Humidifier experiment (corrected )

In order to determine what kind of output I could expect from this device, I conducted this latest experiment.

First the results:  It looks like it will produce 1 ounce of water every 10 minutes.  That means for a gallon it would take 1280 minutes, or over 21 hours per gallon!  Not very fast, obviously.

I collected 4 ounces while running it for 40 minutes.  The losses were about 1/3 of what was used.  For example, I measured out 50 ounces for the container and collected 44 ounces.  That leaves 6 ounces unaccounted for.  Four of those were inside of the container, in which it could be collected and measured.  The other two have to be considered as lost.

If the machine ran longer, the losses would go down.  Since I only ran for 40 minutes, the losses appear to be greater because it is a larger proportion of what was used.  Let's say you ran it for 80 minutes.  The losses would be approximately the same, but you would probably collect something like 8 ounces of water.  That means the losses would decrease to about 25 percent.  And so on.

One concern I have is that the water gets all over the machine.  It has to be raised up or it will be flooded if it were to be used longer.  Also, it needs to be covered with something in order to keep the condensation off, but there may not be any good solution for this.  Perhaps a plastic wrap that covers the machine ( except for the output vent ) would do the job.

Perhaps Saran Wrap and Aluminum Foil?  But I want to keep this thing simple.  Simple, simple, simple.

Update:

Drat it!  I called it a dehumidifier.  It is not a dehumidifier, but a humidifier.  It takes water and makes mist out of it in order to humidify an area.  Man, sometimes I can get a big brain fart going.

Update:

Another experiment with pretty much the same results.  It looks like I will need a elbow joint that will fit on top of the outlet hole where the mist comes out.  PVC may work here.  If this will divert away from the device, it will be a big help in getting good results for this proposition.

Update:

After doing a bit of research on these devices, it has come to my attention that they may not clean up the water much at all.  If this is true, it is quite disappointing.  It does look like it cleans it up at least a little.  Well, that's really not good enough.  I have to verify this in future experiments.

Another thing is the slow rate of production means that it is using too much electricity.  I figured that the little device I'm using will pull 600 watt-hours in order to produce one gallon of water.  Since I want to recycle at least 4 gallons per day, that figures to 2.4 kwh per day in order to get a questionable result for 4 gallons of water.  That won't do.  The electricity isn't all that bad if you've got a lot, but in that environment, 2.4 kwh may be close to what your solar panels may produce in one day.  Now that's bad.

That would mean that the gasifier has become a lot more important.  It must work, or you don't have a guaranteed water source.

The gasifier has its issues as well.  You are producing hydrogen gas, which is troublesome for metals like steel or iron.  It will cause embrittlement, which means it will tear up an internal combustion engine.

Stainless steel will solve that problem, but try to get some of that stuff.  Also, try to get that stuff inside of an internal combustion engine.  You may switch over to a Stirling engine, but those fixtures will have to be converted to stainless steel too.  It won't affect the engine, because it never gets into the engine, but the burner will be affected.

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This is a belated edit in order to place this post in the off-the-grid series.