Today, UV and reverse osmosis are two most common kinds of domestic water purification methods.
Clean drinking water is a bigger issue in the eastern and the developing countries like India. The cities have a pretty reliable municipal water supply system but people do not feel confident relying on the quality of tap water supply for drinking. Expensive water purifiers like reverse osmosis are becoming common.
The cheaper option is UV water filters with activated charcoal and sediment cartridges. But reverse osmosis systems have been promoted quite strongly as the last word in water purification and as something that every household must have in order to protect the health of loved ones from waterborne diseases and toxic dissolved substances.
This is true. They have their dis-advantages as well, but the RO water purifiers are currently the last word in water purification and provide the safest water to drink. Further more, they can purify water from mostly all sources and can handle mostly all kinds of contamination, including turbid water.
Access to clean drinking water is priority for all households, as it should be. Most parts of north America and Europe have portable tap water and no water filtration device is usually required in a household. But even here issues with water quality have started arising more frequently. Although the tap water is mostly pure and after to drink, water quality can change according to weather, seasons and some other factors. Boil water advisory is all becoming more frequent. The effect of increasing industrialization and pollution is playing it’s part in degrading the natural water resources as they are getting more contaminated.
Then there is also the issue of the water corporation adding fluoride to enhance the quality of the water, which many consumers now believe is actually harmful to health. So while domestic water purification is required in only a few instances in the western world, it is more common in the other parts of the world.
It's time we recognised how precious clean drinking water is and how lucky we are to have a regular supply of it. There are many many places in this world that are deprived of clean drinking water to begin with and even some of our prominent cities are now facing the threat of running out of this precious commodity. So let's do everything we can. The time to act is now.
A UV water filter is commonly accompanied by an activated charcoal and sediment filter. Sediment filter removes dust particles, silt, rust and other segments where as the activated charcoal removes chlorine, volatile organic compounds, bad order, bad taste, sentiments and is believed to enhance the health benefits of water.
Reverse osmosis water purifier will also remove and reduce the TDS (total dissolved solids). TDS comprises of dissolved salts and other compounds. In a majority of water supplies, calcium and magnesium carbonate make a large part of the dissolved compounds. These two salts contribute to the hardness of the water and are otherwise considered harmless for consumption.
Other dissolved elements could include a lead, copper, iron, NaCl and chromium. It may contain fluoride as well if the water corporation is adding it. A very high TDS level could indicate that the water is unsafe for drinking.
High TDS DOES NOT mean the water contains more bacteria or that it is necessarily unsafe.
It means that the water contains a higher quantity of dissolved solids. Dissolved solids are not necessarily toxic substances. In most cases they are calcium and magnesium salts that make the water hard. If you have a very hard water supply rich in calcium and magnesium, both of which are actually considered beneficial to health, the TDS of the water will be high as well.
There are exceptions to the rule of course. Man has done his share in polluting the environment, including the soil as well as water bodies. So the water that comes from rivers, lakes and underground can contain toxic elements like mercury, lead, arsenic etc. Municipal water supplies also add chlorine which though is required to dis-infect the water, is not desirable for drinking. Fluoride may also be added.
Not all harmful TDS is man’s fault. Underground water may contain plant and animal organic matter. The underground reservoirs are thousands of years old. So a lot of things are also present in ground beneath us, buried as layer upon layer has built up over the millennia.
Also, much of the water underground seeps in from the surface from the rain and water bodies like rivers, lakes and the sea. The water that passes through the surface layers get filtered natural when it passes thorough the various layers, especially sand.
However, depending upon where you live, it may also pass through mineral layers as well. For example, iron in commonly found in well water in north America. It is dissolved in water as FeO2 and cannot be seen with the naked eye. However, it will leave stains on your white sink, washing machine, clothes etc. once it has a chance to come in contact with air and oxidize to FeO3. Similarly, other element rich layers can contribute to the TDS content of the underground water.
What can the waste water from an RO water purifier be used for? Almost anything that you would use the regular water for. It is the same water. In fact in some ways it is cleaner.
The water goes through certain steps for purification in the RO filter. The first stage passes it through sediment filter that catches the dust, rust and other bigger particles of sediments. Then it passes through activated charcoal to further absorb VOCs, sediments, bad smell and oder as well as many other impurities. After this it reaches the RO membrane at which stage the water is discarded.
