Preparation of water for a private home

Organizing the water supply is the first task on any homeowner’s agenda. It is necessary not only to decide where and how to take the water, but also to take care of its quality, which largely depends on the method of extraction. A common belief that water from springs feeding wells is a priori crystal clear and even healthy is a serious mistake. History knows many examples of people leaving their homelands precisely because the water there was unfit for consumption. Fortunately there are solutions today that can avoid such drastic measures in most cases.

Water hardness

In addition to foreign bodies, the water contains natural impurities. These are mainly salts of alkali earth metals, especially potassium and magnesium, commonly referred to as hardness salts. They were given this name because fabrics washed in water with a high content of these salts seem to be tougher to the touch. Accordingly, and water with a high content of hardness salts also called hard, and with little – soft.

Hard water is a major problem for private households. Hardness salts have a negative effect not only on materials but also on e.g. human skin. They dry it out, and in some cases can even cause irritation. In addition, physicians believe that the long-term use of hard water can provoke urolithiasis. On the other hand, too soft water is not very useful, either. However, the raw water that is extracted from the ground in private households is most often hard, not soft. For example, the characteristic taste of spring water is due to its high hardness.

Another problem that hard water brings is associated with the operation of various plumbing and heating equipment, as well as kitchen appliances. Salts are deposited on the walls of boilers and boilers, gradually disable heating elements and circulation pumps, destroy faucet cartridges, reduce the life of washing machines and dishwashers, kettles, steam cookers and other appliances. In addition, they settle on ceramic and glass surfaces of sanitary equipment and tiles, which not only spoils the appearance, but also greatly accelerates the process of contamination, contributing to the formation of bacterial colonies and mold.

Water Softening

The process of reducing the amount of hardness salts in a certain volume of water is called softening. It can be done in different ways, but some technologies are only feasible on an industrial scale. The most effective technology available today for the individual consumer is the ion exchange technology. Hard water is passed through a special substance called ion-exchange resin. It is a high molecular weight synthetic compound enriched with sodium ions with a three-dimensional gel and macroporous structure. In the process, the water gives the resin calcium and magnesium ions, replacing them with sodium ions. It is therefore an optimum balance of hard and soft salts in the water.

However, the resin needs to be periodically regenerated to restore its original properties. For this purpose, solutions are used today that allow the salt balance to be monitored and restored automatically, without user intervention. For example, Viessmann has developed a series of ion exchange units with a digital controller that monitors the water softening process and its salt balance, automatically starting resin regeneration as soon as the ion exchange capacity of the load is reduced by 97. These devices are able to operate without replacing the resin for 10 years, and the user only has to replenish the salt tank from time to time. One such unit, the Aquahome 30-N, delivers up to 2.8 cubic meters of water per hour, enough for a two-family townhouse.

What else could be in the water

Hardness salts are the most common impurities, which can even be called natural. But in addition to these, samples sometimes show concentrations of other substances. Their presence and composition depends largely on the hydrogeology of the area.

There are generally three main aquifers. The first, the uppermost, is so called “high water”, or melting and rain water absorbed by soil. They are generally unfit for use, because they include impurities of all by-products of agriculture and life, from fertilizers and pesticides and ending with domestic sewage neighbors, which are not all in accordance with sanitary standards. The more that atmospheric precipitation these days may not be harmless.

the second horizon is groundwater, which can lie at an average depth of five to fifty meters, depending on the geological relief and the local hydrogeology. This is the horizon that usually feeds wells and shallow domestic wells. The latter are also called wells “in the sand,” and in essence they are the same wells, but of higher capacity and with mechanized water intake.

The amount, and most importantly, the composition of impurities in groundwater depends on both the soil composition and bogging of the territory, and on the proximity of man-made sources of pollution – for example, landfills, the number and scale of which in some regions today already exceeds any admissible critical values. In this neighborhood, the composition of groundwater can be completely unpredictable. And many chemical elements e.g. salts of bismuth and mercury or lead do not have neither taste nor smell, so they do not reveal their presence in water.

