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Im interested to know the scale of a "water grid". Is there any idea how much water we'd need to move to satisfy all our demands with desalinated water? Also, w
by adamwong246 7y ago
Im interested to know the scale of a "water grid". Is there any idea how much water we'd need to move to satisfy all our demands with desalinated water? Also, what sort of energy is needed to raise all water up from sea-level?
- dsfyu404ed 7y agoThe average person uses 80-100gal per day. We'd need a grid that's about an order of magnitude larger than our current petroleum fuel distribution system (the average person probably uses less then 8-10gal of liquid petroleum fuel/day).
- Scoundreller 7y agoShould be trivial to reduce that by 50% or more. But if water is artificially cheap, there will be no incentive. But will we learn to tax water and write everyone a cheque to cover the cost of a basic user? Just start with gray water re-use: nothing fancy: just a 55gal drum that collects the good gray water and discards anything looking spoiled. Pumps to toilet bowl with cheap pump.
- coryrc 7y agoYou can't keep greywater for much time (~<24 hours) without it turning to a stinking, fetid mess. It has to either be used immediately or filtered then kept sanitized (chlorinated typically).
- Scoundreller 7y agoMostly my comment was because I saw an expensive and complicated home gray-water contraption that seemed to aim for 100% recycling of gray-water. I figured there was cost-savings to be had by aiming for a lower recovery rate. Yes, probably needs some disinfection, but should vastly reduce the filtration load.
- basementcat 7y ago"If it’s yellow, let it mellow; if it’s brown flush it down!"
- api 7y agoIsn't like 90% of water use in CA agricultural?
- rebuilder 7y agoNevermind the energy cost of pumping the water - what about what it would take to desalinate that much water?!
- avip 7y agoThe "commonly used" figure is 5 [kWh/m^3] (you'll find higher and lower).