heating incoming water to ro/di

[dtaranath]

anyone have any suggestions to bring up the temperature to water entering the ro/di?

 

[hdtvguy]

Cheapest way would be to use 100-200' of ro tubing and coil this in your sump before entering your ro unit. Or you can do the same thing but in a bucket with a heater and power head to help heat incoming water.

 

[manderx]

100-200 is pretty long. i used a 25' coil as a wellwater-chiller in my sump and it transferred heat just fine (does need some circulation around it though). the added restriction from that much hose will probably do more harm than good.

if you decide to actively heat the incoming water, remember that for every gallon you make, you waste 3-4 gallons. that's alot of wasted heat going down the drain. probably alot more wastefull in the big picture than a few extra gallons of water down the drain. though if you do want to do this, if you have the space, the best way would be to use a passive heat sink, like a trashcan full of water with 2 coils in it. one for the inlet water, and the second for the waste water to try to reclaim heat before it goes down the drain.

another way is to hang a coil in front of a box fan. i used to do this during the summer. made alot of condensation though since my wellwater was 50 degrees and i lived next to a stream (high humidity).

 

[scbasser5]

the problem with using coils of tubing is the preassure drop. I put 75' on mine and it cut the preassure in half. If you going to use tubing coils submerged, you may want to use 3/8" tubing.

I have my coils in the rubbermaid tub that I store my saltwater in. I have it on the porch so I had to put a heater in it anyway. Sort of kills two birds with one stone.

 

[szwab]

if you can run it through your sump you could effectivly cool your tank and heat your water in one step. I haven't tried it but sounds like the pressure drop would need to be over come otherwise efficiency would not be increased.

 

[cmhollis]

I am doing a coil in my sump to help pre-heat the incoming well water. I also plan to add a booster pump to jack up the pressure. I probably ought to use 3/8" tubing for the coil though to help minimize the pressure drop.

Mike

 

[manderx]

cmhollis
make sure you have a big heater in your tank. cold wellwater can steal *alot* of heat from your tank. i used a stand-alone coil of wellwater as a chiller at my old place and it was extremely effective. first summer i tried it i didn't use a temp controller, i just manually set it dripping each morning, and the difference between drip....drip....drip..... and drip..drip..drip.. meant a happy tank at ~80 or an unhappy tank at ~65 even with the heaters blaring. i quickly put it on a temp controller/solenoid.

 

[cmhollis]

manderx,

Thanks for the heads up. My system has 2 - 300W heaters, 3 - 250W MH's, and 1 - 150W MH. Sump and fuge are also located in the basement which is rather cool. I generally make water for about 2 hours a day for topoff, and once a week I fill a 32g brute for water changes.

I should pull the log data from the ACIII and see how temperature changes when I am making water.

Thanks,

Mike

 

[merlock116]

manderx did you use the standard 1/4" ro tubing for cooling your tank?

 

[manderx]

yup. just tapped right into my cold water line, then ran out to the garden. wellwater was around 50 degrees.