aren't going to be getting it out of the air accept for anecdotal cases like being in an area that gets sea breezes but little rainfall because of certain weather patterns.
I bet as someone who already lives off grid you could find a much better use for 2000W of panels [living north = more sun!] than making at best 7L of water lol.
|
|
|
Post by graynomad on Apr 19, 2016 21:42:32 GMT 10
... I bet as someone who already lives off grid you could find a much better use for 2000W of panels [living north = more sun!] than making at best 7L of water lol. Reckon, that would more than double my solar input, I plan to do that soon, or at least add as many panels as will fit on one container.
|
|
|
Post by SA Hunter on Apr 19, 2016 22:48:39 GMT 10
Also if you live in a dry area there's bugger all humidity to dehumidify. Have you seen the "fog catchers" or whatever they are called, just fly wire or shade clothe that catches the moisture from fog, still gotta have fog though. Yeah good point - I liked the idea of it, but we have bugger all humidity, or fog!!!! Re the fog catchers, I'm guessing there is some sort of container to catch the water in? ? Wonder how it would go on the coast in the winter??? I guess the condensation in the air may make it work - I see an experiment coming on!
|
|
|
Post by graynomad on Apr 19, 2016 23:07:41 GMT 10
Run some gutter or PCV pipe cut in half or something along the bottom of the mesh to channel the water into a container.
I haven't looked into this for years but just Googled "fog catchers" and found a heap of links.
IIRC they got the idea from a beetle in the Namib desert, it catches moisture on it's legs from the morning fog.
|
|
|
Post by SA Hunter on Apr 19, 2016 23:23:44 GMT 10
Thanks!! Google here I come!!
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
Likes:
|
Post by Deleted on Apr 20, 2016 9:12:25 GMT 10
Me thinks I will get a heap of powdered water and put away...just add H2O...boom..boom...
|
|
shinester
Senior Member
China's white trash
Posts: 3,119
Likes: 3,578
Email: shiny@ausprep.org
|
Post by shinester on Apr 20, 2016 15:16:58 GMT 10
There's powdered alcohol, put it next to it.
|
|
tyburn
Senior Member
Posts: 366
Likes: 541
|
Post by tyburn on Apr 25, 2016 10:39:33 GMT 10
I'm lucky enough to live in an area of China where it rains pretty much all year round - you can image my laughter when a "drought" was declared last year cos it hadn't rained for a few weeks...we caught the end of a typhoon soon after and plenty of places were flooded.
In fact, its been raining for pretty much the whole past ten days. I put a couple of bottles out yesterday to see how much water I could catch, and manager to fill them overnight. I'm now looking around to see where I can get hold of a couple of food-grade barrels to set up as collection points for garden watering.
|
|
shinester
Senior Member
China's white trash
Posts: 3,119
Likes: 3,578
Email: shiny@ausprep.org
|
Post by shinester on Apr 25, 2016 17:15:11 GMT 10
Ha, that's a LOT of rain.
|
|
tyburn
Senior Member
Posts: 366
Likes: 541
|
Post by tyburn on Apr 26, 2016 10:56:14 GMT 10
Yep, cleared for a couple of hours yesterday and is now pouring again. Has been good for my small veggie patch, although the wife's flowers are all looking pretty bedraggled.
|
|