More Effecient RO/DI

[Icefire]

for 200$ I guess you could manage a 2 membrane system. It would be maybe 2:1

 

[davefan13]

haha, i see. But, you live in a large city.....i live in a small town of about 6000. AND to make matters worse, our town supplies our water and gas, which makes it more expensive.

oh well, i guess it comes with the whole "living in a small town" package

 

[BeanAnimal]

can you let us know your water cost?

 

[wife no likey]

AZ,

yeah I was going to but my setup looks like a ball of spaghetti now and I didn't want to take all of it apart.

I'll switch them around when I finish some of my other projects.

Pete

 

[AZDesertRat]

Sounds like mine! I just did a piggyback membrane too plus I have an autoshutoff valve, two pressure gauges, two dual inline TDS meters, two RO faucets, one DI faucet, a 14G pressure tank, ice maker etc...... I need to carry it back over to Spectrapure and let them clean it all up for me!

 

[Fishbulb2]

AZ,
What are your thoughts on permeate pumps? I also use my system for drinking water and know these can save you water. How do they effect tds? When I make DI water, I usually close off the storage tank anyways so would it have any effect in this case for me?
Thanks,
FB

 

[davefan13]

um....im not sure what it is exactly. we do have a little meter outside on our hose.....it is in cubic feet and the meter is just under 5. there is also a thing that has 5 numbers. 3 in white, 2 in black. it is reading like 031.95 now....so i don't know if that is the price or what. i do know that the gas/water bill is about 150 monthly.

 

[BeanAnimal]

You bill will tell you the price of the water, usually per 100 gallons or 1000 gallons. Cubic feet is the unit that gas is sold in.

 

[davefan13]

http://j.b5z.net/i/u/2044759/i/Ord.__1-2006_Water_Rate.doc


here is the link.

we have the 5/8 in meter on 3 of our hoses if that helps at all.

 

[wife no likey]

yeah I tried to keep everything confined to the normal mounting positions, but when you include the check valves, PP, lines to the kitchen, and all the other items, looking at it makes my head hurt


Pete

 

[BeanAnimal]

Okay... so you pay

$10.04 a month meter fee, (they call it a minimum, but you get 400 cubic feet of water with that).

A cubic foot of water is 7.48051945 gallons

So you pay:
$2.51 per 748 Gallons for the first 2992 gallons.
$2.15 per 748 Gallons for anything after that (you will never hit the next usage tier)

So for every 748 gallons down the drain, you pay $2.51.

Lets do a hypothetical bill.

Lets say you use 12,000 gallons a month (avg 4 person household)

That would be

$10.04 (meter cost, and first 748 Gallons)
$25.89 (the remaining 9008 gallons billed at $2.15 per 748 gallons)
__________________________________________
35.92 Total water bill for month.

Now lets add on a 20 gallon water change twice a month and 5 gallons a day top off. (not likely but possible)

So that is 30X5 = 150 gallons + 40 gallons

Lets round up a little and say you will use 190 gallons a month of RO/DI (will never happen... but just for the sake of illustration)

1:4
:.
190:760

So 950 gallons total water usage for the RO/DI unit and tank. That is $2.73 worth of water total. with $2.18 of it down the drain.

Not pretty, but also not bad. In reality you will use 1/3 that much RO/DI, so the montly cost of waste water will be around 0.75 cents!

 

[honda2sk]

I WISH ELECTRICITY WAS SO CHEAP AS WATER

 

[davefan13]

haha honda.....you don't happen to be a "honda guy" coming to greensburg do you? i live in batesville....right down the road.

thank you so much bean for your time and math skills. I didn't understand that at all and probably wouldn't have been able to do all of that. Now i am not worried about that water.....i can pay the extra dollar for waste water if it helps me have a clean, clear tank!

thanks

 

[BeanAnimal]

Posting the actual numbers on your water bill would be even more help. There were TWO different rates on that document. Even if we used the worst rate, you would be about twice what I posted. Still not a deal breaker.

 

[davefan13]

ok. that helps a ton. i couldn't find the water bill, but i am not worried very much about that now.

 

[Icefire]

I have a 50G+33g smp and if I T-O 7g/week, it's on the high side.

So basicly 17g/week real tank usage, 100g RO/DI /week.

400g/month= 53 cu foot

Basicly 1.75$/month

 

[Black71gp]

must be nice to have that cheap of water.. without RO.. my water is about 60 a month.....ggrggrrrr

 

[AZDesertRat]

Most municipalities calculate sewer bills based on a percentage of the water usage in the winter months so if you use a lot of water in the winter you pay a high sewer bill all year. Phoenix has three different water rates based on the time of year. Winter is the lowest, the shoulder months are next and summer is the highest rate. They also bill water by the cubic foot here just like davefan. Its still a darn cheap commodity for all the treatment, transmission and distribution and testing that goes into providing it to the customers. Who else delivers to your home, gasoline and groceries sure don't. My bills can exceed $100 a month but thats with a grass lawn, 20,000 gallon swimming pool, evaporative cooler until it gets humid, car washing twice a month etc. It also includes sewer, library, parks and other services in the bills.

 

[BeanAnimal]

in their winter months? I wish. Our "sewer" bill is part of the water bill. I think last I looked it was 1:1 year round (or close to).

There is NO calling ahead to get a sewage discount when you fill your pool, they charge the sewage rate anyway. Their reasoning, "it will find it's way into our water treatment facility sooner or latet".

They just got a state approved rate hike too!

 

[AZDesertRat]

Ouch. At least we can fill out an annual survey for a sewer rate adjustment based on planted area and other outside water uses and can get a permit for filling pools.