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steve77 · 17-10-2021, 19:07

First, this is not for a boat. We have Lifeline AGMs aboard, but are now working on a solar power project for schools in the mountains of Honduras. This is no joke the boonies - they may never get utility power up to these mountain communities.

We have flooded cells for energy storage, but distilled water is simply not available in these communities. My thought was to use either spring water or rain water. Either one would be filtered through a screen to remove large particulates. I thought of having them use a cloth, but think they may wind up using whatever rag they can find, and this may introduce more impurities than it removes.

There is no source of what one could call “tap water”. I can either have them use spring water or rain water.

Any thoughts on which would be better? Also, I would be interested in suggestions on how to filter the water. Thanks!

Steve

Fishzine · 17-10-2021, 19:20

In most places rain is going to have lower TDS (total dissolved solids), and is nature's distilled water. Spring water is going to usually pick up a bunch of dissolved stuff as it filters thru the ground).

If you want better then rainwater, it is pretty easy to make small quantiles of distilled water. Lots of example setup's online, but all you need is a of water brought to boil, and to catch the steam as it condenses. I would probably do pot in pot type method. It is simple and can easily pump out gallons of it without too much effort.

steve77 · 17-10-2021, 19:24

Thanks, Fishzine.

I appreciate the comments on rainwater. I don’t think I can count on the locals to boil and collect distilled water, so I’m not going to pursue that option. I think that once I’m back in the US they will see it as too much trouble.

Appreciate the input!

Steve

HeywoodJ · 17-10-2021, 19:29

+1

Spring water is a complete unknown that depends on local geology. Rainwater, carefully collected, is pretty low in mineral content. Have to teach them to collect specifically toward the end of a rainfall (all dirt and minerals flushed from the collection system by the earlier parts of the rain fall) for battery use.

Distillation is not hard (for the quantities needed for batteries). Are there any pressure cookers in the village? Just one is enough, with a short length of clean metal tubing from the steam vent you can distill water with commonly available equipment (and still use it for cooking the rest of the time). Use a loose fit of the tubing over the vent so that if the tubing gets blocked there is no pressure build up in the pot.

PaulCrawhorn · 17-10-2021, 20:20

If they can't distill water after you're gone, they sure can't keep the system working for long either.

**Don C L** · 17-10-2021, 21:08

Where are you in Honduras? My sister-in-law has a solar business in Honduras and has been running it for quite a while, named Soluz. I am sure you are not the first to have this problem. We'll give her a call to find out what they do. There are distilling kits similar to what Heywoodj mentions I believe. I'll check.

**JPA Cate** · 17-10-2021, 21:10

Rain water will do. We used it for years. Common to stick a rope or chain. on a roof and place a barrel with a lid, and an opening just big enough for the line or chain from the roof to the lid and on in. Can stick a clean rag around in the hole to keep out bugs and varmints.

Paul Crawhorn's right, though: however you do it, they have to find it easy to keep up --or they won't. And it's only good for the life of the batteries, so if they've no income and no way to replace them when the time comes, might want to look at something different.

Good luck with it. So many people need so much, and meaningful help is so hard to deliver.

Ann

Alan Mighty · 17-10-2021, 22:11

Possibilities:

* reverse-osmosis water; and

* harvesting condensate from air conditioners and refrigerators. If the condensate is formed on non-metallic surfaces or surfaces with a non-metallic coating, if the air is relatively clean, and if the piping collecting the condensate is non-metallic, then the condensate approaches distilled water in having low metal ion concentrations. A large commercial air conditioning system operating in a humid tropical climate can generate thousands of litres of condensate each day. The City of San Antonio TX requires commercial air conditioning systems to collect airconditioning condensate for irrigation (https://docsonline.sanantonio.gov/Fi.../dsd/IB163.pdf).

steve77 · 18-10-2021, 05:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by Don C L

Where are you in Honduras? My sister-in-law has a solar business in Honduras and has been running it for quite a while, named Soluz. I am sure you are not the first to have this problem. We'll give her a call to find out what they do. There are distilling kits similar to what Heywoodj mentions I believe. I'll check.

Good morning, Don. The schools are all in Olancho, in the mountains south of Juticalpa towards Nicaragua. These are funded by the Catholic Church and supported by the parents of the students. Each school has around 50 students. There is a person assigned to maintain the solar installations although I have not met him.

I looked up your sisters business and it looks like she is in San Pedro Sula. Unfortunately, that’s a long way from where this installation is. I’d sure like to hear her thoughts on how they keep batteries topped off up in the mountains.

Cheers!

Steve

steve77 · 18-10-2021, 05:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

Rain water will do. We used it for years. Common to stick a rope or chain. on a roof and place a barrel with a lid, and an opening just big enough for the line or chain from the roof to the lid and on in. Can stick a clean rag around in the hole to keep out bugs and varmints.

Paul Crawhorn's right, though: however you do it, they have to find it easy to keep up --or they won't. And it's only good for the life of the batteries, so if they've no income and now way to replace them when the time comes, might want to look at something different.

Good luck with it. So many people need so much, and meaningful help is so hard to deliver.

Ann

Thanks, Ann. As I said in an earlier post, the schools are funded by the Catholic Church and a person is assigned to maintain the systems. I installed two of them eight years ago (480 Watts each), but for personal reasons have not been back to Honduras since then. I will be going back in November to see how it is going.

I want to spend time with the maintenance guy to make sure that he is keeping the systems up as well as he can. I know the batteries have been replaced at least once since I left, so there is some attempt to keep the system running. However, we are now looking at expanding the system, which will greatly increase the size of the storage bank. I want to make sure that we can get enough suitable water to keep the batteries maintained.

Thanks!

Steve

belizesailor · 18-10-2021, 06:16

Battery electrolite solutions are pretty common in Central American hardware stores. If the charging system is properly configured and batteries in good condition then they should not need to top up often. They will also need to go to town to provision periodically anyway. So, why not use electrolite with on site distilled/collected water as plan B?

belizesailor · 18-10-2021, 06:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alan Mighty

Possibilities:

* reverse-osmosis water; and

* harvesting condensate from air conditioners and refrigerators. If the condensate is formed on non-metallic surfaces or surfaces with a non-metallic coating, if the air is relatively clean, and if the piping collecting the condensate is non-metallic, then the condensate approaches distilled water in having low metal ion concentrations. A large commercial air conditioning system operating in a humid tropical climate can generate thousands of litres of condensate each day. The City of San Antonio TX requires commercial air conditioning systems to collect airconditioning condensate for irrigation (https://docsonline.sanantonio.gov/Fi.../dsd/IB163.pdf).

Neither is viable for remote Honduras. How are they gonna run air-con?

bobnlesley · 18-10-2021, 06:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fishzine

In most places rain is going to have lower TDS (total dissolved solids), and is nature's distilled water...

That's what we used without problems for our Trojans in the backwaters of the Comerwijn River in Suriname; as a bonus there was never ending supply of the stuff too

**Don C L** · 18-10-2021, 06:44

OK, the word from them is to use rainwater that has not touched metal. So a plastic tarp and a plastic jug and a good rainstorm should give you enough to last quite a while.
Good luck, I hope things are going well down there, I haven't been down in quite a while. The Hondurans are a very resilient bunch but given getting hammered by 2 hurricanes in a row and the other stuff, I know things are even tougher these days.