DIY Desalination Plant

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jdido87

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Seeing that we about to run out of water in the Cape, has anyone ever tried their hand at building a desalination plant at home? I know its a slow process but I have thought about using a radiator covered by ice as a condenser to speed up the conversion of steam to water. Also is it legal to take sea water?
 
jdido87 said:
Seeing that we about to run out of water in the Cape, has anyone ever tried their hand at building a desalination plant at home? I know its a slow process but I have thought about using a radiator covered by ice as a condenser to speed up the conversion of steam to water. Also is it legal to take sea water?
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doesnt the radiator covered in ice kind of go against the idea of what you are doing?

AFAIK taking ea water in containers is not illegal.
 
If you watch Moonshiners on Discovery they do a similar thing. They coil copper piper and submerge it in cold water to speed up the condensation process.
 
Ummm, Where are you going to get this source of salt water from to start with in a quantity that will actually be worthwhile?
 
thehuman said:
Reverse osmosis not easier?
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I would prefer to keep it simple and fool proof. I am starting to get paranoid about our water situation in Cape Town now. Its clear to me that some people don't seem to realise what kind of trouble we in. What about next year? We in sh*t even if we get some rain this winter.
 
jdido87 said:
I live next to the beach
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Ok, so then does the cost of getting the approvals to run your piping to the the ocean and the construction of that pipe in a safe manner mean this is even vaguely feasible?

BTW, the chances of you getting that approval will be zero.

Do you also have a sufficiently large industrial level electricity connection to be able to run a desalination plant even on the small scale you're talking about? as well as the funds for the electricity account that the city will present you with each month?

Assuming the average household (middle class) is using around 20kl of water a month, you will need a system that can efficiently process 670l per day, as well as store it and deliver it at pressure to the household.
 
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He would most probably go fetch a 25l bucket of sea water at a time

You could use the sun to heat water let it evaporation, need to condense the evaporated steam somehow tho
 
I would think doing it on a small scale using sun evaporation would be your best and cheapest bet.
 
ToxicBunny said:
Ok, so then does the cost of getting the approvals to run your piping to the the ocean and the construction of that pipe in a safe manner mean this is even vaguely feasible?

BTW, the chances of you getting that approval will be zero.

Do you also have a sufficiently large industrial level electricity connection to be able to run a desalination plant even on the small scale you're talking about? as well as the funds for the electricity account that the city will present you with each month?

Assuming the average household (middle class) is using around 20kl of water a month, you will need a system that can efficiently process 670l per day, as well as store it and deliver it at pressure to the household.
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I am purely focused on providing enough drinking water, definitely not at the scale that you are talking of. I dont need electricity to generate the heat required. I can use gas or simply just make fire, I have a pretty good supply of wood. Sea water can be collected in reasonably sized containers. It is really not as difficult as you making it out to be. I simply want a back up supply of safe drinking water should the brown stuff hit the fan of which there is a real chance since we only have a 100 days of water left yet water usage increase every week. So much for water restrictions.
 
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Slootvreter said:
I'm interested as to why you might question the legality of taking sea water?
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They City is so over regulated I wouldn't be surprised if it was, just like its illegal to take sand at the beach. I mean if your dog bark to loud here you get fined.
 
jdido87 said:
I am purely focused on proving enough drinking water, definitely not at the scale that you are talking of. I dont need electricity to generate the heat required. I can use gas or simply just make fire, I have a pretty good supply of wood. Sea water can be collected in reasonably sized containers. It is really not as difficult as you making it out to be. I simply want a back up supply of safe drinking water should the brown stuff hit the fan of which there is a real chance since we only have a 100 days of water left yet water usage increase every week. So much for water restrictions.
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Ok, then you are merely using it for drinking water purposes... fair enough.

You do know that it will be considerably easier and cheaper to just buy bottled water in large 25l containers from a supplier...
 
jdido87 said:
They City is so over regulated I wouldn't be surprised if it was, just like its illegal to take sand at the beach. I mean if your dog bark to loud here you get fined.
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Its not the city you need to worry about on that front. Its the National Water Act (36 of 1998) that will determine the legality or not of your endeavour.
 
jdido87 said:
They City is so over regulated I wouldn't be surprised if it was, just like its illegal to take sand at the beach. I mean if your dog bark to loud here you get fined.
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Yeah I thought you were talking about taking sea water from the sea in a portable container on a bakkie or something. Laying a pipe into the sea....not going to happen.
 
ToxicBunny said:
Ok, then you are merely using it for drinking water purposes... fair enough.

You do know that it will be considerably easier and cheaper to just buy bottled water in large 25l containers from a supplier...
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I will obviously buy bottled water at first but one should also not be ignorant and expect there to be an endless supply of bottled water.
 
ToxicBunny said:
Its not the city you need to worry about on that front. Its the National Water Act (36 of 1998) that will determine the legality or not of your endeavour.
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Will read it tonight. Thanks for bring this to my attention.
 
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