Water Purifies Itself Continuously

When rain falls and before it comes into contact with any aerial pollution the water created from condensed vapour is pure. This water then falls upon the land and becomes contaminated with fertilisers and other materials.
The water then flows into rivers and streams or sinks through the soil to be stored underground.
However when water is evaporated the impurities are left behind (as though the water had been distilled) and the resulting water vapour starts the cycle all over again.
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water, evaporation, contamination, vapour

A Snake in a Pond and Good Pond Water Filter

Tony,
I am really learning a lot from your e-mails!!! What a great resource for information. Anybody interested in receiving emails can opt-in at my main website Practical Water Gardens
My husband and I are novice pond keepers. Last year we were getting ready to spend a fortune on a pond filter. Someone gave us an idea to save us some money.
We purchased a 100 gallon container and filled it 3/4 of the way with lava rock, running our line from the pump on the bottom. We added moss and water hyacinths on the top. We cut 2 holes in the top front of the container and used PVC pipe to let the water drain over a rock back into the pond to provide aeration. We surrounded the container on the outside with rock. It does a really great job!! Our pond was totally green and in just 3 days it was crystal clear!!!
I was wondering how often we needed to change the lava rock and if there was anything else we might need to do. If we don't have a problem with algae, should we still get a UV filter? And, I read in your last e-mail that ponds shouldn't have a flat surface on the bottom, which ours does. What can I do to remedy that situation? Are snails good or bad to have in your pond?
We live in Alabama and our 1500gal pond is in full sun. We have a variety of Koi and goldfish and several plants. We also have some unwelcome guests, like the water moccasin that likes to sun on our rocks. Do you have any advice on how to keep snakes away from your pond other that purchasing a mongoose to run loose in my backyard!?
We have a lot of pond books and each one tells us we need something different. It can get really confusing. So I thought I would e-mail you and ask for your advice.

Thank you,

Kim

My response:

Kim, I don't fancy the idea of having a water mocassin in a pond. Unfortunately I don't know how to keep snakes away ... as far as your filter is concerned you have done a good job. It would do no harm to clean out as regulary as you can but if a big job clean say every 3 months. You might find it useful to put the lave rock inside shade netting or other open mesh plastic bags so that you can lift the rock out easily.
Only use pond water to rinse down the rocks and put the rocks back into the filter quickly ... do not let them dry out. Do NOT feed the fish for a few days after doing the cleaning.
If your pond stays clear don't install an UV but if it goes murky or green then it would be a good idea.
I'm not sure what you mean by flat surface ... in general the bottom of a pond should not be covered with rocks or sand or soil.
Snails are good for a pond ... the fish will eat the small ones.
Sounds like you've done a great job
If you do the things I suggest in my emails and book you don't need to do anything else

Tony
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water moccasin, snake, clean pond, filter, uv, water

Fishing for Trout

I re-discovered my diary of 1992 the other day in which I recorded my fishing experiences in the UK on the River Wharfe and in the USA in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming.
The entries brought back great memories and show that I learned some great fly fishing techniques taught by able masters like Craig Fellin, Jim Stubbs and Brett Downey ... in particular I was amazed at the quality of fly fishing on the Bighorn River in Montana where I was guided by Brett Downey. If you're interested you can read some of these flyfishing diary entries here.
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flyfishing, montana, idaho, wyoming, diary, wharfe, bighorn, bighole

