RO/DI and water bill

[afboundguy]

I'm looking at getting an RO/DI unit and was wondering about how much the water bill would go up? I pay about $15 a month for the RO/DI water at the LFS and was thinking the water bill wouldn't go up even half of that.

I'm looking at getting a 150 gpd RO/DI that has two separate 75 gpd that is supposed to cut the waste water bill in half (150 GPD RO Upgrade Kit Bulk Reef Supply)

So how much did your water bill go up if you noticed it? I live around Boston and they have higher than average water rates

 

[rdelong]

I don't know about your rates but the average reject ratio is 4:1 which means you will reject 4 gallons to drain for every 1 gallon you make. You would need to first multiply your consumption of DI in your tank by 5 and use that number of gallons to determine the increase in water cost. With the parallel system described in the bulk reef supply site the ratio changes to about 4:2 changing the multiplier to 3 instead of 5. Don't forget to factor the added cost of having to buy two RO membranes to your financial analysis.

 

[Entropy]

It will be unnoticable unless you happen to be using a lot of water per day. I make about 2 gallons a day on average which uses about 300 gallons a month to produce (2 gallons x 4 to 1 waste to good x 30 days). If I am reading my bill correctly that comes out to about a $1 per month for the RO. And you could feed the waste to your washing machine, or garden which would bring it down to 1/5 of that.

If I am reading your cities website correctly you are paying about $5 per 1000 gallons, so if you make 200 gallons a month of RO/DI and flush the waste (800 gallons) down the drain you are still looking at $5.

Of course when you factor in the cost to replace the filters/DI resins/RO membrane it will go up, but you also have to factor your drive time and hassle.

I think you will find you are at the least breaking even, but I guessing more likely you will be saving time and effort. Plus you have instant accesst to water in case of emergency, and finally you can drink it too.

 

[afboundguy]

I figured it out I use less than 80 gallons a month between my 55 reef and 29 FOWLR so it's not a lot of water. And $5ish compared to ~$15 at the LFS plus the ease of making it, knowing that the TDS would be zero compared to not knowing for sure for the LFS's water (read about 8 last time I took a measure) and less driving time is good seeing as the LFS's are all about 40-60 minutes from my house...

 

[rdelong]

The other advantage is quality control. You can more easily monitor the water you make yourself.

 

[Cbravo212]

I have my RO/DI water going to a 29 gal rubbermaid container with a float valve inside. The waste water goes to a 33 gal trash can. This is all out in my garage. When I go to wash clothes I lower a little giant submersible pump (had laying around for taking the water off a pool cover) and pump the waste water into a the wasing machine. It takes about 30 gallons to fill the washer, so the way I look at it, I am not loosing any water. I would have to wash clothes anyway, now I am not using that water from the spigot, just using the waste water, which is very clean by any standard, not just aquarium standards.

 

[Robamus]

Ive measured my output @ about 1.5:1(good water)... So I suppose it depends. Those with better filters or dirtier water in will likely have more waste water IMO.

 

[Stanley-Reefer]

I'm waiting on my spectrapure uhe 100gpd system to come in any time. It's supposed to be close to 1:1.

 

[afboundguy]

I just did a TDS reading of my tap water and it was 310ish. I know that's kind of high for tap water so hopefully it won't mess up the RO/DI. Gonna get a water hardness and iron test done to help me pick the right RO/DI system...

 

[solitude127]

You might want to consider this one.
http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merc...=PROD&Product_Code=VX-RO-PD100&Category_Code=
It's no where near the cost of the spectrapure UHE, but looks like it's close to the water rejection ratio of the UHE