Cajunwolf
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I like the
Down here on the coast we call a basement a heated indoor swimming pool, HA! ?
WILL... I'm sorry but....
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EclecticBadger
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Interesting topic and so many videos to be found searching using 'atmospheric water condenser' or 'air well' including commercial products.
Zero Mass
Then there are technologies that use no power at all ...
Warka Water Towers
But I'm guessing you will be looking at solar to power a colder than ambient surface for condensation to form, in which case a dehumidifier would be the way to go.
As practical but totally unscientific real-life example: From October through March, I run a 340W dehumidifer for 8 hours overnight to control humidity from 80% to 45-50% (and lesser extent provide supplementary heat) in my house (four rooms, rough calculation around 140 cubic meters). At an ambient of 17C (62F) it extracts up to 4 litres (7 pints) of water a day.
Sidenote: It's a very friendly dehumidifier, because every time I turn it on the display says "HI".
Zero Mass
Then there are technologies that use no power at all ...
Warka Water Towers
But I'm guessing you will be looking at solar to power a colder than ambient surface for condensation to form, in which case a dehumidifier would be the way to go.
As practical but totally unscientific real-life example: From October through March, I run a 340W dehumidifer for 8 hours overnight to control humidity from 80% to 45-50% (and lesser extent provide supplementary heat) in my house (four rooms, rough calculation around 140 cubic meters). At an ambient of 17C (62F) it extracts up to 4 litres (7 pints) of water a day.
Sidenote: It's a very friendly dehumidifier, because every time I turn it on the display says "HI".
Rider
Solar Addict
Cajunwolf
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Dang! You beat me to it!
svetz
Works in theory! Practice? That's something else
Tastier Water?
UNTESTED ... if you live near seawater I heard an interesting tip today for making distilled water more palatable... add a drop of seawater back in after distilling as it's loaded with salts and minerals. They had been boiling their seawater for quite a while and added a couple of drops back into the distilled water. Not sure how likely it might be to get a parasite/bacteria/protozoa/worse from seawater, might be useful to boil/cleanse it some way first.More Water
UNTESTED ... If you live in a dry area but have access to non-potable water (morning dew, puddle), you might be able to increase your dehumidifier's water-making efficiency by wetting a blanket/swamp-cooler-evaporator-pad and putting it in front of the air-intake. As the dry air passes through it would evaporate water from the non-potable source and condense in the dehumidifier.
Why would you want a dehumidifier to make more water?
svetz
Works in theory! Practice? That's something else
The OP is about:
You'd have to be fairly thirsty, water out of a dehumidifier might not have parasites or salt, but it could have other nasty microbes/dust/dirt/grease. The basic idea is solar panels make the power to run the dehumidifier, which condenses water, then you use a ceramic filter, then you can drink it.
It won't help BahamianPrepMan since his humidity is already so high, but in a dry climate it might help.
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Boondock Saint
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If you're going to that much solar angst, then use solar to super heat the water before collection and also use a purifier. Boiling the water via solar reflector and exposure to high UV should do the trick. Run that through a simple Life Straw and swap that out twice a year.
svetz
Works in theory! Practice? That's something else
That solution doesn't work if you have no source water (e.g., surrounded by saltwater), but dehumidification will work though as it pulls the water from the air. Distillation works too, but probably takes more energy.
Boondock Saint
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Yes pulling from air. That is still dirty. There's bajiollions of tons of micro-plastic in the air everywhere, and that micro-plastic also has bacteria and virus, from other continents. Unless water was collected on the filtered side of a collection, then other metals and poisons and airborne funk would be a contamination.
No matter where or how I attempted to collect water, even via humidity, I would boil and filter filter well.
Just because you're not paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to poison you.
You could use Peltier thermo-electric plates to both contribute to the cooling and heating of a system via both sides at once, but they aren't very efficient.
No matter where or how I attempted to collect water, even via humidity, I would boil and filter filter well.
Just because you're not paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to poison you.
You could use Peltier thermo-electric plates to both contribute to the cooling and heating of a system via both sides at once, but they aren't very efficient.
Use AJ Madison site to compare pints per watts of dehumidifiers to Energy Star window ACs. https://www.ajmadison.com/cgi-bin/ajmadison/UD501KOJ5.html compared to https://www.lg.com/us/air-conditioners/lg-LW8019ER-window-air-conditioner from 2nd page of https://www.energystar.gov/productfinder/product/certified-room-air-conditioners/results. That LG dehumidifier and LG AC cost about the same. I own that LG AC. It's a bit windy out the hot side to put the entire unit inside a house and use only as a dehumidifier. It can be used as a very efficient window AC while it is dehumidifying. Dehumidifiers can't be used as ACs. I flip my LG around backwards and use it as a heater in the winter. I also own a Midea u-shaped inverter AC. I would definitely buy the Midea to use only as a dehumidifier.
Boondock Saint
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The DeLongi portable units are fan, AC, heater and dehumidifier AIO, but they still need an external vent.
