Like many people in New England, and I'm sure elsewhere that it is humid, we run a dehumidifier in our basement all summer. It collects a lot of water. Throughout my life I have seen this water dumped down the drain or in some cases the dehumidifier is connected to the main drainpipe for the house and goes out to the sewer or septic system.
We happen to have four cats, as I may have mentioned before, which means we have a lot of big buckets from buying litter. We have always saved the buckets (which come in handy for all sorts of things and have lids that fit pretty snug). So, we let the dehumidifier work its magic, then dump the water into these buckets, which conveniently hold exactly two batches of collected water, and then use that to water various plants around the yard. It's funny if you think about it, sucking water out of the air and then using it. It's kind of like a rainwater collection system except this water has never even rained down on us.
Anyway, just thought I'd share. If you are paying for the electricity to run your dehumidifier, you might as well get something free out of the deal other than just the less humid air.
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Here is some more information about dehumidifiers from Wikipedia
Potability
Water collected from any dehumidifier is technically distilled water in that it does contain few of the minerals and other particulates that are removed in a true distillation process. However, a true distillation process condenses the steam of boiled water, and the boiling process kills any microbes and fungi that may be present in the pre-distilled water. Dehumidifiers are also not kept to a state of cleanliness required for food-grade standards (drinking water usually has very high legal requirements). The collected water is therefore not considered safe to drink.[1] Also, as the water may sit for a while in the collection bucket, the water may be quite stale, in particular with fungus collected from aerial spores.
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14 comments:
great idea. it's little things like this that collectively could make a difference if we all did them. keep up the good work.
Do you know if the water is ok for pets to drink? Since it just rained and nothing needed watered, I poured it in the animals' drinking bowl.
Sally's Sister,
There are two answers to your question on Answerbag.com. I can't vouch for the reliability of what they are saying, but it seems plausible. I may be the wrong person to ask too, since we use a whole-house water filter and our cats and dog drink that filtered tap water.
Sally's Sister,
I just read at
http://www.thekrib.com/Filters/dehumidifier.html
that this water may be high in zinc and copper and not suitable for fish or house plants (so I would be wary about it for any household life).
the folks on the above site had an idea about putting a snail in some and seeing how it does.. .
Water from a dehumidifier is great for car batteries and i believe for clothes irons, as many of the minerals found in tap water are removed.
Maybe if you don't care about your cats health. The aluminum parts inside and some of the tubing in the dehumidifier will have lead solder in the joints. Outgassing of these metals into the water will give it a very bad taste. I give my cats tap water. Some of them drink from the faucet if I turn it on a trickle. Be careful what you give your cats, it's hard to replace that special one that curls up on your pillow when you get into bed.
All municipal water comes from some
pond or lake or river. By that I mean that it is not distilled. Furthermore, whatever contaminates it may have including water from a heaven forbid, dehumidifier! The only thing that's done to this water of signifignance is the addition of chlorine. The addition of chlorine in itself is a debatable health issue. As I live in the country we get out drinking water from a well. That water starts out as rain I would guess and gets filtered by a few hundred of what ever makes up the earth. Mostly plain old dirt I'd guess. As for the dehumidifier water it would seem to differ little from say,rainwater. That is well water that hasn't been filtered by passing through the ground. Maybe you might want to put a bit of bleach or sodium chlorite it it to
make it like municipal water. I use it where ever I need distilled water as I have found it more pure than distilled. Recently, was testing for chlorine and found to my dismay a bottle of purchased distilled water had >1ppm chlorine. Not good for your battries but ok to drink. My guesss is a lot of folks out there are simply covering their butts by not really saying anything for fear of being sued. I might suggest you-all just use plain old common sense that's kinda rare these days.
Water taken from a Dehumidifier is De-Ionized. This means that there is no dissolved O2. Meaning it will KILL plants and is not potable! Moreover, oxygen affects a vast number of other water indicators, not only biochemical but esthetic ones like the odor, clarity and taste. Consequently, oxygen is perhaps the most well-established indicator of water quality.
Dehumidified water is a (vegetation) killer. I also thought using the water from a dehumidifier to water my grass last year was a good idea. This spring I had to plant new grass where I used the dehumidifier water.
So I had the same thought as everyone else. Why am I throwing this out? So I've been using it for about a week and a half on my plants. So far so good. Now that said there are some very critical things to consider. 1) I cleaned out the resevoir very well. 2) I checked ppm. Meter read about 30ppm 3) The most critical factor. Especially when using for plants. I tested the pH. It was almost 9. Way way way too high for vegetation. Because of the low ppm using it once without lowering pH you might be fine. But repeated use will surely kill your plants. Plants in soil like a pH around 6.5. @ Gabriel... No dissolved O2? Run an air pump with an airstone in a bucket of de-hum water.
I will agree that it is a great idea. I didn't know anything about this that is why I am so happy that I found this article about this dehumidifier.
I just put my condensed water in the washing machine,
"The only thing that's done to this water of signifignance is the addition of chlorine."
Are you an idiot. Dont believe this people. Your town water supply is filterd a number of times then tested then treated however depending on the test. chlorine just gets rid of bacteria but sometimes other types of treatment is neaded and its not all chemical. Then before it is sent out its filterd againe. As for this post do not use dehumidifier water. It will contaain bacteria and whatever else is floating around in your house and it very easily could contain harmfull metals including lead depending on age and manufacturer specs. The amount of water you get is so small compared to what people use in a day its a rediculous discussion. Like the idiot said use common sense the device doesnt just magicly produce water it sucks in everything thats floating around in the air and all that stuff will settle on the water thats covering the coils and then fall down in to the reservoir. Also its not just the reservoir that could hold mold the filter or anyother part the moisture or air comes in contact with inside the device could too.
It can be drunk but pass it through a filter before and then ozonise it.you can buy an ozone generator that they use in fish tanks.Great in time of drought
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