My cheapo ro system and set up.

[Diwrnach]

Yeah that isn't what I meant though.

With a bigger DI vessel sure I will get 0, I meant with the current set up.

 

[Scottie]

Does anyone no what the waste amout is on this set up? One thing thta just puts me off WFP is water useage, where I am they are hot, you get a clal if you use the hose a few times as the water has shot up, its madness. Some areas suffer more than others and people are penalised for it.

I wonder how much water it tkes to fill a 25l container of pure from this system or ball park figure. I heard there like 60% and 40% waste is that correct? If you use 200l a day to make it and use it wow, water bills for me would be huge.

 

[spruce]

Does anyone no what the waste amout is on this set up? One thing thta just puts me off WFP is water useage, where I am they are hot, you get a clal if you use the hose a few times as the water has shot up, its madness. Some areas suffer more than others and people are penalised for it.
I wonder how much water it tkes to fill a 25l container of pure from this system or ball park figure. I heard there like 60% and 40% waste is that correct? If you use 200l a day to make it and use it wow, water bills for me would be huge.

It depends on the manufacturer/supplier. Our 450 GPD (similar r/o to the OP but had 3 x 150 GPD housings) was fitted with a internal waste restrictor with a 3 to 1 ratio.

So to produce one litre of pure took 3 litres of waste.

Our 4040 works fine with a 50 50 ratio as our water is around 125ppm. We control that with a brass gate valve on the waste adjusted to give us the best pure result - 2ppm at the moment. The gate valve is open a little but I drilled a 1mm hole through the gate as a safety precaution. I use an inline tds meter to fine tune that gate valve after each flush.

At one time RoMan recommended a 5 to 1 restrictor with high tds tap water. If you throttle the waste back you will reduce the life of your membranes. Its a juggling act TBH between the cost of water and the cost of replacement membranes.

 

[cheapncheerful]

nice set up PTWC,makes mine look a bit like a toy...

 


one to watch is the ro itself...it has two o rings on mine and needs a good push in.....if its not tight water can sneak past...anyone have any idea on exactly when you need to change the pre filters....or is that just some sort of guess....

 

[spruce]

nice set up PTWC,makes mine look a bit like a toy... 


one to watch is the ro itself...it has two o rings on mine and needs a good push in.....if its not tight water can sneak past...anyone have any idea on exactly when you need to change the pre filters....or is that just some sort of guess....

It will depend on which carbon block filter you have as a prefilter.

A 10" fiberdyne filter (that Gardiner's sell) will remove the chlorine for about 37,000 litres of water. It will then need to be replaced after that.

So if your r/o has a 3 to 1 waste to pure ratio, then your filter will need to be replaced after you have produced 9250 litres of pure. If you use 300 litres of pure 4 days a week, then you will need to change your prefilters every 8 weeks approx.

I have a digital water meter that counts down the water used. An alarm is kicked off when the counter gets to zero. I change the sediment filter roughly 3 times with each fiberdyne filter as we have a high sediment content in our water supply.

The reason for a digital water meter is that there is three of us drawing water and I usually have no idea whose has had what. (I drew about 250 liters and SIL drew about 450 liter this morning. The IBC tank was full by 3 o'clock this afternoon. So if I had left before he had arrived, I would never have know he had taken water.)

We have 20" prefilters and the Fiberdyne Carbon block does us for 77,ooo liters - at a waste to pure ratio of 50 50, this fiberdyne filter will give us about 35,000 liters of pure.

 

[Smurf]

Where did you get your digital water meter from @spruce

Got any links please as I would like to have one on my system.

 

[cheapncheerful]

yeh thanks spruce as usual great answer...so basically...being a hybrid who used only ninety litres today.....i am alright for awhile although i think i will change my first filter as it is changing colour....although....not as bad yet as someone else has posted on here so no need to panic...oh....that reminds me....must go and check my water.....no floods for a while...

 

[spruce]

Where did you get your digital water meter from @spruceGot any links please as I would like to have one on my system.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Digital-Water-Flow-Meter-flow-1-5-25-0-litres-min-1-2-BSP-Fittings-COUNT-DOWN-/351083569337?pt=UK_HGKitchen_SmallApp_RL&hash=item51be3620b9

Vyair sell them. This is a newer model that they sell which I prefer as the flow meter can be placed either horizontally or vertically. You can put the meter where its convenient. (I have my complete r/o and di vessel in a purpose made cabinet on a wall in the garage. Its heated with a tube heater and a thermostat which regulates the temperature inside the cabinet to 10 degrees C. I also have an inline TDS meter in there so the cabinet is now rather short of space.)