Alfagrog and Biofilters for Fish and Duck Ponds

Algfagrog is what we call a pond filter biomedium... bacteria grow on the surface and these bacteria in turn purify the pond water keeping fish healthy in a pond environment. I got this email from one of my newsletter readers and it has a general appeal so I'm publishing it here.
Hi Anthony
As a new subscriber, I have been reading your words of wisdom with great interest – especially those about not succumbing to the temptation of buying overpriced biofilters. I built my own filter 20 years ago (hand packed concrete, 0.8m3 capacity, partially filled with 13mm crushed stone in orange bags packed in such a way that I get largely horizontal water flow, thus keeping the anaerobic bacteria at bay) Not elegant, but it has never let me down. As a biologist turned engineer, I understand how these things work. I do, however, have to lift the stones once a year and vacuum out the sludge with a submersible sump pump.
Which brings me to my first point…….. I am no longer a spring chicken and lifting the crushed stone has become arduous. Substituting them with Alfagrog seems like a good idea to me because a significantly smaller volume would be required. The sludge I refer to is mainly decomposed leaves from an overhanging tree – my leaf trap does not catch them all. (By the way, evergreen is not the opposite of deciduous. All trees lose all their leaves every year – the only difference is that the deciduous ones are considerate enough to drop them all at pretty much the same time) How does Alfagrog behave under these conditions? I imagine that, with thousands of little holes and passages, it would be susceptible to rapidly glogging up and in need of more frequent rinsing. If so, what are the mechanical filtration options? Are brushes any good, or could I use shade cloth curtains inside the biofilter? I do have space for either.
My second point is that I am about to build a duck pond, and this too will be sufficiently close to trees to suffer from the same leaf-drop problem. I can solve it partially with a more sophisticated leaf skimmer but it will not catch them all so the Alfagrog clogging question arises again. I really do not want a swimming pool sand filter anywhere in the system – channeling, lack of space, noisy surface mounted high pressure pump, high electricity consumption compared to Oase submersibles etc. On biological issues, I have assumed that nitrogen production from one 800g duck is equivalent to that of a 3Kg koi and will size my filter and duck population accordingly.
I look forward to hearing from you
Kind regards

Humphrey McAllister

And my reply

Humphrey
Thanks for the email.
Alfagrog has a bulk density of about 0.5 kg per litre. It is highly porous but in my experience so long as occasional back wash (or dunking of the orange bag into a container of pond water) carried out it does not easily block.
To reduce any tendency to blocking brushes or foam or "scrunched up" shade netting as you use now will remove much of larger debris but most of the blockage if any will be from dead algae which most brushes and foams will not necessarily remove.
One thing if you do exchange Alfagrog for stones do not remove all the stone until Alfagrog is established.
Duck ponds ... I have always been wary of suggesting any kind of biofilter for duck ponds because of extreme waste and general mess they create.
You can get Alfagrog from Ken Lombard 012-666-9888 if you want some ... he can also supply liner 500 micron or thicker (as used in large reservoirs) if that's what you want for the duck pond. See http://www.fibrefeatures.co.za

It might be worth having a chat with Ken ... he has a very large koi pond and biofilter filled with Alfagrog which has been in operation for about 3 or 4 years.

Tony

PS Alfagrog is called SUPRA in USA
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alfagrog, koi, fish, clear ponds, algae, filter, biofilter

Showing Ken

This is a test blog entry about water features

MPs in the British Parliament Like Their Water

The bars in the Commons section of the British Houses of Parliament sell 100,000 bottles of water a year. Committee members devour 16,200 litres for free and 34,000 litres of "bottled" water are supplied in coolers throughout the "House".

This is while the whole of the UK is asked to cut back on bottled water consumption by the same people.

A senior MP has reached the conclusion that maybe there is a need to change policy inside the "House".

What's in your bottled water? Competition.

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) in the USA are doing a competition with respect to Bottled Water.

Entries Information:
Help us study bottled water labels and win a 100% organic cotton shopping bag and a Klean Kanteen water bottle! Entries should be postmarked on or before Friday, March 7.
Here's what you do to enter the contest:

1. Click your region on the map on the website (ewg link above.)
2. Next time you go to the store, buy brands from the list. Make sure the bottle is clear plastic or glass and that the water is not sparkling and not flavored.
3. Remove entire label carefully from bottle. Keep in mind that we are trying to get all the information from the labels, so if you have to cut the bottles around the label to get it off in one piece, feel free to do so.
4. Fill out your contact information above, check off the brands you bought, put the labels and this list in an envelope, and send it to:

Environmental Working Group
Attn: Nneka Leiba
1436 U St NW, Ste 100
Washington, DC 20009

Technorati Tags:
bottled water, competition, ewg, environmental working group

How About this for Saving CO2 Emisions?

