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A power strip with a lighted on/off switch to remind you works well for all the techno stuff plugged into it, one flick turns off the wi-fi, 'puter and its associated stuff, cellphone charger. Television and stereo stuff is another quick flip for me. LED lighting also saves bunches, swap out as much as you can. Also keep all fridge/freezer door gaskets clean and make sure they seal good, and exterior refrigerant coil is clean. A leaky fridge/ freezer will easily eat up any savings you may be trying to achieve.
Working on a thought of putting a spring pressure backflow set up downstream of pump with inline UV between it and house on a pressure switch activation set up. Spring loaded backflow would isolate untreated, or tank water from house side UV treated water instead of a 24/7 UV light to achieve the same bacterial barrier.
Edit for auto correct
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Does UV light have to warm up? I can see that being an issue. Some water might make it through untreated with each cycle.
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That was one of my questionables, Mahalo. Was wondering how much "residual bacterial contaminant" would occur, and what an acceptable ratio to be within an upper level of potable drinking water standards. Another was if the bulb itself could handle on/off cycles. I guess more research into a 12 volt type like the Sterilite S5Q-P/12VDC is in order. Another battery and RV solar panel...
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That is extremely relevant and often overlooked. In my job I deal with gas analyzers. I have seen failures occur at least twice when power was cycled. Cycling power is hard on electronics and all your energy savings may literally go up in smoke if you smoke the UV lamp or power supply.
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UV LED's have no warm up time and consume a lot less wattage as a normal light. Like the one on Amazon, you could get a "flow" switch to turn it on when the water runs and back off when it's not. I might add that led's last a really long time and with a flow switch you'd probably never if ever burn it out for life of the home ownership.
That would save you big bucks in power here on the big island.
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quote:
Originally posted by ericlp
80 watts? sheesh, get one of these...
http://www.amazon.com/iSpring-UVF11A-110...B00FKC3ZT6
11 watts and a flow sensor switch. 80 x 24 is about 2kW... That's about a buck a day just to run UV. You could bring down your electric bill by about 30 buck a month using the above. I don't know a lot about UV lights, but I'd at least install a water flow switch on the one you got.
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Problem is that unit is rated for 1 gallon per minute (ours is rated for 15 gallons per minute). I don't use 15 gallons per minute but definitely more than 1.
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You could put a water saver on your sink to be less than a gallon per minute. I know my sinks don't use a gallon per minute maybe 1 gallon tops. But you could find a flow switch to run your 80 watt lamp that would save big bucks right there!
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After some thought I think it is not good to turn off the UV lamp. It provides a barrier to contamination whether the water is flowing or not. Rather, a barrier to contamination is needed whether the water is flowing or not since given enough time the bacteria could get through. What about a dripping faucet? There is enough flow to carry bacteria across but not enough to start the lamp. Compromising the effectiveness of the system for the sake of a few bucks is false economy.
Terracore: What system do you have? The Pura UV-BB-3 system claims to treat 15 gpm but use only 22 watts.
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quote:
Originally posted by ericlp
You could put a water saver on your sink to be less than a gallon per minute. I know my sinks don't use a gallon per minute maybe 1 gallon tops. But you could find a flow switch to run your 80 watt lamp that would save big bucks right there!
So you would only use one faucet in the house at a time? Typical shower heads use around 2.5 gpm. I wouldn't want to be so cheap that miscellaneous electricity costs ruled my life.
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I was wrong about the 80 watts. I think I was thinking "80 dollars" what somebody told me it cost to operate for a year and over time I got mixed up. I just looked at the specs and the lamp is 39 watts and the entire unit consumes 48 watts.
ETA: I have the Sterilight system they sell at Island Catchment
