Water filtration is a hot topic these days due to the vast amounts of contaminants in our everyday environment. There is a wide variety of water filtration systems you can choose from but choosing the proper technology is key to having clean and safe drinking water at home.
A standard water filter is designed to trap contaminants. Things such as dirt, rust and dust are simple to remove from your water by using a standard sediment type water filter. These can be purchased as a filter to use on a single faucet in your home, or they can be bought to be installed on the water line to filter all of the water in the home.
Carbon filters are popular due to the fact that they can remove foul taste and odour from the water along with a variety of chemical contaminants that may have infiltrated your water supply.
Both sediment style and carbon filters can be purchased in cartridge format which requires occasional change-out with a new filter, or as an automatic backwashable filter to service the whole house on a continuous basis.
Filtration systems can only go so far however, and are ineffective against bacterial and viral contamination. Common pathogens that can infect your water supply include E. coli, Coliform, Cryptosporidium and many others. The best way to deal with these pathogens is to kill them so they do not become a threat to your health. The part of a filtration system used to deal with these nasty contaminants is the disinfection module.
As part of a home filtration system, the disinfection module is typically either chemical based (most often chlorine) or non-chemical based like UV or ultraviolet light. A chlorine system adds chemical chlorine to the water supply to kill pathogens after some period of contact time. The UV system kills all pathogens instantaneously and uses no chemicals whatsoever.
The advantages of a chemical free UV disinfection module over a chemical based one are rather obvious. First, with a UV system there is no need to buy, store and handle any dangerous chemicals. Second, a UV system produces no disinfection by-products, that is the remnants of the chemical reaction that kills the pathogens. These chemical by-products can be dangerous themselves and most people prefer to avoid them if possible. Third, the impact of continually dumping chemically treated, chlorinated water into our environment is unacceptable to many.
In order to get high quality water from your water source, be sure to select the proper technology for your specific problem. A proper filtration and disinfection system can also act as a type of insurance against future health problems related to contaminated drinking water.
