Whole House Water Purification, the What, How and the Best
Whole house water purification means just what it says. The idea is to filter all the water coming into your home by installing a water filter system near the point your water supply line enters your home. That way all the water past that point has been filtered and you can have good, safe water everywhere, in your sinks, showers, bathtubs and even for laundry and the dishwasher. In this article we will look at whole house water purification systems, what they do, how they do it, and the best technology to use to get the job done for you.
1. What should a good home water purifier do?
Simply put, any good whole house water purifier should give you clean, healthy water by removing virtually all(over 99%)of the debris and harmful contaminants from your water. This would include chlorine, THMs or the toxic by-products of chlorine, SOCs, or synthetic organic chemicals, lead, mercury, weed killers, insecticides, pesticides, pharmaceutical drugs, etc the list goes on and on.
2. How do these systems remove the pollutants?
First keep in mind that no single filter will do the job, all whole house water purifiers will consist of a series of filters, one after another. The series will begin with a pre-filter to remove larger particles of debris that might clog the finer filters to follow.
Next, will likely be a carbon filter of some type. Activated carbon is recognized by the EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, as being the best available technology for removing chlorine, THMs, and VOCs (volatile organic chemicals).
The third stage of filtering could come from distillation, reverse osmosis, or a system utlizing the adsorptive power of activated charcoal, micron filters and ion-exchange, called selective or multi-stage filtration.
Distillation is a process that passes water over a heated coil to form steam that rises to a cooling tank and condenses back into a liquid. This process kills any remaining bacteria and removes inorganic compounds like lead, calcium, potassium, etc. The process does not remove organic chemicals, so, a distiller must always be used in combination with a carbon filter.
Distillation units operate slowly, producing only three or four gallons of filtered water a day and at a relatively high energy cost due to the electricity needed.
Reverse osmosis units push water under pressure against a semi-permeable membrane with very fine pores, the size of water molecules. The process rejects certain contaminants, minerals, and even a large part of the water. Most SOCs, such as herbicides and pesticides, are even smaller, molecularly speaking, than water and will pass through the membrane and will not be filtered out. That is why these systems also must be used in combination with a carbon filter.
Most reverse osmosis systems produce only a gallon or two of filtered water an hour and will waste two or three times that for every gallon produced. They require a storage tank and, sometimes, a booster pump to maintain pressure. Initial costs for the various components and maintenance costs make them about equal in overall cost with distillation.
Both distillation and reverse osmosis systems remove all the minerals from the water, including the ones your body needs. When the minerals are removed, the water changes its acidity and will tend to balance itself by stripping needed minerals, like calcium, from the body. For this reason, many health experts consider this water unhealthy.
The third system starts with the adsorptive power of activated charcoal and blends that with a chemically charged resin to create a very different, but highly effective, filter media.
This blend is extruded into a solid carbon block composed of very tiny pores. Chemicals like chlorine, drugs, pesticides, etc., physically bond to the surface of the charcoal, and heavey metals, such as lead or mercury, are chemically altered through an ion exchange with the resin, changing them into compounds which can be filtered as well. Finally, even the very tiny cysts such a giardia and cryptosporidium, and any remaining inorganic contaminants, are trapped in the small pores.
However, healthy minerals like calcium and potassium are, selectively, allowed to pass.
Selective filtration is not designed to handle salty water, but, since most of the nation's water supply does not have that problem, it is usually not an issue for most people.
The big pluses for these systems are their initial cost and their low operating costs. They process water very quickly, with a very small loss of water pressure, so they don't require booster pumps or storage tanks. They also produce healthy water.
3. What system will work best for you?
No question about it, if you have a salt water problem, I don't think you can beat a reverse osmosis system. Salt removal was what they were designed for years ago and they do a great job of it.
If you are like the majority, and you are on a city water system, or a chlorinated well, selective filtration is the way to go. The initial cost and the operating costs are less, and they do their thing almost maintenance free, only requiring periodic filter changes.
