Not feeling guilty

[xyzpdq0121]

Ok, I have decided to STOP feeling guilty about running my RO unit for my tank. As we all know, water is tight, so I started to feel really guilty about running the RO unit. I was thinking of things for everyday home use I could use the waster water for. That was until I got my water bill. My household uses about 3000 gal of water a month. That is for my "family" of 3 (two adults and 1 child). I was interested in what the average was, so I called the city water suppy and asked. According to them, the average per capita water use was 200gpd until the water restrictions. That number has dropped to about 150gpd per capita with the restrictions. So people appear to be saving 50gpd per person which is good. Now if you take my family, we are using about 40 gpd of water per person. That is even with, working form home and running the RO unit about once or twice a month to make 35 +/- gallons of RO water. So I have decided that I am NOT going to feel guilty about running my RO anymore, until the rest of the people in my area get down to a water usage somewhere close to my amount. Another plus side, my water bill was only $12.48 for the month!!!!

Agree or disagree?!?

 

[stroid]

Agree I have the same concerns and I have made efforts at my house so has my family. Glad to see your efforts as well.

 

[lorenk]

You shouldn't feel guilty, but I disagree with the concept that one shouldn't do anything till everyone else starts making a difference.

Nothing to stop you from actually using that waste water as well...I was able to fill my washer with the waste water before I disconnected mine (temporarily).

I also think you should move to daily showers instead of weekly! :lol2:

 

[ericmcj31]

I agree with you--and I also think that ATL water dept. should fix its leaks in the system---which waste about 18 millions GPD. To me that is WAY more important than you're wasting water through RODI machine--and like said previously, you can catch that wasted water and use for something else.

 

[glxtrix]

I figure if I ever get nailed for running it I can pull, "well if I dont, then its animal cruality!" Thats worse in my book.

 

[ericmcj31]

actually you are exempt if it is for "sustaining aquatic life" so they couldn't really fine you I don't guess

 

[mojo]

Keep in mind that 35gpd from the RO is actually ~175gpd actual water used.... (about 4 gallons for every 1 gallon output)....

I need to get my chiller online so I can limit the fan usage (and thus evap)...

 

[purplegorilla]

I read the papers yesterday. People in LAS VEGAS, dead center of the desert, are paying less per gallon of water than we do.

 

[fishwhisperer]

I think it is fine to use the RO unit, but just use your waste water for something. I let mine drain in my washing machine.

 

[jgoal55]

I agree....i do still feel guilty but not guilty enough to stop....I'll do a lot of other things to save water to make up for it and our water usage is way, way below the average so that's that...Im definitely not letting everything in the tank go bad because of not making R/O.

Plus, it's been raining for the last two days so we should be out of the drought already right????

 

[victor626nj]

no we need it to rain for about 2 weeks straight to ge tout of this drought

 

[jgoal55]

yeah I know....i was just messing.....but yeah maybe even more than two weeks....its really bad out there. Did anyone here about that body that floated up still perfectly intact.....they say it was from a cemetery that used to be at the bottom of the lake.

 

[xyzpdq0121]

I did not know about a body floating up but I knew that there was a cemetery near lake lanier islands. I have scuba dived it before along with some of the building that are still there. I know the grave makers are still there but I would have thought they would have transported the bodies before they filled the lake!

 

[cameron]

They make zero waste RO units now which I have considered and I believe Roland gave a great example of how to limit waste by prefiltering which is both cheap and easy.

Personally, I use little water and if you stop flushing every time you pee and cut your showers back you can save more water than cutting off your RO/DI. I use probably 80g of water per month through my RO unit which is probably somewhere near 400g of water total. That is about 80 toilet flushes, 50 minutes of showering or 200 hand washes.

 

[cameron]

Found it

Roland wrote: FWIW, not to off topic( i hope)
For those of you who use a lot of water. (and any one else) here is a way to help save water.
Most of us can cut are RO water usage by 80%. It would help out with the our current need to conserve water.
I did this RO mod last year for 2 reasons.
1. not to overload my septic system
2. keep my water bill down.
You can make your RO have a 1:1 ratio instead of a 1:4 ratio.
I use a lot of water so the cost was a no brainier for me. all you do is add a second or even a third membrane to your RO. Run them in Series.
I Use a .6 carbon cartage before my membrane. I also keep my PSI as high as possible. You can even adjust your resistor (if you have a external resistor RO) Our water is so good it you really wont notice any difference in the life of your RO membrane.
Ive done this for 15 months, over 15,000 gallons of good water produced, all membranes still good. Saved 45,000 gallons

 

[tsciarini]

So does this mean youre going to start taking showers again?
whew!!

 

[schwaggs]

I will stop running my RO system when people stop giving their dogs water to drink. I have my RO tuned to 1:1 waste to purified water, works great with the clean tap water we have here.

 

[skriz]

I want to tune my ro unit!

Schwaggs-what did you do to tune yours?

Cameron- where can i get ro cartridges to run in series?

 

[cameron]

Ebay is a good place... I have ordered from this guy before. He sells two canisters for $20 with no frills I believe:

http://stores.ebay.com/H2O-SPLASH_Housings_W0QQcolZ4QQdirZ1QQfsubZ6QQftidZ2QQtZkm">http://stores.ebay.com/H2O-SPLASH_Housings_W0QQcolZ4QQdirZ1QQfsubZ6QQftidZ2QQtZkm</a>

Filter guys are always good as well:

[IMG]http://www.thefilterguys.biz/housings.htm">http://www.thefilterguys.biz/housings.htm</a>

 

[schwaggs]

Raj,

On the waste water output from my RO membrane, there is a needle valve. This is the way it came (it is many years old). Modern day units typically have a non-adjustable flow restictor on the output. If yours is not adjustable, you could add a needle valve to your waste water outlet and tune the waste water flow to be similar to the clean water flow...