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Forum Index : Solar : Distilling water for batteries
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| Warpspeed Guru  Joined: 09/08/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 4406 |
That looks really great. Can you play us a tune on it ? Cheers, Tony. |
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Madness Guru Joined: 08/10/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2498 |
The longer you play it the better you will think you sound. There are only 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don't. |
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Bryan1 Guru Joined: 22/02/2006 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1344 |
It is quite an orchestra with the 4 perf plate section with downcomers then the 500mm packed section accompanied with about 2 dozen SS scrubbers then the RC tunes the flow and the full reflux is introduced then thru the gin basket accompanied by the botanicals then the shotgun product condenser chimes in then and to finally finish the song the parrot comes into life. |
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| Warpspeed Guru Joined: 09/08/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 4406 |
Do you need a license for one of those, it looks dangerous ? Cheers, Tony. |
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| Bryan1 Guru Joined: 22/02/2006 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1344 |
Well the tax office hammers down on anyone who sells product but seem to turn a blind eye on people who do the right thing. I did research this for over 2 years to make sure what I make is not dangerous and infact it is better than anything you can buy. The best part is no hangovers as one only keeps the hearts and the heads and tails are put aside for another run. The homebrew shops sell stills and promote the use of turbo yeast all in the name of profit and I have talked many people around to stop using the turbo yeast and use bakers yeast and pointed them to the 5 star distilling forum. Where we have a great community of like sided moonshiners and a portal to buy the best stills in the world for both home and business. |
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| Madness Guru Joined: 08/10/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2498 |
Perhaps you could start another thread rather than hijacking this one. There are only 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don't. |
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| brucedownunder2 Guru Joined: 14/09/2005 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1548 |
Hi Bryan , you really stirred up the hornets nest with your couple posta , but I reckon the second last one takes the cake ,a bit of thought in that one ... I think your first post was to bring forth the idea that a still would be very good for distilling water for batteries, but maybe I'm a bit slow in my later years. How ya goin ,ol timer ,anyhow ? (Opps, better start me own thread ,) Cheers, Bryan , and all you other rascals out there. Bruce Bushboy |
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| Bryan1 Guru Joined: 22/02/2006 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1344 |
Hi Guy's, Eh Madness sorry for goin a tad overboard on the derail but lets say I was tempted. Anyway to get back to making distilled water I still think a crude pot still would be the go. Say a 50 litre keg with a few SS or copper fittings one could easily make a condenser and the tee off the keg. Just stick a gas burner underneath powered by a bunnings gas bottle and use a rainwater tank and pump for the cooling water. One batch would give enough for a years supply for a few hours running. Just too easy. |
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| Madness Guru Joined: 08/10/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2498 |
There is no reason to try to do years supply (120 litres) in one go, my plan is to put an element in the pressure cooker I have. It holds about 5 litres so 2 - 3 runs a month will give me enough water. That way I can run it off solar power and have a timer set to run long enough to do its job. Besides copper is not suitable for distilling battery water so I need to do it at a rate that suits the glass condenser I have ordered. By using a valve from a washing machine powered through the timer it will stop the cooling water to the condenser at the same time. So when it is a sunny day I can fill up the cooker set the time and forget it till the next suitable day. There are only 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don't. |
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| Warpspeed Guru Joined: 09/08/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 4406 |
Something like this could make an interesting variation on a dump load for the wind turbine guys. Cheers, Tony. |
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| Bryan1 Guru Joined: 22/02/2006 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1344 |
Sounds like you got the plan Madness and just one thing to add, never leave a still unintended and when you say you'll turn the water off make sure the heating element goes off too. By leaving the element running would mean steam pouring out. Cheers Bryan |
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| Madness Guru Joined: 08/10/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2498 |
The water and the element would be on the same circuit so one goes off so does the other. As fo leaving it unattended I have every intention of doing that once it is working. The pressure cooker has a safety pressure release if it gets blocked. Also I plan to use an Arduino for temperature control and controlling the heater, also I can monitor over temp and shut down if that happens also. There are only 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don't. |
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| Warpspeed Guru Joined: 09/08/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 4406 |
If you can feed cold water into your boiler to hold the water level constant, there is no reason why "brewing up" could not be made a continuous unattended process. Water level in the boiler can be sensed either with an electric probe and mosfet gate, or a float valve, neither of which need be located in the hot part of the boiler. A washing machine solenoid valve can then squirt a bit of make up water into the boiler as required. Cheers, Tony. |
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| Phil23 Guru Joined: 27/03/2016 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1664 |
Yeah, Solar Still's have always held an interest. Did spend some time browsing thru a few videos on YouTube; some have come up with some pretty cool designs. Metal free, efficient & relatively low maintenance. Also found this good bit of info. Phil |
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| Madness Guru Joined: 08/10/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2498 |
I have decided to go with an electric element in the pressure cooker and a glass condenser. Mainly because it is easier and quicker to build than a solar still. Also there are plenty of times that I have plenty of energy to spare anyway so powering it is no issue. I found an electric kettle element at the local tip shop that was very easy to fit to the Aluminium pressure cooker that came from the same place. I just hammered a flat section on one side and cut a hole, the Aluminium is close to the same thickness of the plastic kettle so it fits very well and seals perfectly. There are only 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don't. |
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| Warpspeed Guru Joined: 09/08/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 4406 |
Sounds great Madness. You might need something to see the water level, a sight glass maybe. It would be a pity to have a meltdown. Cheers, Tony. |
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| Madness Guru Joined: 08/10/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2498 |
I am planning to see how it goes with a timer, fill it with water and run for 30 minutes and see how that goes and increase the time. Sight glass won't be much help in the long run as I want to set it up to run for set time and shut down automatically while unattended. Thinking about uses for the distilled water I might need to run it quite a bit more than just for the batteries though. Two uses that come to mind are for the clothes iron and the other which is very important is for my coffee machine, it will save the need to descale. There are probably other uses that I will think of as well. The condenser and an adapter were under $55 AUD with delivery. There are only 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don't. |
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| Phil23 Guru Joined: 27/03/2016 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1664 |
Lol, I hope that's an error in their "Packaging Size". Would hate to hear your 600mm condenser actually did arrive in a 4" square box.  |
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| Madness Guru Joined: 08/10/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2498 |
Maybe they roll it up to fit in the box. Just realised my mental arithmetic failed, actually cost $43.81 AUD There are only 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don't. |
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