NEWS

Home desalination - making increasing sense in a restricted world

Water is an increasingly valuable commodity throughout Australia. Most households now live with restrictions on the use of water. And there is no likelihood now that they will be lifted.

With summer at its peak, many people find it hard to cope with the fact that their garden struggle for lack of watering and they are not able to fill their swimming pool as the water evaporates. These are just two of many reasons why some people who live on the water are considering the installation of a home desalination system. A few of the other reasons for installing such a system are that it gives a household the freedom to wash their cars, hose their house and paths and wash their boat.

For boat owners, of course, water has always been carefully monitored and used. It is a precious commodity when cruising.

"For boat owners with restricted tanks, water has always been valuable," says Errol Cain, Managing Director of R Desalination, based at Coomera on Queensland's Gold Coast. "A watermaker eliminates the need to carry large amounts of water. Less weight means better performance and fuel economy. It also means you never need to worry about water quality at a marina or running out of water during an extended trip."

But high-level restrictions are a relatively new phenomenon among households.

While governments talk about a multitude of solutions, from more dams to massive desalination plants to reducing consumption, the option of an affordable home water generator is making a lot of sense.

According to Errol, home desalination is now a viable option for many households.

"This is a system that takes sea water or other undrinkable water and uses technology to make it pure," says Errol.

"One of the most popular and efficient technologies to purify water is reverse osmosis. This simply involves the movement of water under pressure through a semi-permeable membrane that allows water molecules - but not larger compounds - to pass through.

"The result is water purified of salts and minerals, unpleasant odours and taste. The addition of an ultraviolet steriliser eliminates 99.8 percent of all micro-organisms, including viruses and bacteria."

A house desalination system is fitted with a back washable filter similar to a swimming pool filter and then commercial pre-filters. With this type of filtration, the desalination membranes are receiving water that has been filtered to around five microns. With proper care, a desalination system will provide you with bottle quality water for the next 20 years.

Desalination is not new technology. In fact it has been around for many years in marine and commercial applications. Many islands and isolated communities provide their drinking water from desalination plants. The principal is quite simple and the product water is outstanding. The volume of water available from a desalination system can be vast; however, there are a range of systems which fulfil most household outdoor needs.

Among the top home and boating desalination units on the market, Horizon Reverse Osmosis (HRO) watermakers use reverse osmosis technology to purify water of salts and minerals, unpleasant odours and taste.

For over 30 years, HRO has built a reputation for manufacturing some of the most reliable and intuitive systems in the world.

Featuring semi-automatic operation with a state-of-the-art controller, the HRO Coral Sea system is ideal for waterside homes. It offers a user-friendly LCD touch screen interface, displaying pictorial images of all operating conditions, which can also be viewed with the optional full remote matching touch screen from any location around the home. The Coral Sea desalinator is designed to service mega yachts, commercial fishing vessels and even oil rigs as well as land-based ocean front villas, restaurants, laundry facilities, and private homes.

HRO watermakers can generate water volume between 644 litres and 166,558 litres per day. The mid-range Coral Sea series offers options from 10,600 up to 25,740 litres per day.

"And they are quite easy to maintain," says Errol. "We recommended that you clean your HRO membrane once every year; more often if the water is particularly dirty. Reverse osmosis membranes last an average of five years but, with careful operation and care, they can last up to 10 years."

A range of options are available to help with maintenance and extend membrane life.

An oil/water separator removes oil from the feed water, making it an important option for homes on marinas or harbours. Commercial pre-filters save maintenance time and costs while mesh sea strainers trap sand with a mesh screen, extending the pre-filter life. A fresh water flush system prevents fouling of the membranes and pre-filters by automatically rinsing the system with fresh water every seven days.

For more information, please contact
R Desalination
07 5561 7900
info@rdesalination.com.au