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questions8938
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I have natural spring water on my land.
I use gravity filters currently which are rated to remove the 'nasties' to make it ok to drink but the problem is they intentionally leave in minerals as they see it as a feature.
For my case though I experience side effects which feel identical to excess potassium when I intentionally tried taking it as a supplement on more than one occasion. I am guessing it is because it is getting picked up from the ground. The land is heavy clay too which is noted to have high mineral contents.
So are there practical ways to remove the minerals from the water or reduce them to lower levels? I looked up and distillation is going to be out of the question I think due to huge electricity consumption. I am in the UK too so can't rely on sun power for that as I want a year round solution.
I rely on off-grid power btw which is extremely tight during the winter months. I barely scrape through on a modest 12V system as it is during December so no chance I could add a heavy electrical burden on top of that.
Reverse osmosis I think is out too due to the huge waste of water which I read is 4:1 waste to usable. In drought times this will be unacceptable.
Ion exchange looks promising as they seem affordable from my cursory investigation.
Is this going to be the best way or some other suggestion bearing in mind the limitations above?
Rainwater I read is a natural distillation method but I am not sure I will be able to capture enough in the drought times compared to the springs which act as large catchments from the whole valley. Maybe if I got a large enough piece of plastic - I have wondered about microplastics in this case. Would that be a significant concern if the water just rolls across a tarp for a few seconds before hitting HDPE container? That will take up a large area though to gather meaningful amounts in the drought seasons, but might be doable. Testing that right now on a small scale and seeing how much I can get.
Being able to utilize the ground water still, while removing the minerals, would be best though since it is a shame to waste water that is already issuing up from the ground.
I use gravity filters currently which are rated to remove the 'nasties' to make it ok to drink but the problem is they intentionally leave in minerals as they see it as a feature.
For my case though I experience side effects which feel identical to excess potassium when I intentionally tried taking it as a supplement on more than one occasion. I am guessing it is because it is getting picked up from the ground. The land is heavy clay too which is noted to have high mineral contents.
So are there practical ways to remove the minerals from the water or reduce them to lower levels? I looked up and distillation is going to be out of the question I think due to huge electricity consumption. I am in the UK too so can't rely on sun power for that as I want a year round solution.
I rely on off-grid power btw which is extremely tight during the winter months. I barely scrape through on a modest 12V system as it is during December so no chance I could add a heavy electrical burden on top of that.
Reverse osmosis I think is out too due to the huge waste of water which I read is 4:1 waste to usable. In drought times this will be unacceptable.
Ion exchange looks promising as they seem affordable from my cursory investigation.
Is this going to be the best way or some other suggestion bearing in mind the limitations above?
Rainwater I read is a natural distillation method but I am not sure I will be able to capture enough in the drought times compared to the springs which act as large catchments from the whole valley. Maybe if I got a large enough piece of plastic - I have wondered about microplastics in this case. Would that be a significant concern if the water just rolls across a tarp for a few seconds before hitting HDPE container? That will take up a large area though to gather meaningful amounts in the drought seasons, but might be doable. Testing that right now on a small scale and seeing how much I can get.
Being able to utilize the ground water still, while removing the minerals, would be best though since it is a shame to waste water that is already issuing up from the ground.