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diy solar

Solar powered UV water filter

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bgflyguy

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Joined
Jul 8, 2020
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196
I watched Ray's video this morning, and I had a few questions. I can't stand the comments on yt, so I thought I would ask them here. And to not be completely off topic, I thought I would share what I have been working on this last week(or so)

First, the question: @RayfromTX what is the UV sensor you have? I couldn't find anything like that, but would love to be able to tell if my filtration is working. Right now I'm just counting hours of use. Bulb says 9k? I don't think it will last that long in a mobile environment though.

I have a converted ambulance that I've been using as an RV for a couple of years now. One of the first changes was adding 800w of solar and 8 280ah eve cells. It's still kicking, but I wanted to add some flowing water.

I added a 4 stage filter with UV light as I don't always expect to have the highest quality water source while traveling. I'm even planning on adding a couple more valves to be able to reverse the flow and use the pump to fill the tank via hose to river.

I have mofi modem and a raspberry pi running my mobile IT infrastructure. Right now I'm using blynk to control esp8622 modules for various tasks. I added a module to an outlet in the water cabinet to monitor flow and temperature as well as switch the UV light and count filter and bulb life. I would love to actually measure effectiveness instead of count hours.

I can share more details if anyone is curious, but for now I'll just post a couple of pictures.
 
Nice rig. And no offense to what you have going.

I’d use a steri-pen as the final step for he water you are going to drink or otherwise consume.

A life straw might also be handy but no need to use both.

The other water (bathing and cooking) don’t matter in terms of being sterile.
 
bgflyguy said:
It's running the blynk server:
Click to expand...
Thanks! That definitely looks interesting. I will look into it more. I currently Domoticz on two Raspberries at home, does not look to be as extensive as this one. Mostly in the feedback and the esp8622 integration. Plus it has a native app.
 
Bluedog225 said:
Nice rig. And no offense to what you have going.

I’d use a steri-pen as the final step for he water you are going to drink or otherwise consume.

A life straw might also be handy but no need to use both.

The other water (bathing and cooking) don’t matter in terms of being sterile.
Click to expand...
I always carry a back up, and don't anticipate having to drink sketchy water often if ever. I'm mostly thinking mountain rivers vs Texas farm land run off, and not really a normal use case.

However what's missing from my setup? I would filter the water in to the tank and then filter it on the way out. I'll also probably have some chlorine on hand. This is almost preppedr level theoretical at this point though.
 
MrThisIsME said:
Thanks! That definitely looks interesting. I will look into it more. I currently Domoticz on two Raspberries at home, does not look to be as extensive as this one. Mostly in the feedback and the esp8622 integration. Plus it has a native app.
Click to expand...
Domoticz looks interesting, I like the commitment to open source.

The company behind blynk used to be very diy friendly, but they are moving away from it. I believe only the blynk server is open source and the app is still owned by the company. I think in December they may drop support for the local server from their app entirely.

Even if I was going to subscribe, I don't care for blynk 2.0.
 
bgflyguy said:
Domoticz looks interesting, I like the commitment to open source.
Click to expand...
They have gone down hill over the years. Use to be a robust community with a lot of updates, new features. Sadly not much these days.
 
Last edited:
atlantic ultraviolet guardian Here is the search I just did. They still make it and it is digital now and costs about the same as I paid 19 years ago so that makes it about half price in todays dollars. Good luck and thanks for subscribing. I love the youtube comments section though. lol
 
I have spent a good 30 years dealing with getting water clean for use in my Salt Water Aquariums.
When we mix Fresh water with Sea Salt Mix to make Seawater it's not a simple process because the Fish and Corals are very sensitive to any chemicals or metals in the water. So Tap water must be purified to a level that is equivalent to Distilled water in quality. Also our tanks are constantly tapped up daily with fresh water so we have to keep making gallons of it each day to compensate for evaporation.

You have an Ro system which is the major component. We use RoDi systems which bring the TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) down to Zero but without the Di Filter you should get a TDS of about 10-30 with River water. You have a pressure pump which is good because the Ro Membrane works best when under a pressure of about 60 PSI.
What you do not want is the water going into a pressure tank as that will cause the TDS to rise rapidly.
You also need a back flush system to clean the Ro Membrane before the pump kicks in. That is not an expensive addon, I think about $70.

I assume you have a good TDS meter?

Lastly the Key to UV is the flow rate. If the flow rate is to fast for the UV filter it will not kill most of the bacteria. I suggest making sure the Flow rate is at or slightly lower than the suggested rate from the manufacturer.
These bulbs loose intensity each month, so you really want to keep track of the amount of hours the bulb has been running.

A complete and rather effective method of doing an even better job of killing Bacteria and anything else is to use an Ozone Generator. If you decide to go down that route there is only one company I can recommend and that is "Poseidon".
There are some hurdles with Ozone you must overcome. The unit cannot be inside an area with people or live animals as Ozone is like Mild Chlorine and is toxic to breath in. I keep my unit and processing container outside at the side of the house in a cabinet. The air that it pulls in and bubbles into the water needs to be fairly dry.
Depending on humidity levels where you live you might have to buy desiccant bead unit to dry the air going in to the unit. Lastly the water that is processed needs to be aerated with an aquarium air pump to get rid of any residual Ozone.

