A lesson learned

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Another post in the water sub series in the main off the grid series of posts.

The latest distillation run shows a stubborn problem with contamination.  I cleaned all the parts, so it didn't come from there.  It has to be the rubber automotive heater hose.  It must be degrading under the heat and thus contaminating the water.  Even though I have eliminated all the hose, all but the hose near the heat source; then that must be where the trouble was all along, since the rubber smell is still there in the latest run.

There's a commercial distiller that is completely stainless steel.  That may be the way to go. The only cure for this is to do some metal work, but is it worth it?

One more run with the output from this last run.  I'm going to see if the water is getting substantially worse with each run while not appreciably cleaning up the distillate.

One other item:  I bought a dehumidifier.  It arrived yesterday, just in time for a run today.  The only way to get a lot of water this way is to keep the door open.  The trailer is too small to contain much water.  But I already suspected that.

Update:

About a quart of water from the dehumidifier.  I didn't time it, so I didn't get a rate on the production.

The quality isn't too bad.  Spent a lot of time cleaning the parts to the apparatus.  There was a surprising amount of stuff I must have missed.  Well, we'll see how this plays out.  In any case, the rubber parts have to go.

One thing I noticed:  the contamination loves soap.  Or, to put it another way, the soap readily removes the rubber junk, whereas plain water does not.  I wanted to use this to clean up soapy water, but the soap may be breaking down the rubber hose.  In other words, what I want to use it for may not work well with rubberized parts.  Also, the steel or iron parts have an affinity for the rubber, but copper does not. 

obilgatory, 1.20.17

Out with old prez, in with the new.  But I was kinda busy today.  Did another distillation, but results were disappointing.  I expected better because I made some improvements.  However, I did not clean the parts, so I think the water quality suffered.

The day ends with the arrival of a new dehumidifier.  We'll see if I can collect water this way.

Other than that, I need some pieces for the solar water heater.  The pieces that fit on the device are oddball sized.

The problem with the left

John 8:44  You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.


As the comedian Flip Wilson used to say-- "The Devil made me do it."  It was meant as a joke, but  it isn't funny anymore.

Street fight

Here's the white boy talking 'bout doing the 'hood thing. The reason I'm putting this up is that the white boys are going up against the "homies" in the Democrat party.  If you really want to get anything done with those guys, you are going to have to get your hands dirty.

Are the white boys ready to kick tail, or will they run away with their tails between their legs?

Battle prayer

From the movie Patton ( 1970 ). 

By golly, by gosh.  We need a prayer like this to go up against these pinkos.  Not necessarily to kill them, but to do battle with them spiritually.  The left wing is wicked because they are a bunch of liars.  If they would serve truth, they would be back on the right track.

But if it were to come to warfare and violence, there must be no shrinking from it.  If they want to play it that way, we can prevail.

Either way, they lose.

Out of club soda

One thing I learned about myself along the way is that I tend to rush things when there is no need.  For example, when playing baseball on the sandlot, I'd field a ball hit in my direction, then attempt to throw out the runner.  Often, I'd rush the throw and throw wildly.  I'd notice other guys who would not rush things and throw smoothly and accurately.  I learned that I need to be more deliberate in my movements.

But these tendencies are well entrenched.  Even though I know about this, I still rush through things and not take my time.  Mistakes were made, and results were ruined.

So, I'm out of club soda and I don't want to make a run into town in order to get some.  I could run the water experiments anyway without it, but that may introduce error in my results.  Patience and deliberateness is needed.  I need to wait until the stores open, and take my butt into town and get some, doggone it.  I should not "rush the throw".

Could the left be doomed?

Why?  They are putting pressure on people not to attend the inauguration of Trump.  Besides that, any support of Trump at all invites punishment.

But what happens if some people buck the pressure and do what they want in spite of the threats?

All the left has going for it is coercion.  If people are no longer afraid of them, they are finished.

But they may be finished anyway.  The only people they got are people who can be intimidated.

If you have the gonads to resist them, but they do not have followers with the same gonads, then who do you think will win an ass-kicking contest?

'Nuff said.

Obligatory, 1.18.17

Why the title "obligatory"?  I am, shall we say, obligated to keep putting up posts every day if I want to keep the blog going.  In other words, I have no material to put up.  Think of it like the expression-- "that's a good question".  If someone responds that way to a question with that expression, it means-- " I don't know".

There's not much material because I have been static firing my off-the-grid project.  Another expression, this "static firing".  It means a practice run.  If I am going to get my water usage way down, I need to practice the techniques needed to do that.  That is what I have been doing, and believe me, it is hard work.  Only a crazy Texan like me would do something as oddball as this.

As a consequence of all this business, ( busy  ness , get it ?), there's not been much time to keep track of the news and such.  Trump is about to be inaugurated, and these lefties are still going nuts over it.

The so-called right wouldn't do this over Obama.  No guts.  To do this over Obama, which had an authentic cause behind it, would have been condemned as "racist".  Nobody on the so-called right had the nerve to take on that chore.  Even though it was "obligatory".

Only thing is that those who did take it on, like Trump, missed the mark.  If you were going to question Obama's legitimacy, it had to be over the term "natural born citizen".  This meaning has been changed over the years.  Now a guy like Obama can be elected even though there has not been anything changed in the Constitution that directly references it.  Only an indirect reference at best.

