How to judge the drinkability of water whatever its nature

[shortbus=]

I didn't even know there were separate lines. Why does the sanitary line have an opening to the outside where someone can route their downspout to it anyways? (I'm imagning something that looks like a storm sewer drain but is for the sanitary line).

It was common to do downspouts into sewers around here many many years ago, and some people doing it DIY still do. But it is illegal to do now, due to the number of people living in the area now, it overloads the sanitary sewer system. Many of the rural areas now have sewers and people have to disconnect from their septic tanks too. Those rural areas add to the sanitary sewer load.

 

[shortbus=]

Here's an interesting note. Years ago where I retired from we used Therminol® 66 Heat Transfer Fluid which is not exactly a common item. We used it with some heat transfer systems. It was expensive and it needed proper disposal. Actual we sent it back to the manufacturer who charged us, filtered and cleaned it, and sold it again. Anyway one day we get a call from the Cleveland Regional Sewer Division. They actually detected trace amounts of the stuff in the sewer system and we were the only guys using the stuff for a hundred mile radius. Go figure. We had a pinhole leak in a heat exchanger. Amazing they were able to identify the stuff, contact Monsanto Chemical who makes it and narrow it down to us.

When working in Warren a hydraulic oil heat exchanger broke and oil flooded the floor. The laborers were supposed to use oil dry on it but being lazy and having a floor drain near they took the easy way out. Wasn't long maybe 1/2 hour before the city sewer guys showed up. The plant I worked in was the only one close that used that much oil and they knew just where to come. City guys weren't happy campers.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

That sort of depends on where you are at. Just for example I live in Bedford Heights, Ohio, USA. Rural areas have fewer or no local codes to follow while the cities and towns have assorted building codes. I would assume GB is about the same.

As far as I'm aware the requirement for gutters is universal in the UK?, even for extremely old buildings. Obviously peasant huts back in the 1500's didn't have them - but anything remotely 'modern' does. There's a lot of bother in various 'protected' areas, where you have to keep the old cast iron gutters, and can't replace them with modern plastic - obviously this is a great deal more expensive.

 

[dknguyen]

As far as I'm aware the requirement for gutters is universal in the UK?, even for extremely old buildings. Obviously peasant huts back in the 1500's didn't have them - but anything remotely 'modern' does. There's a lot of bother in various 'protected' areas, where you have to keep the old cast iron gutters, and can't replace them with modern plastic - obviously this is a great deal more expensive.

What about kings' palaces?

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

What about kings' palaces?

Before cast iron they used lead gutters - and the really old historic buildings have to replace/repair them with similar lead.

This is a picture of Calke Abbey, notice the nice new downpipes made out of lead - these were replaced during restoration.

 

[unclejed613]

For example, heavy water.

ok, this is very unlikely... D2O occurs in nature in very small quantities. separating D2O from H2O is a process requiring a lot of electricity, which is why the process is usually associated with hydroelectric plants. i've seen people on youtube enrich water, but in small quantities (a gallon or less). the process could be useful if you're doing experiments with a Farnsworth Fusor.

i live in Colorado, and as far as i can tell, most runoff from houses goes into the lawn, although this could be different in newer construction.

the OP should have some way of testing water for bacteria, unless the water has already been treated with chlorine or ozone. there are also water sterilizers that run the water past intense UV lamps.

 

[dknguyen]

ok, this is very unlikely... D2O occurs in nature in very small quantities. separating D2O from H2O is a process requiring a lot of electricity, which is why the process is usually associated with hydroelectric plants. i've seen people on youtube enrich water, but in small quantities (a gallon or less). the process could be useful if you're doing experiments with a Farnsworth Fusor.

i live in Colorado, and as far as i can tell, most runoff from houses goes into the lawn, although this could be different in newer construction.

the OP should have some way of testing water for bacteria, unless the water has already been treated with chlorine or ozone. there are also water sterilizers that run the water past intense UV lamps.

That's my point. He asked for "whatever its nature" which is unreasonable. He needs to narrow things down what he wants to search for, the least of which is what kind of water sources this device is meant to be used on. You're looking for totally different things if you're testing water from a nuclear power plant, a river, the outlet of a treatment plant, the outlet of an industrial plant, the ocean, city tap water, or whether a glass of water of a king has been poisoned or not.

 

[KMoffett]

This may be of interest on cleaning water:

**broken link removed**

Ken