This post has nothing whatsoever to do with water except that you might get wet doing what's suggested especially in London.
There's a fascinating website called Walkit from a UK company. Here's how it works...
You decide to go for a walk in London and you want to have a map of the walk ... in the example I used I wanted to walk from The Strand, corner of Fleet St to Fenchurch St Station. Before the map was generated you're asked if you want to take a slower route or a normal (direct) route.
After adding these simple requirements a map and instructions are generated ... see map above with instructions below (on site you get better listed instructions) ... the route is overlayed on the map using a thick blue line.
In addition to the basic map information it tells you distance (2 miles, 3.3 kms) and how long it will take to finish the walk at 3 different speeds ... fast, slow or medium. It even tells you how many calories you will bun up at the different speeds. Not only that it tells you how much CO2 emission you have saved by not taking either a car a taxi or a bus.
Walkit allows you to choose a route with least pollution exposure for London.

Start out along MIDDLE TEMPLE LANE, heading south. After 1/4 mile turn left onto VICTORIA EMBANKMENT, heading east. You'll eventually pass TAYLOR WESSING Business Facility. After 250 yards bear left onto THAMES PATH - VICTORIA EMBANKMENT, heading east. After 250 yards continue onto THAMES PATH - PAULS WALK, heading east. After 1/2 mile continue onto BROKEN WHARF, heading north. After 43 yards bear right onto HIGH TIMBER STREET, heading east. After 150 yards continue straight onto UPPER THAMES STREET, heading east. After 82 yards turn right onto KENNET WHARF LANE, heading south. After 150 yards bear left onto THAMES PATH WEST, heading south. After 250 yards turn left onto COUSIN LANE, heading north. After 13 yards turn right onto THAMES PATH WEST, heading east. After 77 yards turn right onto ALLHALLOWS LANE, heading south. After 13 yards turn left onto THAMES PATH WEST, heading east. After 250 yards continue straight onto THAMES PATH, heading east. After 48 yards continue onto THAMES PATH - GRANTS QUAY WHARF, heading south. After 66 yards continue straight onto THAMES PATH - DARK HOUSE WALK, heading east. After 76 yards continue onto THAMES PATH - OLD BILLINGSGATE WALK, heading east. After 150 yards continue straight onto THAMES PATH - CUSTOM HOUSE WALK, heading east. After 150 yards continue straight onto THAMES PATH - SUGAR QUAY WALK, heading east. After 88 yards continue onto THAMES PATH - THREE QUAYS WALK, heading east. After 72 yards continue onto THREE QUAYS WALK, heading north. After 60 yards continue straight onto PETTY WALES, heading north. After 83 yards turn left onto TOWER HILL TERRACE at , heading north. After 16 yards continue onto FOOTPATH, heading north. After 150 yards continue onto GREAT TOWER STREET, heading north. After 42 yards turn right onto MARK LANE, heading north. After 150 yards turn right onto HART STREET at , heading east. After 50 yards turn left onto NEW LONDON STREET at , heading north. After 63 yards turn right onto FENCHURCH PLACE at , heading north. You will reach your destination 20 yards along FENCHURCH PLACE.

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london, walkit, Uk, co2 emissions, walking, route, map

How to Save Water with Self Cleaning Clothes.

Sure, it sounds like a joke and will probably turn out that way but here's something new...
A new nanocoating for garments seems to potentially offer to let woolen and silken items clean themselves. It is easy to damage sensitive articles in washing so this new technology is being punted as a way to remove stains and dirts from clothes.
Nanocrystals made from anatase titanium dioxide seems to be the secret.
Anatase titanium dioxide works by using normal sunlight to break down stains and even microbes from bodily odours and the like.
Anatase titanium dioxide is capable of photocatalytic degradation... this is using light to break down dirt and stains, as well as potentially harmful micro-organisms. The Nanocrystals have no impact upon the touch and feel of the clothes to which they are bound.
A test on a red wine stain showed that after 20 hours exposure to the sun the stain had disappeared (almost the report says).
The report goes on to say that even if the process of sunlight cleaning does not appeal to everybody the Nanocrystals also have the propery of making clothes stand up better to the rough and tumble of a washing machine.