Since about 90% of the TDS gets removed from the water that passes through the membrane, this TDS will get added to the water that is discarded. The end result is that the discarded with have about 15% more TDS than what was originally present in the water supply.
For example, in my home, the water supply has a TDS of about 400 and the discarded water from the RO has a TDS of 450. And since it has passed through sediment filter and activated charcoal, it will probably less impurities than the original water supply.
Therefore, as most people imagine that the water that an RO water filter discards is somehow ‘dirty’, are incorrect. It is essentially the same water that comes in your tap and you can use it for anything that you would normally use that water for. That includes, washing hands, utensils, swabbing floors, watering plants etc.
Reverse osmosis or as it is more commonly known, RO water filtration system is becoming more and more commonplace in domestic households. Although in the major cities the water corporation does a good enough job of supplying potable water, the quality of the water can change due to different many different factors such as season and weather. Contamination can also occur during any stage including transportation, storage et cetera.
Moreover, more pollution, ever increasing population, industrialisation have all increased the threat of the kind of contamination that the water supply corporations are probably not protecting you against. Underground water supply can get polluted as well.
However, there are many caveats of using an RO water purifier at home and the average user is quite unaware of it. The company is selling these units might gloss over a lot of information in order to sell more units. People often do not realise the long term effects of using it or even if they need it in the first place as it has become so commonplace.
If you have low TDS, a UV water filter with activated charcoal will effectively kill bacteria and parasites in the water while removing chlorine, VOCs (volatile organic compounds) dust, rust as well as other sentiments. And RO water purifier remove the same bacteria along with the dead bodies of the parasites. It will also reduce around 90% of the dissolved salts.
The RO membrane is a last stage filter and is NOT considered the best way of killing pathogens in the water. Which is why the higher range of domestic RO water filters combine the reverse osmosis process with UV as a more complete method to make the water safe for drinking.
Always use a reverse osmosis water purifier with a re-mineralised in feature feature. According to several latest studies, drinking calcium and magnesium deficient RO water is now believed to cause health problems in the long run.
Always change an RO water purifier membrane every year or when the lifespan is over which ever comes earlier. The older the membrane gets the more water the reverse osmosis system wastes.
Reverse osmosis water purifier discards more waste water the colder the water gets. It also discards more water if the TDS content is high.
For those of us living in the city, the water that we receive in our taps is fairly purified. Granted, It's not the best or the safest what are you can drink and the quality is unreliable. However there are many ways of purifying this water apart from using a reverse osmosis system, which is the latest introduction to the water purification industry.
If the TDS levels in your water supply are less than 300, you most likely do not need an RO water purifier. I say ‘most likely’ because of a couple of reasons.
First, low TDS level does NOT mean the water is safe. If the TDS is because of water hardness causing salts like Calcium and Magnesium, the water is good for you to drink as long as you kill the pathogens in it by using other filtration methods like a UV water filter with sediment and activated charcoal, or even a gravity based water filter.
The second reason, is that the water quality can change. Due to change in weather or during storage and transportation, the water can get contaminated without us knowing.
Therefore, to stay protected always against this possibility, an RO water purifier makes the most sense and that is the primary reason most of us have it in our homes.
Clean drinking water is a bigger issue in the eastern and the developing countries like India. The cities have a pretty reliable municipal water supply system but people do not feel confident relying on the quality of tap water supply for drinking. Expensive water purifiers like reverse osmosis are becoming common.
The cheaper option is UV water filters with activated charcoal and sediment cartridges. But reverse osmosis systems have been promoted quite strongly as the last word in water purification and as something that every household must have in order to protect the health of loved ones from waterborne diseases and toxic dissolved substances.
This is true. They have their dis-advantages as well, but the RO water purifiers are currently the last word in water purification and provide the safest water to drink. Further more, they can purify water from mostly all sources and can handle mostly all kinds of contamination, including turbid water.
