Solar Distillation??? Viable source of dis-H2O?

[Oqsy]

"I absolutely refuse to believe on blind faith that water coming out of a bottle or my tap contains magical salts and minerals that are simply not present in any quantities in a balanced diet."

you're absolutely right. if anything i said hinted otherwise then let me retract it. there is a RISK for people who have electrolyte balance problems (fairly common in the elderly and people with strict diets) of acidosis or increased heart arrythmias. for someone that eats sqaure meals and sticks to the food pyramid, it most likely would never ever hurt them, but those people are rare. moreso, if bottled spring water or mineral water is less likely to cause problems, however slight the difference, then why not just skip the distilled and go for the spring water? they're right next to each other on the same shelf in every grocery store i've been in, and comparably priced... with the exception of dialysis patients or other strictly monitored fluid intake diets, i see no reason why you would choose distilled over spring. what's the point? that it's "sterile"? because once it hits your lips or your glass it's no longer sterile... that it's pure? once again, hits your lips or glass, no longer "pure". that it's "healthier"? if the premise at the beginning of this argument was true, in that the person in question has a balanced diet, then why all the bugging out over water intake? a little mg, ca, k, or na gonna kill you? not in an individual who is otherwise healthy and eats well... any other reasons for drinking distilled over spring water? please fill me in...


in response to the original intent of this post, i would be quite interested in the volume of water you could distill in a day or a week with a home or diy distillery.... if it's significant and cheap to set up, then i might just give up on the RO unit dream.

Oqsy

[fedge]

Geez what an arguement... lol

I think that a 4 square foot sheet of glass can produce about 3 gallons a day of distilled water... approximately. (depends on the conditions of the sun, temp, etc though I would guess--can't make the water outside when its 30 below zero.. )

[zapus]

That sounds a bit optimistic to me. This design http://www.bagelhole.org/article.php/Water/267/ gets that amount from somewhere around 18 sq. ft.

[fedge]

Yah I was off on that.. I was thinking about 3feet by 4 feet.. must have been tired when i input that.....