Let's wait and watch developments ... I'm a bit sceptical myself and will stick to having my clothes washed or dry cleaned... with a dash of water softener added. Full article here.
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anatase titanium dioxide, nanocrystals, woolen, silk, wahing, photocatalytic degradation

Do You Need to Measure Volume of Your Garden Pond?

If you own a fish pond then sooner or later you will need to know how much water it holds. This is to allow especially for medication of sick fish when dosing levels are important.
Well I've made this easy using an Excel calculator which you get free here ... click for pond calculator.
The basis for the calculator is to sketch the shape of the pond (easier if you do it on graph paper) then divide the surface of the pond into equal sized square blocks. You then count the number of blocks covering the actual pond surface.
If you know the area of a single block then you can calculate total area of the pond surface ... number of blocks x area of one block.
If you take this area figure and multiply by the average depth of the pond you will get the actual volume of water in the pond.
You can get the average depth of the pond by taking a stick and inserting the stick at 10 different points noting the depth for each point... adding up the ten results and dividing by ten will give you the average depth.
There are 12 pond calculators in the series and I will describe each one over the next 2 weeks or so.
It's important to use consistent units and this is why the free calculator is a good idea.
Technorati Tags:
clean pond, bottled water, volume, excel, calculator, fish

Main Conclusions from National Resources Defense Council Study on Bottled Water.

People in the USA are buying more and more bottled water.
The bottled water industry is worth $4 billion-a-year business in the USA alone. For some reason which does not make too much sense millions of consumers pay between 240 and 10,000 times more per gallon of bottled water compared to the cost of tap water.
Some bottled water contains bacteria, and several brands of bottled water contain organic chemicals including industrial solvents, and a range of other very undesirable chemicals.
Bottled water regulations are far from good enough as explained in the report. The report also goes on to show instances of misleading marketing of some brands of bottled water. Read this important report here if you buy bottled water.
There are alternatives to buying bottled water if the quality of tap water is of concern.
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bottled water, usa

Water and Drought in the USA

An indication of drought conditions is when rivers and streams run at lower than normal levels. In the USA the USGS (United States Geographical Survey) provide a daily graphical report showing a map of the USA and highlighting areas of drought. The map is color-coded to highlight the relative severity of the drought.
As an example on February 23rd a large part of North Carolina was suffering from severe drought conditions as also were parts of Virginia. Fairly large sections of the upper western USA was suffering from moderate drought.
This is an interesting map and well worth a look here.
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drought, use, north carolina, virginia, water

Where to Get Information on Water Hardness

As mentioned previously hard water results in less than bright laundry, dull hair, tide marks around the bath and scaling of kettles and other systems for electrically heating water using a coil in contact with water.
You can see a map of hard water areas here: for UK and for USA
To get specific information for your local neighbourhood contact the water department or the local City municipality will provide the answer and here's how to understand the jargon ... hardness is expressed as parts per million (ppm) or mgs/litre (= ppm) or grains per gallon (gpg) and even something called epm (equivalents per million). If you remember: that 17.1 PPM (parts per million), equals 1 GPG then things become a bit simpler to understand. Here's an example ....
Example: You water supply has 300 PPM of calcium. Divide 300 by 17.1.
This gives the GPG (grains per gallon) of hardness which in this case = 17.5 gpg. By referring to the table above this means your water is very hard. To go from gpg to ppm or mg/litre you do the opposite and multiply by 17.1
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hard water, uk, usa, laundry, heating, electric coils

Fascinating Water Facts

Farming consumes 87% of the fresh water used in the world.
Rain is the result of evaporation from the seas and lakes and rivers and the land. We're lucky even though only 14% of water evaporates from the land we receive in terms of rainfall 24% of the total evaporation.
People need only half a gallon or less per day to survive but in the USA the average consumption is 100 gallons per day. Guess where it is all used. Check here.
The world average water consumption is 22 gallons per day ...
The vegetable, squash, sweats or loses water from its leaves equivalent to 10 times its weight in water per day. Many deciduous trees sweat 2 to 6 times their weight.
Depending on the water quality and purification treatments used, drinking water costs from $1.1- to $1.25 per 1,000 gallons, more if the water is charcoal filtered and even more if salts have to be removed. Compare to the cost of bottled water.
To desalinate water costs $7.60 per 1,000 gallon
In the USA ground water provides about 46 percent of the water used by all households.
Farming uses about 66 percent groundwater in Texas and 38 percent in California.
The Ogallala aquifer in the USA is running dry slowly.
Read more about this fascinating topic here ...Reference is Cornell
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ogallala, aquifer, bottled water, rain, irrigation, groundwater, oceans

