[alt-photo] Re: Distilled Water

[Peter Friedrichsen]

Alberto,

There is a huge difference between sampled fog 
outdoors and water that permeates through a 
concrete floor. My floor in this windowless 
basement is about 90 years old and the floor is 
constantly damp because old-fashioned lime cement 
is pervious and gets more so as the calcium 
carbonate dissolves away. This is the source of 
the water vapour, not outdoor water vapour which 
I agree would allow the dissolution of SO2, SO3, 
NOx etc, and also likely to be nucleated by 
particulate matter and sodium chloride from 
oceans afar. Good point to bring up.

Re Aluminum

Etienne,

I would guess that aluminum may dissolve out if 
you were condensing acidic moisture from the 
outdoors, but again, the moisture source here is 
relatively pure, so in my particular case, I 
don't consider the impurities to be an issue, but 
once again this is good point.

Peter Friedrichsen



At 02:55 AM 26/01/2012, you wrote:
>>I have a dehumidifer that runs for about three 
>>months and in July and August I acquire my 
>>distilled water.  I gather about 15 litres per 
>>week at that time. I run the exit hose from the 
>>dehumidifer to a small funnel having a cotton 
>>plug to catch dust from the water and air, and 
>>then into a large water jug. I usually collect 
>>about 30 litres which does me for the 
>>year.  Best of all , it costs nothing extra.
>
> From 1985 and until 2005, part of my job was to 
> gather data on wet deposition of pollutants, 
> managing a network of 20-40 samplers in Italy 
> from 0 to 2200 m asl. In the same context, I 
> also sampled fog in the Po Valley and winter snow in two glaciers above 3000 m.
>The chemical analysis has always shown various 
>amounts of (mostly) calcium, ammonium, sulfate, 
>nitrate and chloride, and electrical 
>conductivity was in the range 10-250 µS/cm. Only 
>the conductivity of the snow at 3000 m was near 5 µS/cm.
>So, I think that your condensate is far from 
>being comparable to distilled water.
>Alberto
>www.grupponamias.com
>www.alternativephotography.com/wp/photographers/rodolfo-namias-group
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