I know that it sounds like a lot of work but Ozone creates Gin Clear Water. You won't be guessing about whether something bad is in the water as Ozone destroys all organics. Other benefits are that they use a lot less power and they run for years if the air going in is dry. Upfront cost for a complete system is actually cheaper than UV.

Hope this helps.
 
RayfromTX said:
atlantic ultraviolet guardian Here is the search I just did. They still make it and it is digital now and costs about the same as I paid 19 years ago so that makes it about half price in todays dollars. Good luck and thanks for subscribing. I love the youtube comments section though. lol
Click to expand...
Thanks for the information. That helps a lot. I'm still looking around for something a bit more flexible, but I really like the idea of being able to monitor this.
 
robby said:
I have spent a good 30 years dealing with getting water clean for use in my Salt Water Aquariums.
When we mix Fresh water with Sea Salt Mix to make Seawater it's not a simple process because the Fish and Corals are very sensitive to any chemicals or metals in the water. So Tap water must be purified to a level that is equivalent to Distilled water in quality. Also our tanks are constantly tapped up daily with fresh water so we have to keep making gallons of it each day to compensate for evaporation.

You have an Ro system which is the major component. We use RoDi systems which bring the TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) down to Zero but without the Di Filter you should get a TDS of about 10-30 with River water. You have a pressure pump which is good because the Ro Membrane works best when under a pressure of about 60 PSI.
What you do not want is the water going into a pressure tank as that will cause the TDS to rise rapidly.
You also need a back flush system to clean the Ro Membrane before the pump kicks in. That is not an expensive addon, I think about $70.

I assume you have a good TDS meter?

Lastly the Key to UV is the flow rate. If the flow rate is to fast for the UV filter it will not kill most of the bacteria. I suggest making sure the Flow rate is at or slightly lower than the suggested rate from the manufacturer.
These bulbs loose intensity each month, so you really want to keep track of the amount of hours the bulb has been running.

A complete and rather effective method of doing an even better job of killing Bacteria and anything else is to use an Ozone Generator. If you decide to go down that route there is only one company I can recommend and that is "Poseidon".
There are some hurdles with Ozone you must overcome. The unit cannot be inside an area with people or live animals as Ozone is like Mild Chlorine and is toxic to breath in. I keep my unit and processing container outside at the side of the house in a cabinet. The air that it pulls in and bubbles into the water needs to be fairly dry.
Depending on humidity levels where you live you might have to buy desiccant bead unit to dry the air going in to the unit. Lastly the water that is processed needs to be aerated with an aquarium air pump to get rid of any residual Ozone.

I know that it sounds like a lot of work but Ozone creates Gin Clear Water. You won't be guessing about whether something bad is in the water as Ozone destroys all organics. Other benefits are that they use a lot less power and they run for years if the air going in is dry. Upfront cost for a complete system is actually cheaper than UV.

Hope this helps.
Click to expand...
RO required to much waste water for my moble system. I'm intrigued by the ozone system. I'll have to dig into that.

I guess I need some understanding of what safe to drink is. I feel like my system matches the steri pen or lifestraw, but I could be wrong? Even tds doesn't tell what the solids are right? Steri pen will still have high tds.
 
bgflyguy said:
RO required to much waste water for my moble system. I'm intrigued by the ozone system. I'll have to dig into that.
Click to expand...
Redirect waste water to a seperate container for toilet flushing and showering etc. When done properly you will have around a 2:1 ratio on waste versus clean water. I doubt you drink or cook with 1 Gallon for every two you use to flush toilets and shower.
bgflyguy said:
I guess I need some understanding of what safe to drink is. I feel like my system matches the steri pen or lifestraw, but I could be wrong? Even tds doesn't tell what the solids are right? Steri pen will still have high tds.
Click to expand...
No TDS does not tell you what is left behind, but Carbon will remove metals and most chemicals. The only way to get Zero TDS is with Di Resin and while some people advocate the drinking of this ultra pure water I am not a supporter. When water is that clean it actually becomes corrosive as it is just desperately trying to strip molecules from anything it comes in contact with. I have poured a glass of it on the cement walk way and over the space of 30 minutes the cement looked a lot whiter than the areas around it.
 
robby said:
Redirect waste water to a seperate container for toilet flushing and showering etc. When done properly you will have around a 2:1 ratio on waste versus clean water. I doubt you drink or cook with 1 Gallon for every two you use to flush toilets and shower.

No TDS does not tell you what is left behind, but Carbon will remove metals and most chemicals. The only way to get Zero TDS is with Di Resin and while some people advocate the drinking of this ultra pure water I am not a supporter. When water is that clean it actually becomes corrosive as it is just desperately trying to strip molecules from anything it comes in contact with. I have poured a glass of it on the cement walk way and over the space of 30 minutes the cement looked a lot whiter than the areas around it.
Click to expand...
I think I'm good with what I have for now. I can always add a chlorine tablet or something.

I only have 14 gallons. There really isn't enough for an RO system. Thanks for the information though. I really had no idea there were so many options.
 
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