Access to clean drinking water is priority for all households, as it should be. Most parts of north America and Europe have portable tap water and no water filtration device is usually required in a household. But even here issues with water quality have started arising more frequently. Although the tap water is mostly pure and after to drink, water quality can change according to weather, seasons and some other factors. Boil water advisory is all becoming more frequent. The effect of increasing industrialization and pollution is playing it’s part in degrading the natural water resources as they are getting more contaminated.
Then there is also the issue of the water corporation adding fluoride to enhance the quality of the water, which many consumers now believe is actually harmful to health. So while domestic water purification is required in only a few instances in the western world, it is more common in the other parts of the world.
It's time we recognised how precious clean drinking water is and how lucky we are to have a regular supply of it. There are many many places in this world that are deprived of clean drinking water to begin with and even some of our prominent cities are now facing the threat of running out of this precious commodity. So let's do everything we can. The time to act is now.
Key difference between RO and UV water purifiers
The difference between RO and UV water purification is that UV only kills the bacteria and viruses in the water. It doesn't remove anything from the water including the dead bodies of the bacteria. But almost all kinds of bacteria are rendered inert, incapable of reproducing and harmless for drinking. If the TDS in your water levels is not high UV water filtration is a very effective method to derive pure and safe drinking water.A UV water filter is commonly accompanied by an activated charcoal and sediment filter. Sediment filter removes dust particles, silt, rust and other segments where as the activated charcoal removes chlorine, volatile organic compounds, bad order, bad taste, sentiments and is believed to enhance the health benefits of water.
Reverse osmosis water purifier will also remove and reduce the TDS (total dissolved solids). TDS comprises of dissolved salts and other compounds. In a majority of water supplies, calcium and magnesium carbonate make a large part of the dissolved compounds. These two salts contribute to the hardness of the water and are otherwise considered harmless for consumption.
Other dissolved elements could include a lead, copper, iron, NaCl and chromium. It may contain fluoride as well if the water corporation is adding it. A very high TDS level could indicate that the water is unsafe for drinking.
What is the meaning of TDS in the water supply.. Is high TDS bad for drinking water
High TDS DOES NOT mean the water contains more bacteria or that it is necessarily unsafe.
It means that the water contains a higher quantity of dissolved solids. Dissolved solids are not necessarily toxic substances. In most cases they are calcium and magnesium salts that make the water hard. If you have a very hard water supply rich in calcium and magnesium, both of which are actually considered beneficial to health, the TDS of the water will be high as well.
There are exceptions to the rule of course. Man has done his share in polluting the environment, including the soil as well as water bodies. So the water that comes from rivers, lakes and underground can contain toxic elements like mercury, lead, arsenic etc. Municipal water supplies also add chlorine which though is required to dis-infect the water, is not desirable for drinking. Fluoride may also be added.
Not all harmful TDS is man’s fault. Underground water may contain plant and animal organic matter. The underground reservoirs are thousands of years old. So a lot of things are also present in ground beneath us, buried as layer upon layer has built up over the millennia.
Also, much of the water underground seeps in from the surface from the rain and water bodies like rivers, lakes and the sea. The water that passes through the surface layers get filtered natural when it passes thorough the various layers, especially sand.
However, depending upon where you live, it may also pass through mineral layers as well. For example, iron in commonly found in well water in north America. It is dissolved in water as FeO2 and cannot be seen with the naked eye. However, it will leave stains on your white sink, washing machine, clothes etc. once it has a chance to come in contact with air and oxidize to FeO3. Similarly, other element rich layers can contribute to the TDS content of the underground water.
Is the water discarded from RO purifier safe for re-use?
What can the waste water from an RO water purifier be used for? Almost anything that you would use the regular water for. It is the same water. In fact in some ways it is cleaner.
The water goes through certain steps for purification in the RO filter. The first stage passes it through sediment filter that catches the dust, rust and other bigger particles of sediments. Then it passes through activated charcoal to further absorb VOCs, sediments, bad smell and oder as well as many other impurities. After this it reaches the RO membrane at which stage the water is discarded.
Since about 90% of the TDS gets removed from the water that passes through the membrane, this TDS will get added to the water that is discarded. The end result is that the discarded with have about 15% more TDS than what was originally present in the water supply.
For example, in my home, the water supply has a TDS of about 400 and the discarded water from the RO has a TDS of 450. And since it has passed through sediment filter and activated charcoal, it will probably less impurities than the original water supply.
