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Frequently Asked Questions about
Water Treatment and UV Disinfection
What is UV Disinfection?
Disinfection of drinking water is different from what we commonly think of as filtration.
Where filtration involves physically removing contaminants such as rust and dirt from a water source,
the UV process works by acting on unseen pathogens in the water, many of which can be harmful to our health.
UV disinfection is the process of killing pathogens in the water supply. These include E.coli, Coliform, Influenza,
Hepatitis, V. cholerae, Giardia, Cryptosporidium, Legionella plus many more. UV is highly effective against all common bacterial,
viral and cyst types of pathogen
A UV system kills these pathogens instantly, simply by exposing the water stream to a high intensity UV light. This disrupts the DNA
of the cell and kills it dead in the blink of an eye.
The UV systemn uses no chemicals and is completely natural. The process imitates nature by exposing the Pathogens to high intensity UV light,
much like the sun. After this breif exposure to the UV light, the water is safe to drink and no pathogens survive.
When combined with proper filtration, the UV process will provide you with unlimites amounts of clean, safe and pathogen-free water for use
throughout the entire home.
What Size UV System Do I Need?
UV systems are designed to do one thing and one thing only, that is to kill bacteria and viruses in your drinking water.
How effectively the UV system works is a function of a number of factors, including flow rate, water quality and pipe size.
In order to properly size your UV system. You must take all of these factors into consideration. The first question to ask yourself is,
how many people are in the home and what is the typical water use pattern (for example are there five teenagers in the family all having three
showers a day?) The next thing to consider is are you installing a UV system to service the entire household or just the drinking water portion?
Considering you want purified water in your bath and shower, as wash up water, and for general use throughout the household including
outdoor use. The alternative is to install a smaller UV system, typically at the kitchen sink to provide purified sterilized drinking
and cooking water only.
Let's assume that the UV system you've selected is designed to serve the entire household. First, check out the pipe size of your
household plumbing, so you can match the plumbing size to the UV port size. Next, consider the number of people in the household.
For families of up to three people, we recommend a system producing 5 gallons per minute at minimum. Families of up to five or
six people with standard water use patterns, would use an 8 gallon per minute UV system, which is the industry standard for most
residential installations. Larger homes may require a higher flow rate of up to 12, 15 or even 20 gallons per minute.
Next, consider the quality of the source water supplied to your home. Ideally, the water should be clear and clean. If that's not
the case, we recommend a dual filtration system be installed just ahead of the UV disinfection system. The filtration system should
include a 5 &# 956; sediment filter and a carbon filter. The sediment filter will remove suspended particles from the water stream, thereby
improving the clarity of the water. The carbon filter will remove foul taste and odour along with a wide variety of chemical
contaminants that may be present in the water supply.
To provide proper disinfection, and kill all of the bacteria and viruses that may be present in your drinking water, your UV system must
be sized to provide the proper UV dose. Let's take for example, the most common bacteria found in drinking water supplies that being
E. coli. This insidious bacteria is relatively simple to totally destroy if your UV system is properly sized. The E. coli bacteria
requires less than 6 millijoules of UV energy to destroy more than 99.99% of the bacteria present. A typical UV system will provide
well in excess of that UV dose, maybe as high as 10 times that dose. Other types of bacteria and viruses that may be present in the
water will have their own UV dose profile, and therefore a specific UV dose required in order to kill them. For this reason, we
recommend over sizing any UV system.
When deciding on a UV system for your home, consult the UV dose charts that are available with the UV system in order to determine
one UV dose is applicable to your system. We recommend selecting only systems that provide at least 30 millijoules of UV energy at
the end of lamp life time frame. End of lamp life refers to one year after the installation of a new UV lamp at which point the UV
lamp will be at its weakest point.
How To Select The Proper Water Filter For Your Home
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.
Should I Use A Faucet Mounted Water Filter or a Whole House System?
The use of whole house water filters is fast becoming extremely popular with homeowners.