David Eastham is a passionate advocate of good, safe water and a researcher of home water filters. Visit his site now at [http://www.good-safe-water.com] to discover which particular water filtration systems David recommends after extensive comparison.
1. What should a good home water purifier do?
Simply put, any good whole house water purifier should give you clean, healthy water by removing virtually all(over 99%)of the debris and harmful contaminants from your water. This would include chlorine, THMs or the toxic by-products of chlorine, SOCs, or synthetic organic chemicals, lead, mercury, weed killers, insecticides, pesticides, pharmaceutical drugs, etc the list goes on and on.
2. How do these systems remove the pollutants?
First keep in mind that no single filter will do the job, all whole house water purifiers will consist of a series of filters, one after another. The series will begin with a pre-filter to remove larger particles of debris that might clog the finer filters to follow.
Next, will likely be a carbon filter of some type. Activated carbon is recognized by the EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, as being the best available technology for removing chlorine, THMs, and VOCs (volatile organic chemicals).
The third stage of filtering could come from distillation, reverse osmosis, or a system utlizing the adsorptive power of activated charcoal, micron filters and ion-exchange, called selective or multi-stage filtration.
Distillation is a process that passes water over a heated coil to form steam that rises to a cooling tank and condenses back into a liquid. This process kills any remaining bacteria and removes inorganic compounds like lead, calcium, potassium, etc. The process does not remove organic chemicals, so, a distiller must always be used in combination with a carbon filter.
Distillation units operate slowly, producing only three or four gallons of filtered water a day and at a relatively high energy cost due to the electricity needed.
Reverse osmosis units push water under pressure against a semi-permeable membrane with very fine pores, the size of water molecules. The process rejects certain contaminants, minerals, and even a large part of the water. Most SOCs, such as herbicides and pesticides, are even smaller, molecularly speaking, than water and will pass through the membrane and will not be filtered out. That is why these systems also must be used in combination with a carbon filter.
Most reverse osmosis systems produce only a gallon or two of filtered water an hour and will waste two or three times that for every gallon produced. They require a storage tank and, sometimes, a booster pump to maintain pressure. Initial costs for the various components and maintenance costs make them about equal in overall cost with distillation.
Both distillation and reverse osmosis systems remove all the minerals from the water, including the ones your body needs. When the minerals are removed, the water changes its acidity and will tend to balance itself by stripping needed minerals, like calcium, from the body. For this reason, many health experts consider this water unhealthy.
The third system starts with the adsorptive power of activated charcoal and blends that with a chemically charged resin to create a very different, but highly effective, filter media.
This blend is extruded into a solid carbon block composed of very tiny pores. Chemicals like chlorine, drugs, pesticides, etc., physically bond to the surface of the charcoal, and heavey metals, such as lead or mercury, are chemically altered through an ion exchange with the resin, changing them into compounds which can be filtered as well. Finally, even the very tiny cysts such a giardia and cryptosporidium, and any remaining inorganic contaminants, are trapped in the small pores.
However, healthy minerals like calcium and potassium are, selectively, allowed to pass.
Selective filtration is not designed to handle salty water, but, since most of the nation's water supply does not have that problem, it is usually not an issue for most people.
The big pluses for these systems are their initial cost and their low operating costs. They process water very quickly, with a very small loss of water pressure, so they don't require booster pumps or storage tanks. They also produce healthy water.
3. What system will work best for you?
No question about it, if you have a salt water problem, I don't think you can beat a reverse osmosis system. Salt removal was what they were designed for years ago and they do a great job of it.
If you are like the majority, and you are on a city water system, or a chlorinated well, selective filtration is the way to go. The initial cost and the operating costs are less, and they do their thing almost maintenance free, only requiring periodic filter changes.
David Eastham is a passionate advocate of good, safe water and a researcher of home water filters. Visit his site now at [http://www.good-safe-water.com] to discover which particular water filtration systems David recommends after extensive comparison.