Solar Water Heaters and The Greenhouse Effect

I've just come across an excellent and interesting article that provides the historical (goes back to 1767) background to solar heating and how this can correlate to the greenhouse effect the earth is experiencing. The full story can be seen by clicking the link at the end of this short post. The first solar water heater was built in 1891 (yes more than 100 years ago) and was called The Climax.
The Climax was put out of business in 1909 (99years ago)with the development of the "Day and Night Solar Water Heater"
The discovery and development of the oil gas and petrochemical industries mainly stifled further development in solar water heating until the Israelis suffering from a shortage of oil really became interested in the technology... more than 90 percent of Israeli households heat their water with the sun. Cyprus is the next biggest user.
Do read this article ...
Background to solar heating technology and the greenhouse effect .
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climax, solar, bottled water, heater, greenhouse, effect

Disspelling Bottled Water Myths

I came across an interesting article on bottled water which makes the very strong point that bottled water is not what it is made to seem like ... especially by the manufacturers and distributors. You can read the full article here but some of the essential points are:

1 To make a single plastic bottle that holds the water it takes 7 litres of tap water.
2. A large bottle of bottled water costs as much as 10,000 litres of tap water.
3. Only 25% or so of plastic bottles used to sell bottled water are recycled ... the rest are strewn around the countryside or placed in landfills.
4. The carbon emission associated just with the transport of bottled water is some 33,000 tons equivalent of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) emissions.

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bottled water, carbon dioxide, emissions, co2, plastic bottles

Bottled Water "Crimes"

Despite excellent domestic tap water sanitation systems in place in most developed countries bottled water sales continue to climb dramatically. This one however takes the cake:

In a 12-month period in 2006 and 2007, Warwickshire County Council spent £118,350 - more than £2,000 a week - on drinking water. Read the rest of this tale here ...

Power Consumption by Common Household Appliances

Everybody today is acutely aware of the need to save energy for the good not only of our pockets but for the good of the whole planet whose future is threatened by climate change associated with higher and higher carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere much of which is the direct result of generating energy.
Below is a list of the common items used in many households. The wattage is the power used during one hour of continuous use. Of course not all items would run for one hour.
Here's how to use the information.
Divide the watts by 1000 to get kilowatts ... a kilowatt is the standard unit for costing of electricity. Where I live a unit costs R0.40 so a gadget consuming 1000 watts would cost 1000/1000 x 0.40 = 40 cents per hour of running time.
In the table below you'll notice all appliances using water consume large amounts of electricity. This is an area to target for saving the most.

Electricity Consumption of Household Appliances (courtesy of Eskom South Africa)

Hair drier (400-1000 W) uses 600 watt
Hair curlers uses 400 watt
Hi-Fi uses 100 watt
Infrared lamp uses 300 watt
Electric Blanket uses 100 watt
Lights (average 10×75 W) uses 800 watt
Radio uses 100 watt
Vacuum cleaner uses 600 watt
Iron (600-2 000 W) uses 1 500 watt
Television 66cm colour uses 300 watt
Television 48cm colour uses 80 watt
Television 66cm black/whitecolour uses 70 watt
Floor polisher uses 400 watt
Dishwasher uses 2 800 watt
Stove (2 plates + oven) uses 3 000 to 8 000 watt
Frying pan uses 1 500 watt
Frier (rotating) uses 400 watt
Toaster uses 1 100 watt
Coffee filter uses 600 watt
Coffee filter uses 600 watt
Kettle (1 500-3 000 W) uses 2000 watt
Coffee grinder uses 300 watt
Microwave oven uses 1 500 watt
Juice extractor (large) uses 300 watt
Juice extractor (small) uses 100 watt
Food mixer uses 200 watt
Freezer uses 600 watt
Waffle grill uses 800 watt
Warming tray (Salton) uses 900 watt
Oil Heater uses 2 000 watt
Fan Heater uses 2 000 watt
Ceramic/Capil Heater uses 1 500 watt
Panel Heater uses 1 100 watt
Washing machine not heated uses 800 watt
Washing machine auto heated uses 2000 watt
Washdry Motor uses 800 watt
Tumble drier uses 3000 watt
Geyser uses 3000 watt
Battery charger (car) uses 600 watt
Drill uses 500 watt
Grinder uses 300 watt
Soldering iron uses 300 watt
Welder (portable and single phase) uses 3 000 watt

