The water pump and drain assembly was finished just before we moved. The rest of the plumbing connections will be hooked up when the water system is completely installed (we still have to connect DC power to the pump). The greywater/filter branch has been installed already; we will post about it soon.
To keep water out of the drain hose except when it's actually in use, a Y-valve will completely cut off the drain branch when normally operating the system. This will keep the drain hose from freezing in the winter.
For the water pump, we used a Jabsco Sensor Max 17. It is a bit oversized for our demands, but hopefully that will translate into a longer lifespan for the pump.
Anne
ReplyDeleteOne comment that I have done and thought I would share is the use of a slow sand filter to filter your grey water into drinking water. I use this in my rig and it takes no power and works great. The only down side is that it does take up a little bit of space but it might fit under the truck or behind the wind guard above the cab. I have mine on my sailboat and it is 30 gallons. So cheap and easy to build and avoids having to refill that often and saves a LOT of water. I would say I reuse about %70 of my water.
Hi Nemo. :)
ReplyDeleteDo you have and photos/diagrams? I'd love to know more details about your water system. Thanks for sharing!
I could draw a diagram but I am not sure a pic would do much good. They are so simple to make that a diagram is not needed. It took me about 5 hours to construct. This is what the peace corps. building to clean water in developing countries and what cities use but on a bigger scale. There is a layer of bacteria that eats all the bad stuff and the clean water goes to the bottom. It looks a bit gross but is very simple. The hardest part was making the nozzle to keep the water in the tank at all times. You have to build a goose neck nozzle to keep the water at a constant level. I will did up some links for you. Mine is in a closed container and you would not even know what you were looking at.
ReplyDeleteInfo on Slow Sand Filters
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nesc.wvu.edu/pdf/dw/publications/ontap/2009_tb/slow_sand_filtration_dwfsom40.pdf
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJJsK3kZTCQ&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHilE1ukkjY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JS5uXGa4_c
Uh, Nemo, having done quite a bit of research on slow sand filters while looking into water recycling systems...
ReplyDeleteThey only remove a small amount of the nutrients, I might be wrong here, but I remember reading 30% or so. The peace corps et al use them for filtering stream water to drinking water, and as sewage to river discharge combined with disinfection, and while they help and have excellent cost/performace ratio and could be used as one stage in a system, they are far from perfect.
The layer of microbes, algae and stuff on the top layer of sand takes a long time to build up and is very easily destroyed or disrupted, too, so you'd have to verify that it is not damaged unacceptably when the dwelling is moved.
Likewise, particles that were trapped by the sand layer are easily dislodged
I'm not a microbiologist, but removal of nutrients by biological means (which is what is happening in the schmutzdecke) requires metabolic action, and therefore respiration.
The bacteria must have either oxygen, nitrates nitrites or some other electron acceptor. When nitrates or nitrites are used, that is anaerobic or anoxic (I forget the difference) respiration, and the microbes involved will grow very slowly, usually release foul smells, release your nitrogen back into the atmosphere (disrupting the nitrogen cycle) and when the nitrate or nitrite is used up there will not have been enough bacterial action, because there is not enough nitrate to begin with in greywater. Also, some anaerobes are pathogenic.
This is exactly what a septic tank does, basically, plus it acts as a settling tank to get out most particles.
Hi Anne,
ReplyDeleteI saw your post on the ERE blog. Love the mobile condo!
One thing I noticed you talking about is electric heat and wishing for a DC electric water heater. A good rule of thumb for off grid is never use electricity for heat. It's too much power required. A better idea would be solar heat as in direct solar heat from a south facing window or solar panels to heat water.
An even better idea would be to drive to a warmer place. Your house has wheels, use them!
You probably already know all this by now, I saw the propane heater.
Good luck with the mobile condo. I love the little truck too. I saw lots of those in Japan and thought they were so cool.
@Nemo: I haven't had a chance to look at the links yet. I just wanted to say hi and let you know that I'm not ignoring you. Your input is appreciated and hopefully I'll get a chance to review the material and write you a proper response soon. :) My biggest interest and roadblock when it comes to water filtration is about the microbes. Specifically, what kinds and how to collect/attract/maintain them.
ReplyDelete@Gregortheinventor: I'm stepping away from the internet tonight so I won't be able to make it to the conference thing. Good luck with that and I hope you'll share some of the topics that were discussed.
@Alex K: Hello and welcome! Your compliments mean a lot to me. :) Due to the size of our (future) solar power system, I thought we'd be able to get away with electric heat to avoid fossil fuels (and if the Eco heaters were as efficient as they claimed, it could have worked.) So, yes, since we need lots of heat in chilly Michigan, we settled for propane. As for the other things like hot water and cooking, we can still use solar generated electricity because we don't use much and won't keep the hot water heater running constantly. For people who use more (and more often) than we do, I agree that some DIY black pipes for solar hot water or some other alternative might be a better approach.
Oh, I wish we could move somewhere warmer. We're stuck here for work but will likely drive far away as soon as we have enough money saved up.