If you are dealing with salty water, then "yes," either one of the residential reverse osmosis systems, or a distillation system, is needed. But, if like most of us, you get your water from a chlorinated system with no salt problems, you have simpler and far less expensive options. We will cover one these options in this article called selective filtration.
You may be reading this article because you have been hearing more and more about the importance of reducing our body's exposure to toxins. Something often referred to as reducing the "body burden."
In the past, we worried a lot about the quality of the water we consumed and how it was affecting our bodies, and rightly so, but now scientists are discovering the quality of the air in our home poses an even greater load on our bodies. One of the largest offenders is chloroform, a byproduct of the chlorine in our water.
"Every home in America has an elevated level of chloroform gas due to the vaporization of chlorine...from the tap and shower water," according to the EPA. (It's true, the shower is the largest producer but the dishwasher and the washing machine aren't far behind).
The quality of the air and the quality of the water in our homes can both be enhanced greatly by whole house water purification units, since they remove the toxins as soon as the water enters the home.
One of the most compelling reasons to compare RO and SF systems before making your choice is the big difference in their purchase and operating costs.
Since quality residential reverse osmosis systems start around $10,000, compared to a quality residential selective filtration systems at about $800, the $9,200 spread can mean the difference between getting a whole house unit or not.
How do you explain the price differences?
There are areas of our country where the ground water has been infiltrated with salt water and RO was developed to solve that problem years ago, when both water and electricity were cheap. But, this is a very expensive technology today and here's why.
Water is forced through a membrane, in the RO process, that will only allow molecules equal in size or smaller than water's to pass through. All other matter is left behind.
Chemicals having a molecular size smaller than water's, such as chlorine and its byproducts, will pass right through the membrane. For that reason, and in order to protect the membrane, RO systems must add a carbon filter to the system.
Smaller RO systems are very slow producers and typically take two to three hours to deliver one gallon of water. Whole house units are much faster, producing in the area of 1,800 gallons per day. Both large and small units require pressurized storage tanks to provide any quantity of filtered water.
The smaller RO units need the home's water pressure to be at least 40 psi (pounds per square inch) to operate efficiently. Older homes, or well water systems, may require booster pumps. Whole house systems typically come with booster pumps.
A lot of water is wasted, even with adequate pressure in the system, because for every gallon filtered, often 2 to 5 gallons of water cannot be pushed through the membrane. This water is then flushed, along with the filtered contaminants.
While there are systems that do recycle the waste water, it is the cost of the recycling, extra pumps (if needed), electricity, and storage tanks that lead to the higher initial costs, and higher operating costs. Also, the more parts in the system, the more Murphy's Law is likely to influence required maintenance and further increase operating costs.
About 95 percent of us are on a chlorinated water system, and that means a good option to consider is selective filtration.
In these systems, redox (reduction/oxidation), mechanical filtration and activated charcoal are integrated into a multistage filtering process that will quickly process the water at the whole house level.
Toxic metals dissolved in the water, such as lead or mercury, are removed by a chemical exchange process using a redox filter in a simple filtration technique. Until the recent development of redox filters, only RO or distillation could remove dissolved lead and other toxic metals from water.
The activated charcoal removes over 99 percent of the chlorine, chlorine byproducts and other organic chemicals. The combined stages remove odors, bad tastes, sediment, and perform similarly to a standard water softener, without adding sodium to the water.
These systems produce filtered water rapidly (over seven gallons per minute), without electricity, storage tanks, or booster pumps. Their simplicity also makes for simpler installations.
So, if you are considering a whole house filter system to clean up the air and water in your home, you may want to give selective filtration a look. - 16035
You may be reading this article because you have been hearing more and more about the importance of reducing our body's exposure to toxins. Something often referred to as reducing the "body burden."
In the past, we worried a lot about the quality of the water we consumed and how it was affecting our bodies, and rightly so, but now scientists are discovering the quality of the air in our home poses an even greater load on our bodies. One of the largest offenders is chloroform, a byproduct of the chlorine in our water.
"Every home in America has an elevated level of chloroform gas due to the vaporization of chlorine...from the tap and shower water," according to the EPA. (It's true, the shower is the largest producer but the dishwasher and the washing machine aren't far behind).
The quality of the air and the quality of the water in our homes can both be enhanced greatly by whole house water purification units, since they remove the toxins as soon as the water enters the home.
One of the most compelling reasons to compare RO and SF systems before making your choice is the big difference in their purchase and operating costs.
Since quality residential reverse osmosis systems start around $10,000, compared to a quality residential selective filtration systems at about $800, the $9,200 spread can mean the difference between getting a whole house unit or not.
How do you explain the price differences?
There are areas of our country where the ground water has been infiltrated with salt water and RO was developed to solve that problem years ago, when both water and electricity were cheap. But, this is a very expensive technology today and here's why.
Water is forced through a membrane, in the RO process, that will only allow molecules equal in size or smaller than water's to pass through. All other matter is left behind.
Chemicals having a molecular size smaller than water's, such as chlorine and its byproducts, will pass right through the membrane. For that reason, and in order to protect the membrane, RO systems must add a carbon filter to the system.
Smaller RO systems are very slow producers and typically take two to three hours to deliver one gallon of water. Whole house units are much faster, producing in the area of 1,800 gallons per day. Both large and small units require pressurized storage tanks to provide any quantity of filtered water.
The smaller RO units need the home's water pressure to be at least 40 psi (pounds per square inch) to operate efficiently. Older homes, or well water systems, may require booster pumps. Whole house systems typically come with booster pumps.
A lot of water is wasted, even with adequate pressure in the system, because for every gallon filtered, often 2 to 5 gallons of water cannot be pushed through the membrane. This water is then flushed, along with the filtered contaminants.
While there are systems that do recycle the waste water, it is the cost of the recycling, extra pumps (if needed), electricity, and storage tanks that lead to the higher initial costs, and higher operating costs. Also, the more parts in the system, the more Murphy's Law is likely to influence required maintenance and further increase operating costs.
About 95 percent of us are on a chlorinated water system, and that means a good option to consider is selective filtration.
In these systems, redox (reduction/oxidation), mechanical filtration and activated charcoal are integrated into a multistage filtering process that will quickly process the water at the whole house level.
Toxic metals dissolved in the water, such as lead or mercury, are removed by a chemical exchange process using a redox filter in a simple filtration technique. Until the recent development of redox filters, only RO or distillation could remove dissolved lead and other toxic metals from water.
The activated charcoal removes over 99 percent of the chlorine, chlorine byproducts and other organic chemicals. The combined stages remove odors, bad tastes, sediment, and perform similarly to a standard water softener, without adding sodium to the water.
These systems produce filtered water rapidly (over seven gallons per minute), without electricity, storage tanks, or booster pumps. Their simplicity also makes for simpler installations.
So, if you are considering a whole house filter system to clean up the air and water in your home, you may want to give selective filtration a look. - 16035
About the Author:
David Eastham has done exhaustive research on such subjects as reverse osmosis to find the most cost effective way to provide good, clean drinking water. Follow him for his picks as the most cost effective dollar for dollar buys, and the most cost effective products overall, in home water filtration technology