A whole house water filter will treat every single drop of water entreing your home and is the most
cost effective method to give you peace of mind about the qualit your home water supply. The whole
house water filter can be configured in a wide variety of styles and price levels depending on
what contaminants are in your water, your rate of water use and your budget.
One of the most popular configurations of a whole house water filter uses a dual filtration system
to remove suspended solids (dirt, rust, dust etc) which will help to clarify the water. The second
filter is a carbon filter which will remove foul tastes and odors from the water. The final portion
of a quality whole house water filter is an ultraviolet (UV) light which is used to kill all bacterial and
viral pathogens that may be (or may potentially get) in your water supply.
The beauty of a whole house water filter like this is that it's an economical way to clean all the water
in your home using simple, widely available, proven technology. This is the same type of water filtration
that most water bottling plants use specifically because it works and is simple to maintain.
Homeowners can select the proper sized whole house water filter for their specific use. Manufacturers
typically will make several sizes available so there will be a simple whole house water filter available
for any sized household. Consider amount of water used, number of people in the home and water
quality (the specific water contaminants that you may be concerned about) when choosing a whole
house water filter for your home.
Be sure to work with a manufacturer that has extensive experience in manufacturing and delivering
a whole house water filter that works for you.
There are a wide variety of whole house water filters on the market. Decide first on your concerns,
water use patterns and budget, then work with a qualified manufacturer or delaer to get the whole house
water filter that will meet all of your needs and provide safe, clean water for years to come.
Do I Need to Treat My Water?
The truth is many of us don't spend much time thinking about the quality of our drinking water.
Often we are lulled into a false sense of security that our water quality is top-notch, while in reality
there may be alarming amounts of contaminants in our residential water supply.
For home owners with a well, the issue of water quality is more prevalent than those supplied by municipal
water. Well owners are generally more aware of the need for some vigilance in monitoring water quality, especially
those located near potential sources of run-off including agricultural run-off. Well owners should be testing their
water on a regular basis (at least 4 times a year) and they must take special care to have the water tested for
micro-biological contamination (bacterial and viral pathogens) regularly too.
Micro-biological contamination, most commonly bacterial pathogens such as E.coli and Coliform can be a major cause
for concern as these pathogens can do great harm to your health. The presence of either of these pathogens simply
must not be tolerated and you must take action to ensure your water is free of contamination by killing these organisms
before they get a chance to infect your family.
Traditional disinfection has been done by adding chlorine (usually chlorine bleach) to the well and waiting for a period
of time while the bacteria is killed in the well. This process is cumbersome and in addition must be done on a regular
basis as new pathogens are introduced into the well water. The other draw back of this method is that chemical disinfection
can create harmful byproducts which in themselves can be harmful to your health.
Those supplied with municipal water should not think that they are necessarily immune from water quality problems. A quick
search of stories related to boil water orders alone issued by municipalities will convince you that the ultimate responsibility
to ensure your own water quality rests in the end with you.
The chemical-free way to ensure that your water is completely safe is to use Ultra Violet light (UV) to kill all bacterial
and viral pathogens in real time (as you use the water) and around the clock. UV is a time-tested technology, completely safe,
absolutely effective and environmentally sound. There is no better way to ensure safe drinking water, and no more cost effective
method per unit volume.
UV systems are available in a wide range of sizes to suite the smallest residence to the largest. Maintenance is minimal
(change a lamp once a year) and the system is ready to work for you all year, without the hassle of buying, storing and using
harsh chemical treatments.
UV is the environmentally superior option as no byproducts are produced and there is never any risk of chemical overdosing in
water treatment. UV is the future of safe, sustainable water purification and this is proven by the number of municipalities
now installing UV as a primary disinfection technology to serve their customers.
Do you have a question that has not been answered here? Please do not hesitate to contact us under
1-800-419-5162
or, send us an email to sales@wyckomaruv.com
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