Technorati Tags:
electricity, Eskom, south africa, appliances, household, watts, washing machine, heater,

What is Soft Water? What is Hard Water?

Have you ever washed your hands and the water feels a bit slimy? On the other hand have you ever washed your hands and it is difficult to make a lather?
You probably have experienced both these situations. In the first case you were exposed to SOFT water and in the latter case you washed your hands in HARD water.
Hard water contains much more carbonate and sulphate chemicals (ions actually) and it is these that make water hard ... hard water is responsible for the furring of electrical coils in a kettle for example. In this situation repeated boiling of water results in precipitation of the carbonates and sulphates.
Another example of hard water is the scum line left behind after a bath. The scum line doesn't mean you were extra dirty. The soap reacts with the dissolved salts to create an insoluble deposit.
Most housewives would have used a softening product to add to the washing machine towards the end of a wash cycle. This kind of product is designed to soften the rinse water which does result in a brighter and softer feel to clothes coming out of the washing machine.
Hair washed in soft water would tend to shine more than hair washed in hard water.
The conclusion: Soft water is preferred in general for good clean-looking clothes and bodies.
Read more about soft and hard water.

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soft.hard, hot water, washing, hair, bright, clean pond, carbonates, sulphates

Hot Water Heating Information for South Africans

A good article from Eskom begins with ... It takes a 3kW, 150l hot water cylinder (HWC), or geyser, element to heat the water from 20 ºC to 65 ºC in the order of 2 hours 40 minutes and consumes about 7.838kWh and at an average cost of 35c/kWh which amounts to R 2.74... read the whole article here.

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hot water, hot water, heating, Eskom, geyser

Save Water at Home | Control Toilet Flushing

Water is a scarce resource in our country and more and more countries are waking up to the fact that water is in limited supply.
One of the major uses for domestic water is toilet flushing. Typically a toilet cistern will hold between about 8 litres and 12 litres. In the UK it is estimated that toilet flushing accounts for 50 litres per person per day.
Most toilets will function perfectly well with a reduced flush and a quick and easy way to accomplish this is to put a brick (or 2) inside the system.

Technorati Tags:
water, flush, toilet, cistern, home

Compare Water Heating Systems

About 20% of a household's power consumption bill is for the heating of water. Most of this heated water is stored in cistern or storage tank systems which lose between 10% and 20% of the heat used to increase the temperature of water from the ambient temperature to the selected hot water temperature.
With such a large percentage of power being consumed this way it makes obvious sense to do whatever is possible to minimize overall energy consumption.
This can be done by insulating the storage heater better and also by lowering the maximum temperature of the water in the storage tank. Of course using less water will also result in savings. Heating costs can be reduced using tankless water heaters.
Below is a basic comparison between storage and tankless water heating systems.

Hot Water System feature variables compared below (click this link for more detailed information):
Tankless v Storage Tank
1. Energy cost... Lower cost reduced energy losses v. Higher losses ... higher energy usage
2. Unit size... Much smaller than hot water storage tank v Large compared to tankless hot water heater
3. Installation cost... Small compared to storage tank heater in new structures but higher in retrofit v More complex to install in new structures
4. Installation space... Compact unit, saves space taken up by storage tank hot water heater which can be used as closet for example v Bulky heater and tank system with difficult access normally
5. Capacity... When large quantities are required simultaneously flow can reduce or temperature of water is reduced v Normally depending on size of tank capacity is higher for simultaneous use

