Home Water Filtration Systems Overview
Activated Carbon and Reverse Osmosis Filters while UV Kills Microbes
Jan 10, 2009
A home water filtration system can be simple or complex. It may be a Brita pitcher in the refrigerator, a Pur kitchen sink attachment or a reverse osmosis system serving the entire home. Buyer beware; there are some technologies based on questionable science.
Although any time is a good time to begin using one of these systems, why not take the opportunity to install one when performing a kitchen or bath remodel? This article explains some of the most common filters.
- Activated Carbon Filters – Carbon filters are one of the most common and are well known for their economy and efficiency. They are usually powdered block carbon or granular activated carbon (GAC). They are both rated by the size of the particles they are engineered to remove. They cover the scale from 0.5 microns (most effective) down to 50 microns (least effective), and are obviously measured in microns. The actual carbon materials are bituminous, wood, and coconut shell carbons. Coconut is a sustainable material and is the most efficient. Principally, GAC is good at removing VOCs and clorine. It is also a great choice for removing radon. Not being very good at removing sediment, in mucky conditions, it should be preceded by a particulate filter.
- Reverse Osmosis (RO) – This technology is also called hyperfiltration. It's the best filtration available to the homeowner. In fact, most premium bottled water companies claim to use this process. Its strong suit is eliminating a wide array of contaminants. Reverse osmosis actually removes particles as small as individual ions. Digging down deeper, there are two flavors to choose from: TFC (Thin Film Composite) and CTA (Cellulose Triacetate). Which to choose? It's a trade-off. TFC is more efficient at filtration, but chlorine degrades it much faster than CTA. A RO system uses a GAC as a pre-filter in front of the RO membrane.
- Ultraviolet Water Purification Lamps - These work by emitting UV-C or "germicidal UV”. As such, it is very effective against bacterial contaminants, but is not designed to remove particulate matter. To do so, it is paired with another filtration technology. It has no effect on chlorine and very little on VOCs. How does it work? Health risk microbes are irradiated by the UV rays. This causes the microbe's nucleic acid to absorb the lamp's UV energy. The net effect is that the the DNA structure becomes scrambled and the cell ends up sterile and no longer a threat to human health. Very clever.
- Magnetic Filtration Systems – Homeowners being pitched one of these systems should run, run, run! Although some of the arguments presented can sound persuasive, so do political campaign promises, but the bottom line is that they are all pure bunk!
Good Water is Part of Good Health
Clean water in and of itself is not guarantee of good health, but there's no doubt that it is an important component. Installing one of the above systems in the home makes much more sense than relying on commercial bottled water, simply because there is rarely any third-party monitoring to ensure that the consumer is being delivered what's been promised.
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