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Machine Condenses Drinking Water Out of Thin Air
longacre writes "A new $1,200 machine that uses the same amount of power as three light bulbs promises to condense drinkable water out of the air. On display at Wired Magazine's annual tech showcase, the WaterMill 'looks like a giant golf ball that has been chopped in half: it is about 3ft in diameter, made of white plastic, and is attached to the wall. It works by drawing air through filters to remove dust and particles, then cooling it to just below the temperature at which dew forms. The condensed water is passed through a self-sterilising chamber that uses microbe-busting UV light to eradicate any possibility of Legionnaires' disease or other infections. Finally, it is filtered and passed through a pipe to the owner's fridge or kitchen tap.'"
Exactly the opposite, this machine turns vaporware into a solid liquid product.
Ezekiel 23:20
Don't forget the sanitizing UV light...
I remember instructions on how to make something like this in the scouts - it involved a sheet of plastic and some rocks.
I don't read AC A human right
not sure what the diff between this and that is, but this one says it's not useful below 30% rel humidity. Not useful in the desert. Not during the daytime anyway. Maybe at night. There's a lot of critters in the desert that get all of their moisture by licking up the morning dew.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
Yeah, but that only works at night
I think the point is not to sterilize the water, but make it safe to drink. Our bodies are fairly tolerant to bacteria getting inside. Think of it this way: Do you really think that tap water is 100% germ free? Is the glass you're putting your lips on sterile?
The idea of the UV light is to get the parts/qty down to such a level as to be safe for your body to take care of the rest.
We're all hypocrites. We all have hidden parts, it's the contrast between them that make us more a hypocrite than others
IOW, your comment is an understatement.
A Shadeless room is a brighter room.
Actually, it can get quite humid in the desret. I work with folks who have spent a lot of time in Saudi Arabia and in such places and they report that it is very humid in the summer time. The reason it doesn't rain is that there is no cold dry air masses that come down to mix with the hot humid ones.
There are some places this might be a very nice appliance.
Kevin
Most water regulations in the US require 4 nines deactivation of specific indicator viruses and 3 nines removal of specific indicator bacteria.
I know that getting drinking water is often an issue for smaller boats which may not have room or power for desalination or reverse osmosis units.
From a systems analysis standpoint, the dehumidifier machine doesn't work. It would be far more efficient to install an electric fan on the stern of the boat pointed at the sails, so as to go faster, thus requiring less stored drinking water. Err, maybe that wouldn't work, how about installing a big windmill in front of the sail and hooking that up to an electric trolling motor.
Seriously though, a Katdyn 35 hand operated R.O. desalinator pump produces about as much water in 30 minutes of hand pumping as this "dehumidifier" produces in a day of using 300 watts.
http://products.katadyn.com/brands-and-products/produkte/Survivor_34/Katadyn_Survivor_35_48.html
Or if you prefer to save your hand and arm strength for other purposes (?) and use electricity to desalinate, a katadyn model 40E/12V draws only 4 amps at 12 volts and squirts out 1.5 gallons per hour. It only weighs 25 lbs and is about 7 by 17 by 15 inches. It's amazing that the off the shelf katdyn produces about 30 times as much water per day yet uses about a tenth the electricity of this "greenwash" dehumidifier product.
http://products.katadyn.com/brands-and-products/produkte/Survivor_34/Katadyn_Survivor_35_48.html
I have no connection to katadyn other than happily owning a couple of their backpacking R.O. filters.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
No, Frank Herbert came up with the idea 50 years ago - read Dune for some real education.
"We returned the General to El Salvador, or maybe Guatemala, it's difficult to tell from 10,000 feet"
Sir, I do think you just uncovered the long lost answer to:
2. ?
3. Profit!
Hell, it seems to have worked for Lucas.
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
The problem with that is in order to be killed by the UV light (and it doesn't actually kill the bacteria, just scrambles their DNA so badly that they can't successfully reproduce) the bacteria has to be exposed to it.
I'm assuming you got some nice fuzzy mounds in pretty colors, all very opaque. Exposing those mounds to UV light mutates the surface bacteria so badly that they can't reproduce, but you've still got millions upon millions living beneath that one layer in ignorant bliss because their brethren above them absorbed all the UV radiation, sparing them.
The reason UV exposure works better in water is because water is clear and any bacteria that is present is not masked by... well... anything. It even works in fairly turbid water, assuming the water is agitated while being exposed to the UV so all areas get equally exposed.
Sorry to poke holes in your 8th grade fun... but that's what you were observing, not the failure of UV light to kill things.
Legionnaires' disease is only if you INHALE the bacteria. The germ is ubiquitous in water, and drinking it is harmless.
Wiki Legionella
Sorry, but you're flat wrong. You say "in fact" but you've never measured it.
You see, at a given temperature and pressure, there are a given number of gas molecules per unit volume. That's counting nitrogen, oxygen, water vapor, everything.
Nk = PV/T
But never mind theory. The fact is, humid air is substantially less dense than dry air in real life. (There's a lot of truth in what actually happens.) The measurement confirms the theory nicely. For further proof, planes need more runway (higher speed) to take off in high high humidity, other factors being equal. Go ask a pilot, a high-school physics or chem teacher, or a bright student.
Steam Distiller for Countertop $180. 565 watts. 1 gallon every 4 hours. You say you want 20 gallons a day? That will cost you $5000 and draw down 3000 watts 24/7/365. Polar Bear Home Water Distiller For the geek, the micro-brewery might be the better - or at least, more rewarding - investment.
http://www.elementfour.com/products/the-watermill
"The WaterMill is designed to minimize energy use. It's so efficient that producing one liter of water costs only three to four cents. Alternative bottled water systems typically cost ten cents per liter or more."
http://www.accountkiller.com/removal-requested