Technorati Tags:
storage, water, heating, tankless, heaters, energy

How Solar Hot Water System Works

For heating water in a household system solar energy would be captured and used to heat the water in the water cistern. The use of solar energy would be supplemented when necessary by conventional use of electricity or a by a fuel heated boiler system as shown in the sketch.
The diagram above is from the following blog post:

Note that there are 2 water circuits. The one pump pumps cold water (blue) through a solar panel arrangement inclined to gather the maximum amount of sun radiation while the other "standby system" circulates water through a boiler system. A boiler system can use various kinds of fuel such as electricity, oil, propane (LPG)or natural gas.
Another option would be to install a tankless water heater on a separate piping and faucet (tap)as a standby system to the solar energy arrangement.
Tankless water heaters are energy efficient since they only heat the water used and thus the system unlike a normal cistern arrangement does not lose heat by convection from the walls of the cistern.

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tankless, solar, power, lpg, propane, boiler, sun, heating, water

Solar Water Heating in South Africa

Unless you've been in another world you will have heard of the critical power shortages experienced in South Africa which resulted in mines closing down which in turn drove up the Platinum price by 30%. The Government is now driving alternative water heating systems using solar power ... a resource which is plentiful in our country.
According to the goverment "preliminary results indicate that solar-water heating systems are energy efficient and excellent at energy saving." Of that I have no doubt but when it comes to cost effectiveness there is another story and is an important reason why individual consumers will not invest in solar water heating because it is almost impossible to get an economic return on such a heating system. It's also stated that Eskom aims to install 90 000 solar-water heating systems in the greater Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality in Port Elizabeth. In addition it is reported that Eskom will implement 3,000,000 solar water heating systems over the next 3 years.under a subsidy scheme the details of which have not yet been published... Source Cape Times
In New Zealand a $500 subsidy is provided for those who install solar water heating. Nobody took up the subsidy in 2007.
There is an interesting commentary on the New Zealand situation here. Based upon the New Zealand story we should all be very wary of what might happen to our tax money in these subsidy situations.

Technorati Tags:
solar, water, heating, eskom, south africa

What's in your bottled water competition?

There's a very interesting competition being run by The Environmental Working Group in the USA. Here's the link ...

The competition is designed to find out ... What's in your bottled water?
Help us study bottled water labels and win a 100% organic cotton shopping bag and a Klean Kanteen water bottle! Entries should be postmarked on or before Friday, March 7.

You can learn more about bottled water here.
Technorati Tags:
water, bottled, competition, enviroment

A Water Garden Can Be A Wild Place

Take a read of this email I received this morning from a visitor to my water gardening website ... a spine-chilling tale of a frog and a fish.

"I went into the garden today and a frog had attached itself to the face of a Koi with it's 'hands' (pushed up to the elbows) embedded into the eye sockets of the fish, this could either be the frog trying to mate or possibly trying to keep warm (all the other frogs and toads huddle together on the bottom of the pond). I did manage to get it off the fish but I will have to wait until the morning to see if the Koi is still alive, and there is a high probability that it has damaged the sight of the fish ... I have allowed frogs and toads into my Koi pond but tomorrow they will find themselves homeless ... because removing the frogs arms from my Koi's eye sockets was worse than childbirth (I'm sorry if this is rather graphic) .... in my opinion they do not mix, amphibians also bring a lot of parasites and diseases."

"I think more pond owners should be aware of the downside to encouraging wildlife if they have expensive fish."

