EngZone Engineering Services
Reverse Osmosis For Entire House
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EngZone Engineering Services
Reverse Osmosis For Entire House
As people become increasingly aware of the benefits of purified water, the demand for equipment capable of treating both municipal and well water supplies continues to grow. As a result, Whole House Reverse Osmosis systems are becoming widely accepted.
In certain situations, such as high sodium content or high TDS (total dissolved solids), for example, reverse osmosis is virtually the only practical solution. We carry a wide variety of RO systems, one of which will fit your application and your budget.
- A typical Whole House Reverse Osmosis System includes the following main component Pretreatment Equipment (if required). Excessive mineral hardness in your water should be removed prior to RO treatment in order to prevent the membrane from premature fouling. In this case a water softener or antiscalant injection would be recommended. If you are using municipally treated water, then any chlorine must be removed, since the membrane will deteriorate quickly on contact with chlorine. An activated carbon filter will do this job.
- Reverse Osmosis Unit to produce the daily household requirements. For example, a 500 gallon-per-day system would produce purified water at the rate of about 20 gallons per hour. Since 20 gallons per hour is not enough to supply the demands of all normal household functions, a supplementary storage system is required so that ample water will be on hand when needed.
- Storage Tank. An atmospheric (non-pressurized) storage tank large enough to provide ample water for daily activities. The reverse osmosis unit refills the tank as water is taken from it. The water is stored at atmospheric pressure and must, therefore, be re-pressurized for use.
Sizing a Whole House RO System
To properly choose a reverse osmosis system for the whole home, there are several factors which must be considered:
- Water used/needed per day
An industry rule-of-thumb is that the average person uses between 50 and 75 gallons of water per day. This includes drinking, washing, cooking, laundry, toilet, showers, etc. We suggest you use the upper limit (75) when doing your calculations. To conserve water, you may consider by-passing the toilets and clothes washer if possible. So, as an example, a family of 4 would use about 300 gallons (4 x 75) per day. - Water storage required
By its nature, reverse osmosis is a slow process. RO systems will generally produce water at a slower rate than it is used. Consequently, the reverse osmosis system will often be working even when no water is being used. Thus the need for an auxiliary storage tank to keep the processed water for later use. To allow for peak demand (typically in the morning and evening), your storage tank should hold at least 1/2 of your daily consumption, although for extra peace of mind we suggest your tank hold one day’s storage. - Daily RO water production (GPD)
For budgetary reasons (RO systems are fairly costly), it is important that you not oversize your unit. On the other hand, an undersized system will be running continuously and incurs the risk of premature wear. Our recommendation is to size the RO system so that it will produce your daily water requirements in an 8 hour period. This will not only reduce the wear and tear on the system, but will also allow for unanticipated peaks in water demand. As an example, a family of 4 using 300 gallons per day would choose an RO system capable of producing at least 900 gallons per day (300 gallons in 8 hours).