Scott Strikes Again, the Solar Water Still

The post on the next page was extracted from another one of Scott's emails about solar energy. His latest brainstorm the solar water still. Please feel free to comment. Don't be afraid to be kind, funny, or mean.

Man, I never thought I would run out of space on my roof, but last night I was thinking about all the polluted water out there, and how I could use some Solar power to get some safe, clean water to drink.

When I was in Boy Scouts, we built this little gizmo out of a piece of plastic and the sun actually produced drinkable water "right out of the air". Pretty amazing stuff when you are stranded out in the woods and need something safe to drink.

So I was dreaming last night about Dave down there in Alabama drinking moonshine, and thought "Why not a Solar still?" Eureka!! My daughter screamed "Not from our lake! Dad, the ducks and geese constantly poop in that water, and the home-owners association is dumping herbicides in there every week to kill the weeds." Actually, I did notice some of those white PVC pipes running down from nearby houses right into the lake.

I want to take some water from the lake in my back yard and just eliminate all harmful microbes, chemical contaminates, salt, minerals, and any other impurities from any type of water using only the free evaporative power of the sun!!

I just happened to have added a new patio storm door to my house, and by some dumb mistake I actually ordered the wrong size door. I am pretty sure it was the HD clerk who miswrote the order, but since one can't return "special order" doors at HD, I was stuck with this nice piece of glass in a steel frame.

My still utilizes standard patio replacement glass (34"X 76") and has no moving parts, uses only solar energy to operate, and is self cleaning.

It is so efficient that solar distillation is still possible on partly cloudy and light overcast days. About 1/4 of the pure water produced each 24 hour day is at night after the sun sets. Stored heat inside the still helps to continue distillation process but at a slower rate. Boiling water to obtain the purest evaporated water is less effective than solar distillation because some chemical pollutants, and compounds will vaporize at higher temperatures above 200 degrees F but not at the lower solar still temps.

Pretty much, just a square black box, covered with glass, with some silicone caulking, and an input line from a plastic jug, with another output line down to our kitchen sink, with a small storage container sitting there. I used an old Clorox bottle. If you know anything about Clorox, it is really great to mix with water when you don't trust others to tell you the truth about your water quality.