DIY Solar Water Purifier
DIY Solar Water Purifier
Solar water purifiers can be very simple, effective devices for making drinking water from saltwater, or brackish water, by using condensation within a solar still.
The basic concept:
Dirty, salty or brackish water is placed in a sealed container, in a dark pan, that is pointed towards the sun. The sun evaporates the water, which condenses on a slanted glass or plastic surface and runs down to a collection trough. Salt and other heavy minerals and impurities are left in the pan.
Before we look at a DIY design, let’s take a quick look at the Watercone® solar still.
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1.
Pour salty / brackish Water into pan. Then float the Watercone(r) on top. The black pan absorbs the sunlight and heats up the water to support evaporation.. |
2.
The evaporated Water condensates in the form of droplets on the inner wall of the cone. These droplets trickle down the inner wall into a circular trough at the inner base of the cone. |
3.
By unscrewing the cap at the tip of the cone and turning the cone upside down, one can empty the potable Water gathered in the trough directly into a drinking device. |
I’m happy to say that after several years of effort, and many awards, this design has gone into production and hopefully will be seen all over the developing world, where clean drinking water is hard to come by.
Now on to our DIY Design:
Materials:
- a wooden box or enclosure (metal would be even better)
- heavy aluminum foil, shiny side out
- glass – size depends on the size of the box
- insulation – hard block insulation is easiest to work with
- glue or silicon sealant
- a black or dark tray for the water
- tube – for a trough
- jar or container to hold clean water
Assembly
- glue the heavy aluminum foil to the inside of the box, shiny side out
- cut the insulation to the same size as the water tray and glue to bottom, centre of box
- set tray in box on insulation and fill with salty or brackish water
- place glass on top of box and aim towards sun. Needs to fit tight at the top so water vapor does not escape.
- position pipe/trough along bottom of glass and add a container at end to catch the clean water
Enhancements
- add a hinge to the glass to make opening and closing easier
- add a hose and funnel, so you can add brackish water to the tray without opening the box
- add glass to the ends so you get sun all day – curved would be even better – what about a plastic basement window cover?
- create a rotating stand to easily point in at the sun
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Filed under: Go Green