Rider
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Surprisingly, this dehumdidifier is still going strong (jinx...).
curiouscarbon
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atmospheric water generation is cool !!!
haha literally because water condenses on cold surfaces…
memory-alpha.fandom.com
this thread has some info if you’re interested:
diysolarforum.com
aquaboy device seems legit. good filtration of Air and Water. stainless steel tanks. UV water sanitizer. tried to buy one last year but order was cancelled due to no stock.
cheers and hope everyone got access to good water ?
if you want to do it yourself, ensure that you do the following:
hackaday.io
haha literally because water condenses on cold surfaces…
Atmospheric condenser
An atmospheric condenser was a device that could extract water from the air. Kamin, a resident of Kataan, suggested building atmospheric condensers to fight the constant drought that was affecting the planet to his community's administrator. Each community would be responsible for its own...
memory-alpha.fandom.com
this thread has some info if you’re interested:
I'm interested in a hiked-in wilderness water collection setup using solar energy
My bestie and I have been trail building in the wilderness for quite a number of years. We have developed this one trail and cleared out a large area of undergrowth on the top of a majestic coastal mountain with an awesome view and call it Red Corn Camp. There is no water supply on the top of a...
diysolarforum.com
aquaboy device seems legit. good filtration of Air and Water. stainless steel tanks. UV water sanitizer. tried to buy one last year but order was cancelled due to no stock.
cheers and hope everyone got access to good water ?
if you want to do it yourself, ensure that you do the following:
- filter the air of particles with HEPA filter
- Food Safe cold surface to condense onto
- pull air up so drips go down
- Stainless Steel pot/tank for collection
- UV sanitizer on water collection tank
- water filtration
- UV sanitizer in holding tank after filter
Smart Dew-Point Water Harvester
750 million people around the world lack access to safe drinking water; approximately one in nine people. One source of clean water is harvesting it directly from the air. Dew point is the temperature at which the water vapor in a sample of air at constant barometric pressure condenses into...
hackaday.io
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curiouscarbon
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good point about needing to filter Air before condensing water from it
Peltier is inefficient at full bore 100% as you say, Coefficient of Performance only 0.25-1.0
At 10-25% of max current, peltier element can go up to as high as 3.0 coefficient of performance.
But this also has to do with delta temperature across the hot and cold sides. Some unit have max delta T of 60-70C. So 10% of that is like 6.5C. But at ambient 20-30C you would need 4-5 serial layers of peltier elements to satisfy both constraints to operate efficiently. Such complex, and delicate to keep operating efficiently..
That’s 3.0 thermal Watt moved per 1.0 electrical Watt input, pretty decent. About 10BTU/hr for one watt. Of course there are all sorts of grades of peltier elements and some will just heat up a lot regardless.
Anyways just sharing for fun of study, not arguing that any of this is strictly true. Just another perspective.
curiouscarbon
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if the air where you are has high Relative Humidity >60% then an atmospheric water generator will operate noticeably more efficiently than if it were 20-40% RH ?
Boondock Saint
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I like the mathematical mindset in the least. My point on the peltier is that given it's inefficiency it's still a two-for.
I can't see it as a total solution but an add-on in a condensation / purifying system.
heat heat heat Heat HEAt HEAT . . . then cool Cool COol COOl COOL down again as vapors pass through a collection cavity.
I can't see it as a total solution but an add-on in a condensation / purifying system.
heat heat heat Heat HEAt HEAT . . . then cool Cool COol COOl COOL down again as vapors pass through a collection cavity.
Boondock Saint
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I can see a thin cavity with many heatsink fins that are very closely interlaced in order to maximize the surface area in the elongated channels.
As air goes through so many feet of this it is bombarded with electrostatic and UV energy on the heat side. The pre-stage physical filtration at a hepa level would eliminate large non bio particles plus the ionizing and UV bombardment would also cleanse microbes too small for hepa filtration capture. (take THAT you covid biotches!)
The super hot moist air would then be circulated through the same number of linear feet of peltier (other side of plates) before the final condensing unit.
It might be more effective if used in conjunction with or to modify an existing osmotic unit and then required minerals could be re introduced.
As air goes through so many feet of this it is bombarded with electrostatic and UV energy on the heat side. The pre-stage physical filtration at a hepa level would eliminate large non bio particles plus the ionizing and UV bombardment would also cleanse microbes too small for hepa filtration capture. (take THAT you covid biotches!)
The super hot moist air would then be circulated through the same number of linear feet of peltier (other side of plates) before the final condensing unit.
It might be more effective if used in conjunction with or to modify an existing osmotic unit and then required minerals could be re introduced.
Rider
Solar Addict
And..... I jinxed it. Died last week. Fortunately, knowing how often dehumidifiers fail, I bought it with a 3-year warranty. Filed an online claim (Allstate) and we settled for about $15 less than I paid for it back in August of 2019.
Rider
Solar Addict
I bought a couple of personal water filters from the local big box store. Filters bacteria, mold, spores like Crypto and micro plastic. Will filter up to 100,000 gallons. There's also tablets available at any camper supply which are very effective, and I have a couple different kinds in my bug out kits. In a pinch, a few drops of chlorine bleach works fine.
A solar powered dehumidifier is part of my survival plan.
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