What kind of water do you drink?

[brimstoneSalad]

Thanks. I haven't been able to find any low energy distillers and since I'm not on clean energy that option is off the table for now. I'll probably pick up an osmosis filter and bring back next time I travel.

What's the nature of the contamination?

[Jebus]

What's the nature of the contamination?

Don't know. Probably nothing too serious although authorities recommend to avoid drinking it after heavy rainfall.

[brimstoneSalad]

What's the nature of the contamination?

Don't know. Probably nothing too serious although authorities recommend to avoid drinking it after heavy rainfall.

Sounds like microbial or sewage contamination from storm water overflow. In that case, a slow sand filter should be fine. It's cheap, can be made with locally sourced material, and should be adequate to remove biological contaminants. It's a fairly easy DIY project. (EDIT: only marginally good at removing viruses, so pairing with UV is a good idea)

Having to bring a large and expensive R.O. machine back seems like overkill and probably more trouble.

Use a large water-tight container with a spigot at (or near) the bottom. A used 55 gallon plastic drum should do it (blue are food grade IIRC). You'll just need the plumbing parts then.
On the bottom goes clean gravel to above the spigot level, then coarse sand or fine gravel, then finer sand on the top. The middle layer of fine gravel or coarse sand keeps the sand from falling into your gravel at the bottom. The top of the sand forms a bio-film which absorbs contaminants.
You also need a drain at the top right above the sand you can use to clean it every few weeks when it slows down (you stir up the layer then drain the cloudy water and use to water plants or something).

It'll be around a thousand pounds, so make sure it will be somewhere it won't create a surcharge on the soil by your foundation, particularly if you have a basement.
As the name suggests it's slow, but it's easy to make enough water for drinking purposes. If it works well you could rig a few pipes or tube to carry the clean water to a container and a float to auto-fill the top when it gets low.

[brimstoneSalad]

@Jebus
This site has some good images:
http://www.roofwaterharvesting.org/the_rest_mobile.html

It's about roof water harvesting rather than unclean tap water, but similar principles.
Interesting recommendations on UV sanitization. Also, if your tap water is chlorinated it could affect slow sand efficacy by killing the good microbes

[Jebus]

@brimstoneSalad Thanks for this information. I am not very handy but labor is cheap down here so it's definitely worth looking in to.

[brimstoneSalad]

I am not very handy but labor is cheap down here so it's definitely worth looking in to.

If I were in your position I'd have my house totally tricked out. Rain water harvesting (if it rains a lot there), greywater system, solar water heating. Anything environmentally friendly that would save money.

[agnus]

You cannot filter out chemicals that are dissolved in water. Some can be adsorbed to activated charcoal, but that is not filtering per se. You cannot filter out bacteria unless you use a 0.2 micron filter. If you do the flow rate is so slow it would take hours to filter a cup of water. Forget about trying to filter out virus. If microbes are the concern, just bring water to the boiling point.

Also, imo bottle water is one of the greatest scourges of our time as we’ve been told that our water is unsafe to drink which is an even bigger lie.
I'll just take the standard stuff and sprinkle a little baking soda in it if I feel the need for alkalinity.

And I’m all for a graduated tax according to the size of the plastic bottle to remove this evilness from the planet. It also would give homeless people a way to buy themselves some good.

[agnus]

You cannot filter out chemicals that are dissolved in water. Some can be adsorbed to activated charcoal, but that is not filtering per se. You cannot filter out bacteria unless you use a 0.2 micron filter. If you do the flow rate is so slow it would take hours to filter a cup of water. Forget about trying to filter out virus. If microbes are the concern, just bring water to the boiling point.

Also, imo bottle water is one of the greatest scourges of our time as we’ve been told that our water is unsafe to drink which is an even bigger lie.
I'll just take the standard stuff and sprinkle a little baking soda in it if I feel the need for alkalinity.

And I’m all for a graduated tax according to the size of the plastic bottle to remove this evilness from the planet. It also would give homeless people a way to buy themselves some good.

btw this research base article talks about the differences between filtered, distilled and regular water https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/pu ... r#section5

[brimstoneSalad]

You cannot filter out chemicals that are dissolved in water.

"Filter" being used very generally here. Commercially there are filters made to react with the chemicals in the water and form insoluble compounds that are filtered out. Biological filtration actually absorbs a lot of these solutes.

You cannot filter out bacteria unless you use a 0.2 micron filter. If you do the flow rate is so slow it would take hours to filter a cup of water.

Filtration rate is based on surface area. Use a standard food grade 55 gallon PE barrel, you get a pretty substantial surface area and testing has indicated that these DIY filters do filter out the overwhelming majority of bacteria.

Forget about trying to filter out virus.

Viruses aren't a common problem in water AFAIK unless it has only very recently been defecated in (as in developing countries). If we're talking about filtering rain water you're probably not dealing with that.

However, this is interesting:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2 ... 082232.htm

You might be able to implement a last step filtration medium to deactivate the viruses. UV is also a well established means of destroying residual microorganisms once the turbidity in the water has been resolved.

Boiling is pretty effective, but also pretty energy intensive. You'd need a heat exchanging pasteurization system to make is more energy efficient and that's a much more complicated endeavor than sand filtration.