People are not equal.  The fourteenth amendment didn't change who could be elected president, anyway.  The left take equality, and turns it on its head.  You might say that they fake us all out.

Isn't it odd that the left has managed to make an authentic American ineligible, but the so-called right could not and would not defend the Constitution?  They wouldn't do it even though it was obligatory for them to do so even if they didn't make it their core reason for being.  The so-called right are fakes.  Too many fakes in this country. 

The left wants to keep America fake, not great.  The so-called right need to be authentic for a change.  No more fake outs.

Ramping up production

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Another post in the water sub series in the main off the grid series of posts.

The water I am getting is fairly close to what I want.  Now, I need quantity.  Samples have been taken for another distillation run with water used yesterday for laundry.  That would be about three gallons.  It seems that I have already lost a gallon or so.  My goal is to collect fifty percent of what I use, which should be about two and a half gallons daily.  The deficit is to be made up from water collection from other sources.

In getting the wash sample, I note that water is rather low quality.  I ran it through the sand filter, and will run it again through the process discussed yesterday.  Even with double filtration and club soda treatment, the water is still rather dirty.  It is not expected that I will be able to produce two and a half gallons of water with this device.  A full pint will do.   I got eleven ounces yesterday.

At this point, I am still looking at getting quality, and sufficient quantity in order to do some stuff.  Full production will require a more serious device than what this is.

There's still a lot of room for improvement.

Update:

Results:  Twenty one ounces, one lost, eight remaining out of thirty total.  Five hours run time.  Water quality is almost perfect at less than twenty ppm.  Still has rubber smell and slight discoloring.  Can cut off a little more, but this may be nearly as good as it will get.

The heating element is a thousand watts, which was never employed.  It was set at fifty percent most of the time, and at three eights power at the beginning and end.  Extrapolation yields somewhere between two and two and half kwh.

Of course, a solar still would use no generated power at all.

The siphoning technique produced sixty three ounces while running, and requires no power.

Update ( the next morning ) :

Added more power, increased yield, lost some quality.  At half power throughout, collected twenty six ounces, with twenty six ppm.  Ran five hours for comparison purposes, which is the same amount of time.  Actually, I was more careful about cleaning, so the lower quality is significant.  To confirm this, and to compare yields and quality, I can ramp up power to three fourths.

Amen, bro!

From Instapundit, a black Lyft driver blasts Obamacare.

I agree.  Many of the problems that I am having now are related to this failed program.  It was supposed to "bend the cost curve down".  It has done the exact opposite.  Not only that, it has done so deliberately so as to make socialized medicine a palatable alternative.

I know I need medical care, and it would seem crazy to cancel this program now; but if they did, I wouldn't care.  Anything is better than this.

Club Soda Run

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Another post in the water sub series in the main off the grid series of posts.

This distillation run will use water obtained from using club soda to cause solids to precipitate out of the water.  It will also feature the use of siphoning to take such water and use it also as a coolant while filtering it out and collecting it as a sample to be used in said distillation run.  ( sounds complicated, huh?)

This sample will have a much larger TDS number of close to 300 ppm.  Yet, the water will be clearer because of the solids coming out via the club soda.  I do not know if the water will stay clear, though.  Distillation using these materials seems to add junk back in.

But the Brita filter may get it out.  We will see.  Results later on the updates.

Update:

Results:  About a five hour run.  Collected eleven ounces, lost three.  Much better.  Quality was thirty six ppm.  A run through the Brita didn't make much of a difference.  Water is fairly clear, there's a slight rubbery smell.  Obviously, not useful for drinking, cooking, or dishwashing.  Might be useful for laundry.  Especially certain types of laundry that are likely not dressing up kind of laundry.  I am thinking work clothes.  Maybe okay for showering.  But not if going to town.

The siphoning is impressive.  Collected fifty ounces while using it to cool down the plumbing.

Energy use is still excessive.  But it should be kept in mind that this isn't to be a serious device.

Water distillation Lab, 1.15.17

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Another post in the water sub series in the main off the grid series of posts.

Today was another water distillation run.  It was disappointing.  It appears that I may have gotten better results if I had cleaned a bit more thoroughly.  However, even a thorough cleaning is not going to get everything out.  The automotive heater hose must be adding contaminants back into the water, which is ruining the results.  The heater hose would have to go, but it would be hard to replace.

Initial conditions were 103 ppm, final was 69 ppm.  An improvement, sure.  But not that much of one.

Not only quality was disappointing, but so was the quantity.  Two hours on the still, and only five ounces were collected.  Not very good considering the energy expenditure.

Losses were nearly half.  Out of sixteen ounces that went in, seven were remaining after the end.  Since five were produced, that leave four ounces lost.  I figured on better results than this.

A curious thing happened, though.  In trying to aid in condensation, I used wet towels dipped in a water bath.  I figured that capillary action in the towels would replace the water that was being evaporated from the heat.  Not only did that seem to happen, but the amount of water of water pulled out of that and collected was twenty eight ounces.  Wow!

I think I can use this in some fashion.  Perhaps as a feed into the sand filter.  This is working like a siphon.

Moving on to other things in this lab: 

• I obtained some club soda and used it on the dishwashing water.  I does appear to cause some precipitate to come out of solution.  Interesting.
• I bought Brita filter to use for experiments only.
• 
  

There may be another run, but I no longer expect much improvement on these numbers.  If I can get the stuff to come out of solution before distillation, final results may be better.