Kind regards
Lorraine

Technorati Tags:
water garden, frog, koi, fish, pond, eyes, wild

12 Free Pond Calculators

I have created 12 different pond calculators described briefly below. These calculators work in Microsoft Excel and are fully editable. You can get them FREE here.
List of the 12 Calculators
--------------------------
1. Complete Pond Pump Selector... Microsoft Excel file to help you calculate anything about pumps. There are 34 important requirements in specifying pond pumps ... pump head, pump flow, power consumed, pressure losses in pipes and fittings.
2. Vol & Weight Conversions... Excel file to help you convert all sorts of different units easily. You will find this calculator very useful in surfing the web since many sites use a variety of different units to define product performance.
3. Waterfall Flow Rates... Use Excel to help you work out flow rates for your waterfall. Essentially the water flow over a waterfall is defined by the width of the overflow lip(lips). The pump selected must be able to lift the quantity of water required to the inlet of the waterfall (pump head).
4. Flowrate Conversions Flow rates from galls and cu metres to litres and other units and vice versa. You will find this calculator very useful in surfing the web since many sites use a variety of different units to define product performance.
5. How Many Fish For Your Pond?... Avoid overstocking your pond. This calculator will work out the fish holding capacity of your pond.
6. Koi Food Economics... Save money on koi food. Use this calculator to save yourself a lot of money on buying fish food. Few producers actually "tell the truth" on their packaging.
7. Calculate Pond Volume Regular Shaped Ponds... Calculate pond volume of regular shaped ponds such as rectangular, square or round ... in fact any shape made up of regular shapes.
8. Calculate Pond Volumes Irregular Shaped Ponds... Calculate pond volume of irregular shaped ponds. This calculator will actually apply to most ponds since few are regular in shape. It is important to know pond volume for a variety of reasons.
9 Running Cost Your Pump... Work out running costs for your pump and then learn how to save money by running 2 pumps instead of one using the next calculator.
10 Save Money Run 2 Pumps... Here's what you need to know to save lots of money on pump costs ... believe it or not in many cases it is cheaper to run 2 pumps instead of one.
11. Short Fat Pipes Are Best... Use wide diameter and short run pipes for best results. Pump power is lost in transporting water through pipes and fittings. Pressure drop as it is called can be reduced by doing the right things.
12. Size Your Pipe... Learn to size your pipework correctly to minimise pressure drop and maximise flow from your pond pump.

Here's the place you can find them ...
pond calculators
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Gardening with Garden Joy

Here in Johannesburg it hasn't stopped raining for quite some time ... while we expect thunderstorm at this time of year the amount and frequency of rain has been unusual. Nevertheless this is good not only for watering gardens thoroughly and saving scarce tap water but it is also filling all the countries' dams ready for our dry winters.
Gardening is one of most practiced activities worldwide. There is an ongoing search for useful articles and resources.
Over the last few months I've been collating my wide range of gardening articles and have also published a shrubs directory I created a few years ago. This directory on my website, Garden Joy, consists of hundreds of shrubs arranged by the colour of flowers they bear.
In addition I have compiled a range of over 5000 gardening products from leading UK garden products companies which is a useful resource for those wanting to get an overview of products and suppliers.
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Treating Your Garden Fish Pond

Sooner or later most fish ponds need a treatment of some kind. Here are the most common reasons why:
1. pH is too low or too high. However before trying to correct pH make sure your reading is correct and it is on the same trend. In other words not a once off unusual measurement.
2. Fresh water from the tap or faucet is added in an area where chlorination is high. These treatments are generally called Pond Conditioners. Some also remove heavy metal contamination in the water supply.
3. Ammonia surges ... this can be serious and should it occur then an ammonia remover should be used.
4. Bacterial sludge digesters ... sludge settles to the bottom of ponds that do not have a bottom drain. An alternative to cleaning out the pond is to use a digester.
5. Bacteria starters for biofilters. At the end of winter or start of spring it is a good idea to boost the biofilter by adding a concentrated form of bacteria starter.
6. Algae and blanketweed killers ... these remove unsightly growths of green algae. Suspended algae result in murky water (like pea soup sometimes). The best blanketweed killer is discussed here.
A full list of all the important branded pond treatments for USA pond owners is available here.
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Heating Water to Save Electricity Costs

I live in South Africa and we are facing a serious shortage of electricity supply. This is resulting in what are euphemistically called load shedding periods all over the country on a seemingly random basis. Load shedding is a sudden loss of power supply as far as consumers are concerned.
Yesterday a number of gold mines and platinum mines closed down because they could not take the risk of their underground workers being trapped in the bowels of the earth.
The government had admitted finally to poor planning on its behalf ... going as far back as 1997. It is a mess.
One potential solution in the eyes of the government is for consumers to install solar panels for heating water. Unfortunately it is almost certainly uneconomical for the avergae family to do this. The pay back period is simply too long.
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