Therefore, as most people imagine that the water that an RO water filter discards is somehow ‘dirty’, are incorrect. It is essentially the same water that comes in your tap and you can use it for anything that you would normally use that water for. That includes, washing hands, utensils, swabbing floors, watering plants etc.
How to decide whether you need an RO water purifier or not?
The most effective method would be to get your water supply tested and let the technician suggest what are you should use an RO filtration unit. Most of us will get the best that we can afford even if it means installing a reverse osmosis water purifier even though it's not needed. When the seeds of doubt have been planted we all want to take the safer option. And nothing feels safer than drinking water from an RO + UV water filter.Reverse osmosis or as it is more commonly known, RO water filtration system is becoming more and more commonplace in domestic households. Although in the major cities the water corporation does a good enough job of supplying potable water, the quality of the water can change due to different many different factors such as season and weather. Contamination can also occur during any stage including transportation, storage et cetera.
Moreover, more pollution, ever increasing population, industrialisation have all increased the threat of the kind of contamination that the water supply corporations are probably not protecting you against. Underground water supply can get polluted as well.
However, there are many caveats of using an RO water purifier at home and the average user is quite unaware of it. The company is selling these units might gloss over a lot of information in order to sell more units. People often do not realise the long term effects of using it or even if they need it in the first place as it has become so commonplace.
If you have low TDS, a UV water filter with activated charcoal will effectively kill bacteria and parasites in the water while removing chlorine, VOCs (volatile organic compounds) dust, rust as well as other sentiments. And RO water purifier remove the same bacteria along with the dead bodies of the parasites. It will also reduce around 90% of the dissolved salts.
The RO membrane is a last stage filter and is NOT considered the best way of killing pathogens in the water. Which is why the higher range of domestic RO water filters combine the reverse osmosis process with UV as a more complete method to make the water safe for drinking.
Always use a reverse osmosis water purifier with a re-mineralised in feature feature. According to several latest studies, drinking calcium and magnesium deficient RO water is now believed to cause health problems in the long run.
Always change an RO water purifier membrane every year or when the lifespan is over which ever comes earlier. The older the membrane gets the more water the reverse osmosis system wastes.
Reverse osmosis water purifier discards more waste water the colder the water gets. It also discards more water if the TDS content is high.
How to minimize water wastage from an RO water purifier
Everyone
has a right to safe drinking water and to choose which ever
method they deem necessary to safeguard their health and the health of
their family. But to do so responsibly requires making a well researched
decision. If you think a reverse osmosis water purifier is necessary,
minimize the water wastage by taking the following steps.
- Choose an RO system that explicitly tells you that it uses less water and aims to recover more than 50% of water.
- Do not put that outlet hose in the train.
- Install a 30 to 40 L plastic bucket or drum in a corner and fill that up with the water being discarded.
- Use this water for everything from washing hands, washing utensils, sobbing floors et cetera. You will be surprised how a simple exercise like washing hands with this water makes a difference. You will also realise how much water we use just by doing this.
- If your kitchen overlooks a garden patch, you can put the hose outside so that the water goes back into the ground. This way you are giving back, in a way.
Who needs an RO water filter...
Most of us who install reverse osmosis water purification systems at home do not make a well informed decision. We make it out of panic, false claims and because someone else has done it.For those of us living in the city, the water that we receive in our taps is fairly purified. Granted, It's not the best or the safest what are you can drink and the quality is unreliable. However there are many ways of purifying this water apart from using a reverse osmosis system, which is the latest introduction to the water purification industry.
If the TDS levels in your water supply are less than 300, you most likely do not need an RO water purifier. I say ‘most likely’ because of a couple of reasons.
First, low TDS level does NOT mean the water is safe. If the TDS is because of water hardness causing salts like Calcium and Magnesium, the water is good for you to drink as long as you kill the pathogens in it by using other filtration methods like a UV water filter with sediment and activated charcoal, or even a gravity based water filter.
The second reason, is that the water quality can change. Due to change in weather or during storage and transportation, the water can get contaminated without us knowing.
Therefore, to stay protected always against this possibility, an RO water purifier makes the most sense and that is the primary reason most of us have it in our homes.
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