DIY Atmospheric Water Generator?

Megan Venturella

Sorry this may well be under the wrong category- I couldn’t find one called “Trying Not to Die”. Anyway, I live on a hill in Northern California where there is very little rainfall and I’m trying to research ways to be more self-sustaining. I love the idea of an atmospheric water generator, but they’re pretty expensive. The idea is just a dehumidifier attached to a filter and holding tank, so I’m pretty sure this could be rigged up pretty easily, except that I have exactly zero talent for this kind of thing.

Do any of you have any suggestions or experience with this? Have you tried it?

Megan Venturella

OK, so I guess we're the only ones looking into this right now! But for the curious, we settled on buying a dehumidifier and a solar panel. My dad started collecting the water under his plug in unit and gets around 8 gallons a day, so it's perfect for a family of 4 in an emergency. And I guess in the meantime we can keep the humidity down... LOL

Ethereal Earth

@Megan Venturella have you looked on YT? There may be some tutorials there.

I have not looked into this myself but it is a very interesting concept. I currently live in the desert but will be moving. Looking at land in Southern Cali now in my price range is still desert so this could be quite useful when the time comes.

John

This could be of value even in an area that usually gets regular or predictable rainfall. Everywhere has dry spells. Very interesting.

Megan Venturella

@Ethereal Earth I have checked out youtube, but not exhaustively. Most of them were too small, or showed you their unit without any explanation. Super aggravating! However, it's a great concept and I know it's widely used in India where the water is very polluted. The Israeli army also uses this technology.

Here's one plan for it I found in instructables.com. https://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Atmospheric-Water-Generator/

We are buying a dehumidifier and then we'll just put it through a water filter. I think the solar panel is a good idea too since we want to buy this for emergency backup. I'll post what we did and how well it works once we get it set up.

Ethereal Earth

@Megan Venturella That would be great! You could also message those on YT who do not have explanations for their setup and see if they would share knowledge or at least feedback on yours

AngelaOston

https://community.thegrownetwork.com/discussion/comment/865508#Comment_865508

https://community.thegrownetwork.com/discussion/comment/865508#Comment_865508

Thank you so much. Ive seen things like this for a lot of money. Was trying to find something we could make ourselves. Even saw a unit that was a solar panel attached to Something like this - selling for 4000$. Look like very usable plans!

VickiP

Well I did find a video that shows how the guy built it, http://practicalsurvivalist.com/diy-video-how-to-build-a-homemade-atmospheric-water-generator-produces-extracts-distilled-water-from-the-air/ It seems a little lacking in detail and I would prefer everything in touch with the water to be stainless steel or glass, still it is a good place to start.

Megan Venturella

@VickiP What an interesting website! I'll have to have my son check it out. I think he'll love it. Thanks