Creating Clean Water: UV Filters

I mentioned in the previous post that we draw our water from the Lake rather than a well. This presents an additional risk from thing that grow in lakes - in particular I was concerned about bacteria and viruses including chlorine resistant cysts such as Cryptosporidium and Giardia - no beaver fever for me!.

After a bit of a Internet search I settled on the systems manufactured by Trojan, built right here in Canada. In particular I purchased the TrojanUVMax D4.

The folks at Trojan have a great selector tool for determining which of their models fit your specific needs.

The key features I appreciated are:

1) User Interface

• Lamp timer display starts at 365 and counts down the days to annual lamp replacement
• Mute button allows you to silence an alarm

2) Lamp/Sleeve Combination

• Lamp and sleeve are removed without the use of any tools
• Lamp and sleeve remove from the UV chamber as one piece ensuring you are aware of any build up of minerals on the sleeve that may interfere with the proper UV dose being delivered to the water

3) Advanced Lamp Technology

• Low pressure high-output lamp technology provides higher UV output for better water purification in a system approximately half the size of conventional systems - saving space and making installation simpler

4) Constant Current Electronic Power Supply

• More energy efficient
• Withstands fluctuations in voltage that can cause low UV output and damage to the lamp

5) Safety Cap & Special Lamp Plug

• Safety cap prevents children from accessing the lamp or electrical components. It also prevents the lamp plug from accidentally being disconnected. Lamp plug design ensures that no one can power the UV lamp if it's not in the UV chamber. This prevents damage to eyes and skin from UV light.

;-)

Creating Clean Water: GE Household Filter

We draw water from the lake, hence, it has a bit more potentially bad things in it than well water so an effective filtration system is critical. Part of the system I have employed uses two GE filters that are rated for an entire house.

The model I used, GXWH20F, has some great attributes that make it easy to use:

1) the cartridge cover (this is called a sump) is clear so you can see what is happening to the filter.

2) 3/4 inch connections which fit our system perfectly

3) Pressure relief vent which makes filter changes easier

4) Filter reminder light which provides an alert when to change the filter cartridge

Installation Tips:

1) Install shut off valves on either side of the filters - so that you can stop the flow while changing filters

2) Install so that you can get at the sump covers easily to change the cartridges.

3) Install it as close to the source as possible so that you are protecting all of the system.

Coming Up:
We talk more about the UV filter

;-)

Creating Clean Water at the Cottage

Clean and drinkable water is very important!

Perhaps I went overboard but I put quite a lot of effort in to ensuring the water at the cottage is clean and drinkable.

Here you can see the first iteration of the water filtration system that I installed - starting from the left edge of the picture:

1) Pressure switch - the blue box is the pressure switch which controls the pump in the lake. It is attached to the pressure tank (not shown)

2) Two Whole House Filters - These are the two filters in the middle of the picture. The left most one uses a 30 micron filter. The right one holds a 5 micron carbon filter. The 30 micron filter is a first stage, removing the larger material from the water. The 5 micron filter has two purpsoes: a) to take out the small material that gets byt the first filter, and 2) takes out some of those nasty tastes.

3) UV Filter - This is the stainless steel filter to the right of the whole house filters. This filter uses a high powered UV light to sterilize the water as it passes by. The model used here is rated to treat the water for the whole home, eliminating 99.99% of bacteria and viruses including chlorine resistant cysts that are not tested for in routine water tests (such as Cryptosporidium
and Giardia - no beaver fever for me!).

4) PEX Manifold - This is the copper manifold on the right of the picture with all the PEX pipes connected to it. It`s purpose is to distribute the water to the various locations in the Cottage

Coming Up:
In the next few posts we will dig in to the parts of the water purification system in a bit more depth.

Products used:
Trojan UV MAX D Filter
GE Household Filters
PEX

Related Posts:

We Have Water! - Apr 28, 2009

Cottage on the Edge: Installing the Water System: Materials Purchased - Oct 03, 2008

4 Reasons Why PEX is a DIY Plumber's Dream! - Nov 04, 2008

PEX wins Hands Down! - Sep 20, 2008

;-)