UV Water purifier

bilproject · 05-24-2011, 03:19 PM

Two things are necessary when treating surface water for drinking purposes. First is filtration to remove suspended solids. A cotton filter will remove solids from the water. Second you need to remove VOC or volitile organic chemicals such as oil and gasoline from boats. This is done with a carbon filter. Also, surface water tends to contain cysts which can be removed with a 5 micron carbon filter. Last we kill the bacteria by bathing the water in UV light.
So a good system needs to incorporate all 3 of these parts. How often you have to change the filter will depend on your intake. The deeper the better as there are less suspended solids and alge gowth is less the deeper you go. If your intake is close to shore wave action really stirs up and suspends solids. The UV will not change the taste of water and there is no residual effect. The carbon filter will make your water taste as it should, like nothing.
Google UV water treatment and many manufactures will come up. You will need to decide if you are treating all your water or just water say at the kitchen and bathroom sink.
Filter changes will depend on the clarity of the incoming water. On the northwest side of Bear I change my filters every 30 days as flow drops off. My intake is 200 ft from shore in 35 ft of water. Be sure to keep the foot valve off the bottom.
Since your application is seasonal and the system is shut down and somewhat open over the winter you need to disinfect your piping by adding a cup of bleach to a filter canister and flushing it into the piping when you turn the water on to kill any bacteria in the pipes. Remember the UV light has no residual effect so your clean water will be contaminated by bacteria in your pipes after the UV unit. Wait 2 hours before fushing out the clorinated water and remember if you have a septic to flush it into buckets not down the drain. Do not want to kill the good bacteria in the septic. Clorine will gas off in 2-3 days

NH_boater · 05-24-2011, 03:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bilproject

Also, surface water tends to contain cysts which can be removed with a 5 micron carbon filter.

5micron filters are OK for giardia lamblia cysts but will do very little for cryptosporidium. For crypto, you need 1 micron absolute filters, not to be confused with 1 micron filters.

Be careful with the filter ratings. A 5 micron filter will often pass particles as large as 20 microns while a 5 micron absolute will essentially retain all particles larger than 5 micron.

Bear Islander · 05-24-2011, 04:26 PM

Great information was supplied above by bilproject.

At our cabin we use Pura UV-B-3 three stage filter. The filtered water goes to a separate spigot installed on the sink and to the ice maker in the refrigerator. All our guests are shown the spigot and told that it is the drinking and cooking water supply.

I replace the filters every year and the lamp about every 3 years.

http://www.purauv.com/puraundersink.htm

I also use a sediment filter for all the water to the house. It clogs quickly and will restrict flow if not replaced every few weeks. A sediment filter does not purify the water.

fatlazyless · 05-25-2011, 08:31 AM

Why even bother with all this purification stuff? Just go get yourself a three or four gallon, bright blue plastic, water lugger-jug and haul treated municipal water out to your island for drinking and cook'n. For everything else, just use the water pumped straight out of the lake and into your little cottage plumbing - kitchen and bathroom faucets. Maybe once or twice a year you unscrew the faucet aerators and wash out any accumulated lake debris from the slightly clogged little faucet, aerator fine wire mesh screens. This seems to work just fine!

codeman671 · 05-25-2011, 09:33 AM

We use a big blue cartridge sediment filter and a Trojan UV filter. Ours has a warning light on it when the UV bulb is dead. It lasts 2 years. Gilford Well did our system.

A UV and sediment filter will have no negative effect on taste. If anything it will help improve it by screening anything out that could negatively affect it. We change the sediment filter twice a season. Our water draws from about 10 feet down and tastes perfect.

05-24-2011, 03:19 PM	#1
bilproject Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Bear Island/Fort Myers, Fla Posts: 231 Blog Entries: 1 Thanks: 1 Thanked 59 Times in 41 Posts	UV treatment of water and Filtration Two things are necessary when treating surface water for drinking purposes. First is filtration to remove suspended solids. A cotton filter will remove solids from the water. Second you need to remove VOC or volitile organic chemicals such as oil and gasoline from boats. This is done with a carbon filter. Also, surface water tends to contain cysts which can be removed with a 5 micron carbon filter. Last we kill the bacteria by bathing the water in UV light. So a good system needs to incorporate all 3 of these parts. How often you have to change the filter will depend on your intake. The deeper the better as there are less suspended solids and alge gowth is less the deeper you go. If your intake is close to shore wave action really stirs up and suspends solids. The UV will not change the taste of water and there is no residual effect. The carbon filter will make your water taste as it should, like nothing. Google UV water treatment and many manufactures will come up. You will need to decide if you are treating all your water or just water say at the kitchen and bathroom sink. Filter changes will depend on the clarity of the incoming water. On the northwest side of Bear I change my filters every 30 days as flow drops off. My intake is 200 ft from shore in 35 ft of water. Be sure to keep the foot valve off the bottom. Since your application is seasonal and the system is shut down and somewhat open over the winter you need to disinfect your piping by adding a cup of bleach to a filter canister and flushing it into the piping when you turn the water on to kill any bacteria in the pipes. Remember the UV light has no residual effect so your clean water will be contaminated by bacteria in your pipes after the UV unit. Wait 2 hours before fushing out the clorinated water and remember if you have a septic to flush it into buckets not down the drain. Do not want to kill the good bacteria in the septic. Clorine will gas off in 2-3 days

05-25-2011, 08:31 AM	#4
fatlazyless Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Posts: 8,805 Blog Entries: 1 Thanks: 301 Thanked 1,026 Times in 746 Posts	Why even bother with all this purification stuff? Just go get yourself a three or four gallon, bright blue plastic, water lugger-jug and haul treated municipal water out to your island for drinking and cook'n. For everything else, just use the water pumped straight out of the lake and into your little cottage plumbing - kitchen and bathroom faucets. Maybe once or twice a year you unscrew the faucet aerators and wash out any accumulated lake debris from the slightly clogged little faucet, aerator fine wire mesh screens. This seems to work just fine! __________________ ... down and out, liv'n that Walmart side of the lake!

The Following User Says Thank You to bilproject For This Useful Post:
Rattlesnake Guy (05-24-2011)

05-24-2011, 04:26 PM	#3
Bear Islander Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Bear Island Posts: 1,764 Thanks: 32 Thanked 441 Times in 207 Posts	Great information was supplied above by bilproject. At our cabin we use Pura UV-B-3 three stage filter. The filtered water goes to a separate spigot installed on the sink and to the ice maker in the refrigerator. All our guests are shown the spigot and told that it is the drinking and cooking water supply. I replace the filters every year and the lamp about every 3 years. http://www.purauv.com/puraundersink.htm I also use a sediment filter for all the water to the house. It clogs quickly and will restrict flow if not replaced every few weeks. A sediment filter does not purify the water.

05-25-2011, 09:33 AM	#5
codeman671 Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 3,515 Thanks: 221 Thanked 821 Times in 493 Posts	We use a big blue cartridge sediment filter and a Trojan UV filter. Ours has a warning light on it when the UV bulb is dead. It lasts 2 years. Gilford Well did our system. A UV and sediment filter will have no negative effect on taste. If anything it will help improve it by screening anything out that could negatively affect it. We change the sediment filter twice a season. Our water draws from about 10 feet down and tastes perfect.