Zero Waste RO

[banditpowdercoat]

I remember after we started sending power to Cali, they had bill, somewhere in Millions, But old Arnie said they couldn't pay. I can't remember all teh details, But I do remember Hydro being "nice" and waiving the debt. It was a while ago I remember that

[sphelps]

OK well the idea here is reuse your waste water from your RO units. To say that it's better to waste the water since it has potential to help out sewage issues is somewhat ridiculous in my mind. If this were the case, then for the same reasons we shouldn't bother to fix leaking faucets and running toilets. The average household wastes more than enough water to help with those issues already, and if a problem did exist with water treatment I don't think the solution would involve wasting more water.

Saving water is a good idea, and really this is something everyone should be interested in regardless if water is cheap or not. From a green point of view it's as simple as reducing your consumption, that's it. It doesn't involve politics and I see little relevance between the two. Yes power companies promote energy saving for other reasons than to save you money but so what? That doesn't mean you should leave the lights on 24/7, it's a simple system that both parties benefit from, you save money and the power company makes more money. Is it perfect? Absolutely not but it doesn't mean we should be wasteful.

[banditpowdercoat]

I know one of the women here, can't remember who, maybe Marie? said they run the RO waste into their washing machine. Good idea if you can do it for sure. If you have a large basement, why not get a large holding tank for the waste. Then use it for laundry? Would need a pump though. Could basically isolate the Cold Water of the washer form the house system all together.

Other's, store and use for watering garden, washing car's etc. If you got a back yard pool.. I don't have any room for any of those idea's though unfortunately.

[Binare]

Personally, I don't see my hotwater tank running needlessly to be any greener then letting the waste go down the drain. Of course diy isn't just about money... But it should have some sort of benefit no? Would I go out and fix something that isn't broken? Probably not. Would I diy just for the sole purpose of complicating something that's easy and works flawlessly to begin with? Probably not. Am I gonna diy something that will just end up costing me more money? Again... probably not.

[sphelps]

There is always room for improvement, I hardly see how a system that wastes more water than it produces is flawless.

How about a simple pressure switch and solenoid valve to control when the RO system is allowed to produce water?

A pressure switch on the hot water water line will activate a solenoid valve when hot water is being used.
The solenoid valve feeds the RO unit.
Waste water from the RO is fed into the hot water line before the water heater.

With this method waste water is only introduced when hot water is actually being used, such as laundry, dishwasher, shower, ect. This will not decrease the efficiency of the hot water heater and will not allow waste water to enter the cold supply. In addition an accumulator could be used on the waste water line which will allow some waste water to be stored before hot water is used and discharged more quickly when hot water is used.

[Binare]

Pretty sure I said WORKS flawlessly. I set a timer for 1.5hrs, turn the tap, done.

[sphelps]

Originally Posted by Binare

Pretty sure I said WORKS flawlessly. I set a timer for 1.5hrs, turn the tap, done.

OK, so a system that wastes 4 times the amount of water than it makes WORKS flawlessly? I wouldn't use flawless to describe how such a system works.

If you're not interested in the idea I'm not sure why you would participate in the discussion.

[RuGlu6]

Originally Posted by sphelps

OK well the idea here is reuse your waste water from your RO units. To say that it's better to waste the water since it has potential to help out sewage issues is somewhat ridiculous in my mind. If this were the case, then for the same reasons we shouldn't bother to fix leaking faucets and running toilets. The average household wastes more than enough water to help with those issues already, and if a problem did exist with water treatment I don't think the solution would involve wasting more water.

Saving water is a good idea, and really this is something everyone should be interested in regardless if water is cheap or not. From a green point of view it's as simple as reducing your consumption, that's it. It doesn't involve politics and I see little relevance between the two. Yes power companies promote energy saving for other reasons than to save you money but so what? That doesn't mean you should leave the lights on 24/7, it's a simple system that both parties benefit from, you save money and the power company makes more money. Is it perfect? Absolutely not but it doesn't mean we should be wasteful.

So then why exactly is it a good idea to save/conserve water?
I can see it in a desert or an area where there isn't enough, but here when it rains 27 days out of 30?
Our reservoirs cant keep it any way and it overflows to the sewer/storm

[Fish Head]

maybe 10 g. Every night when i get home. Go to put maybe 1 g into water change bucket and have next to nothing left. Boil water for youngest daughter, dog drinks alot but in a 50gpd system it shouldnt take that long for a 3g tank to fill. Booster pump runs almost non stop. Maybe i should have bought a bigger resevoir tank. or the 100gpd system but for 1000 bux it should have water whenever i need it. Im gonna call Aztek and ask some questions.

[hillegom]

Originally Posted by Fish Head

maybe 10 g. Every night when i get home. Go to put maybe 1 g into water change bucket and have next to nothing left. Boil water for youngest daughter, dog drinks alot but in a 50gpd system it shouldnt take that long for a 3g tank to fill. Booster pump runs almost non stop. Maybe i should have bought a bigger resevoir tank. or the 100gpd system but for 1000 bux it should have water whenever i need it. Im gonna call Aztek and ask some questions.

I do not know what system you have. Lets say part of your system has 1 particle and then two carbon filters. How long has it been since you have changed these filters?
Turn off the water and bleed the system of pressure. Then disconnect the line to the particle filter and see how much volume you get there. Then reconnect and check how much volume you have after the two carbon filters.
I would think you will have a lot less. If so, change the filters.
After 6 months, I change out the particle filter, and after a year, I change all 3. But here in the lower mainland our water is pretty good.