The flow meter I have is similar to this but with 1/2" fittings.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1-4-LCD-Water-Flow-Sensor-Meter-Digital-Display-Rate-Turbine-Flowmeter-COUNT-UP-/231356075132?pt=UK_HGKitchen_SmallApp_RL&hash=item35dde58c7c

Mine is a count down flow meter. Set it at 77,ooo litres and it counts down till the end and it sets off an annoying bleeper when the fiberdyne filter need changing.

 

[spruce]

yeh thanks spruce as usual great answer...so basically...being a hybrid who used only ninety litres today.....i am alright for awhile although i think i will change my first filter as it is changing colour....although....not as bad yet as someone else has posted on here so no need to panic...oh....that reminds me....must go and check my water.....no floods for a while...

Our sediment filter starts to discolour within a few hours of running/fitting. I usually have to replace it every 3 weeks or so. I have fitted 2 pressure gauges on my prefilters, 1 on the inlet side and the other on the outlet side. The sediment and carbon prefilters are joined together. When the filters are new there is hardly an difference in the pressure reading of the 2 gauges. As the sediment filter gets dirty the pressure gauge on the outlet side reads less than the inlet gauge does. It a certain point, usually at about 10 psi difference (25% in my case as my water pressure at the tap is around 40 to 50 psi) I change the sediment filter.

OBTW, you used more water than the two of us did today./emoticons/sad.png We got soaked on the second house and went home.

 

[cheapncheerful]

very interesting again thanks spruce sorry about the rain...lovely here...and same again tomorrow...now all i need is....certain custys to be out...../emoticons/biggrin.png

 

[Scottie]

This is interesting read, so how many liters do you guys use a day? I dont think I could justify wasting 3-1 water, wow! so a 25 liter pure water container would take over 50liters to fill. Fook! I would be raped for water bills. So annoying as would like to give it a go, but making 250liters I would be wasting 250 plus liters of water, down the plug hole.

I bet there are systems better that do not waste to much, expensive I imagine. Is there none out there like the ashby streambox idea, where you just fill with tap water and go? That looked good set up bar the pole and brush.

Interesting threa, learning loads.

 

[Diwrnach]

Scottie I would ring your water people, something is really wrong, I just looked it up if you used 592 liters A DAY, it should cost only £700 for an entire year.

 

[Diwrnach]

Besides, I was on a meter in the last house, in 9 years of being there they only checked the meter outside the house maybe 10 times tops the whole time, it was maybe once a year?

And no one is going to complain at you spending too much money, its like a petrol attendant getting mad because you had too much fuel.

Maybe if there is a hosepipe ban on, but we haven't had one of those at least in my area for maybe 3 years.

 

[Scottie]

wow - what is that based on, is that a uk wide thing? Well My house is high and we do not know why a friend of mine has four people in house and is 1250 liters a day and only have a bath and shower a day and dont flush loo much to save and usual use, eco settings on dishwasher once a day and washing machine once a day, sue 1250 is wrong. Meter test reads ok it stops spinning, so WTF is going on? Also my house is similar, do not get it at all.

I wonder what a bath average is or rough figure of a bath in liters would it be 150l ? 1250 average a day is going some, somthing wrong there.lol

 

[Diwrnach]

1250 litres.... A DAY???

Does he have a swimming pool?

 

[timbeam]

There are calculators online to estimate how much water things use - google it.

FYI Yorkshire water charge about £5 I think for 1000l, including waste.

 

[Diwrnach]

I mean to put it into a little bit of perspective, that is over 1.2 tonnes of water......

 

[Scottie]

I know, but they say it is as meter is ok, sure it must be faulty? A normal family of four can not be using that much, somthign is wrong somewhere....What can be done, whom do you ask, the water board wont help em. I am gonna check mine also again.

 

[timbeam]

I know, but they say it is as meter is ok, sure it must be faulty? A normal family of four can not be using that much, somthign is wrong somewhere....What can be done, whom do you ask, the water board wont help em. I am gonna check mine also again.

Buy a water meter and fit it yourself, just after your stop tap.

Then you'll know for sure.

You might have a leak somewhere I suppose but it would have to be after your meter and before your house.

 

[Scottie]

I think a good test is turn the water off and check again if spinning, then take a meter read, fill a 1 liter jug up and then do not use the water at all and see how much water useage there has been used, can that be done?

where do you fit the water meter? replace the one outside? Are you allowed? lol

 

[timbeam]

I think a good test is turn the water off and check again if spinning, then take a meter read, fill a 1 liter jug up and then do not use the water at all and see how much water useage there has been used, can that be done?
where do you fit the water meter? replace the one outside? Are you allowed? lol

Yeah, that's a good idea mate. Turn your stop cock off in the house and make sure your meter stops.

If you wanted to fitfit your own, fit it in your house just after your stop cock. As you rightly say, you can't replace theirs.