Water filtration can cure a lot of ills: By removing potentially harmful minerals and chemicals from your water, water filtration lets you drink easily from your own home’s tap knowing you’re not subjecting your body to poisonous things like lead, and you’re not subjecting your appliances to corrosive minerals.
But some families need to take water purification one step further. That’s why we also install ultraviolet purification systems to address the things filtration can’t filter: namely, microorganisms.
Our municipal water supply comes with a trade-off: Chlorine is added to the water in order to kill microorganisms, but that chlorine also leaves a chemical flavor and can irritate your skin, hair and eyes. A standard filtration/water-softening system removes that chlorine at the point where it enters your house. So the water that’s coming in has already been purified by the chlorine, and then Healthy Water Systems removes the chlorine.
But many homes in southwest Florida rely on well water, which bypasses the municipal supply and all of its adjustments. Well water still needs to be filtered—as we’ve said before, Florida water comes with its own natural deposits—but well water also needs to be purified in order to be safe to drink. Well water may contain disease-causing bacteria like e.coli or giardia.
Rather than adding chemicals, why not take advantage of a process that can kill the bacteria without otherwise affecting the water? That’s where the ultra-violet system comes in.
In an ultraviolet purification system, the water passes through an area where it’s exposed to UV energy. UV energy penetrates the cells of microorganisms and disrupts their DNA, so they can’t reproduce. That’s all it is: a quick flash of energy to kill the bugs that otherwise doesn’t affect the water.
And while well water always requires purification to make it potable, municipal water can be affected by microorganisms, too. In some cases, chlorine-resistant pathogens can survive water-treatment centers. And when natural disasters like hurricanes affect municipal water—leading to government issued “boil-water advisories”—a UV system can be life-saving.
Plus, UV purification is environmentally friendly. Not only is it a better alternative to chemical purifiers, which stay in the water and come with their own set of problems, but it also requires very little energy. And UV lamps only need to be replaced about once a year.
Since UV purification only applies to microorganisms—tiny, living things—you still need water filtration to take care of inorganic compounds in your water.
Deckard & Company.