But landfills are by no means the only danger. Equally critical is the proximity of cattle-breeding enterprises, agricultural production facilities which use fertilizers and chemicals, burial grounds about which one often knows nothing , and cities, the waste products of which are quite diverse both by nature and by chemical composition.

Also in the well and well water is often found an increased content of salts of iron and manganese, which is also not useful. For example, the increased consumption of manganese, which belongs to the group of heavy metals, negatively affects the state of the bones. In addition, its salts disable heating appliances.

Additional filtration and purification

To rid water of all unnecessary things, in addition to softening it is necessary to produce additional filtration. All together this is called water treatment, which can be conditionally divided into three main stages. The first is filtration from mechanical suspended solids. The largest particles are retained by natural filters, such as sand and gravel at the bottom of wells and boreholes. Fine particles are caught by coarse and fine filters, which are used in all water supply systems. The next stage is the ridding of salts of iron, manganese and other heavy metals, followed by biological treatment and, finally, softening.

In the recent past, a comprehensive water treatment involves the use of a cascade of filters and was a fairly complex and costly event, especially since all filters require periodic maintenance and replacement of filter elements. Today, however, there are solutions that make it possible to replace several filters with virtually one filter.

For example, to purify water from suspended solids and mechanical impurities with a diameter up to 20 microns any softening station can be additionally equipped with a filter with a multifunctional Aquacarbon loading. Besides water purification, it improves its taste and transparency and eliminates unpleasant smells by removing different impurities and dissolved substances in water. Like the basic unit, this device also operates in automatic mode, does not require maintenance and can pass through itself to three cubic meters of water per hour.

And for households where the water must be additionally cleaned of iron salts, manganese and heavy metals, as well as ammonia and organic impurities, a specialized system of softening and integrated treatment Aquamix-N was developed, which can also be used together with Aquacarbon filter. Its use instead of multiple purification stages allows to reduce costs of water treatment system and save the space necessary for its location.

Artesian water

Only two aquifers were considered above, but there is also a third one. This one is a t.n. artesian, or pressurized, groundwater from aquifers that lie relatively deep, between water-bearing rock layers e.g. limestone . For this reason, they are not subject to penetration of human products or other substances from the surface, that is, artesian water contains no biological impurities or man-made chemical. It usually lies at a depth of 100-200 meters, but in some cases, the aquifer can be located either higher 30-50 meters or significantly deeper about a thousand meters .

In addition to the lack of contact with groundwater, artesian wells are convenient in that their flow and level are practically constant, and do not depend on either seasonal or weather factors, unlike wells and wells “in the sand.

However, such water belongs to the category of useful minerals, in addition, its uncontrolled extraction in many areas can disrupt the hydrogeology of the area and even cause changes in the topography. That is why the drilling of artesian wells is strictly regulated by law and must be approved in advance. In addition, each well must have an extensive sanitary area, which is usually impossible to implement privately. As a rule, an artesian well is to be installed in a single settlement or in several large estates.

The opinion about the absolute purity of artesian water is also not entirely correct. Despite the fact that it does not contain products of civilization and impurities from the soil, such water itself may contain a large amount of dissolved salts, including salts of hardness, iron, manganese, and some other minerals.

According to the American Ministry of Health, the concentration of iron in the water of artesian swimming pools can be from 0.45 to 21 g/l, while in America the safe level is within 0.3 g/l, in Europe – 0.2 g/l. Therefore, the use of untreated artesian water can provoke heart disease, can cause urolithiasis and cholelithiasis, cause gastrointestinal disorders. And the taste of ferrous water is not the most pleasant.

Methods of its purification have already been described above. The difference is that an artesian well, as a rule, is not an individual. It is expensive to install a high-performance water treatment station. In addition, such a station will require continuous monitoring and maintenance. Therefore, it is more rational to pump water together, and purify each household separately, using individual softening and filtration units.

The water that is used in an individual household can contain the most various impurities. Their presence can not be felt at once, but over time they can have a negative impact on health, damage tissues, disable household appliances and elements of the heating and water supply systems. Water filtration and softening will help to avoid this, and the use of modern and reliable technical solutions will automate these processes and reduce the cost of equipment.