Harvesting water from air: dry camping gets moister?

westend wrote:

cmcdar wrote:
I set up one of those 10X20 tents and put gutters on it and collected rain water into a big tank.

Where do you source a tank like pictured?

Search your local Craigslist for "298 Gallon Tote". Make sure it was used to ship edible substances.

cmcdar wrote:
I set up one of those 10X20 tents and put gutters on it and collected rain water into a big tank.

Where do you source a tank like pictured?

The improvement in efficiency over a conventional condenser is credited to the "microporous structure" that is deposited and lies between a small solar cell and a condenser. The moister air during evening is drawn into the material, the chamber is then sealed, and the warming of the material and condensation produces water. Does that pretty well cover the explanation of how this new device operates?

A few questions immediately occur to me: How much improvement/water production is gained over a conventional passive solar still? How is the chamber sealed at dawn? What are the expenses of producing this condenser and how are they relative to current applications?

Oft times, the "better mousetrap" is realized at a much higher cost than a previous, simpler method. Sometimes, materials are developed that are immediately applied to a poor end result but later become almost ubiquitous (Sticky Notes by 3M, for example).

Thanks for keeping us informed, Profdan. We all need a grey matter stretch every once-and-awhile. MO is that this device doesn't improve the physics of condensing water from air in a significant manner.

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
The chew on a cactus bit is a farce. I eat cacti at least twice a week. Called Nopal. Use a squeezer on 500 lbs and get a gallon of bitter slimy liquid. Nopal cactus fruits SPINY! contain lots more liquid and hundreds of almost undetectable seeds. The fruits are called "Tunas".

Never BS about the fishing to the people who live along the river.

I used a smiley-----Too bad there isn't a "Tongue in Cheek" smiley.
Wonderful water from a cactus plant.

Marvin

In this area, lonas, tarps, are used to shed morning dew condensation water into rails then into tambos, barrels.

When I had the pickup along, I filled a used king-size water bed mattress for utility water. It held an incredible amount of water. Used water bed mattresses got cheap

Caryl,

Thanks for that link above to the Smithsonian magazine article. I'd heard of that being done for folks living in arid areas, but couldn't recall the details. That's real grass roots innovation being applied for people who really need it.

That was an outstanding technique you used to gather condensation water when drycamping! I wonder if one couldn't also use the roof of their RV to accomplish the same thing? Or if they have extensive RV rooftop solar paneling - collect the condensation water off them during the night using a trough system mounted along the downward edge on each panel and then interconnecting it all with tubes running to a small tank down on the ground? This might at least allow extending one's fresh water supply enough to stay put drycamping longer.

As for any new technology, I'll believe it when I hit a clickbait site, and an ad for the product takes over the screen.

It is feasible, but it is hard to tell what is truth from what is pure BS, so new products have a much higher hurdle to hop over than in previous years.

Not sure how mobile you want to be. I dry camped for 6 months one mile away from the nearest road.

I set up one of those 10X20 tents and put gutters on it and collected rain water into a big tank.

I never ran out of water and at the end of the season I had to dump an almost full tank.


We had all the water we could use and MORE!


Or if you wanted to be real creative:

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/this-tower-pulls-drinking-water-out-of-thin-air-180950399/

In houses gray water is used on shrubs and gardens down here. Washing machine effluent is fertilizer. The Vizcaino Desert vegetation survives entirely on dew.

Of course "water from air" compressor based devices have been around for quite some time - if one has the generator or solar power for them and if the air humidity is from 35% on up - which rules them out where you might need them most ... the desert.

Here's some real life models that could possibly be used in larger RV's that have the room and electrical energy for them ... I wish the company offered a smaller model for RV use: http://www.air2water.net/solutions.html