• Welt@lazysoci.al
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    2 days ago

    River water and lake water are potable with minimal input, whereas desalination is prohibitively expensive. Unless there’s a free energy source somehow, we’re better off drinking river water or small beer as our ancestors did.

    • werefreeatlast@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Did you look at the numbers I researched for you? Those numbers give you water ready to drink. Once the water gets the salt removed, you can drink it. The desalination is basically cleaning the water. If you got a water filter at home, get some pH measuring test strips and measure the pH of the water from your tap and from the filter. You’ll find that there is a significant differences. It could be like two pH levels difference, and I think each level is one order of magnitude larger than the previous. So 100 times cleaner. Plus they get salt, which is a valuable byproduct.

      • ZombiFrancis@sh.itjust.works
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        1 day ago

        FYI the pH of water is not a measurement of cleanliness, it is a measurement of the acidity-alkalinity. I am not sure if you were meaning that but it seems implied by your comment.

        • werefreeatlast@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          No, dude, I mean pH. The carbon in your filter will definitely alter the pH. PH is changed molecularly, so a filter for that must be chemical, electrical or both. Activated carbon is both. Plus all the gunk already trapped in it does like to react with the opposite charge.

          This is fairly complicated stuff, its better to just give it a try.

          • Korhaka@sopuli.xyz
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            1 day ago

            What does it really matter if your water is slightly acidic or alkaline? Surely it largely depends on your local geology and source of water.

            • werefreeatlast@lemmy.world
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              1 day ago

              It matters not. What matters is that desalination of water from the Californian coast is relatively cheap and the process is similar to that of acidity removal. Also removing materials that are not potable take a similar amount effort so desalination should be seen as a viable form of water source.

              • Welt@lazysoci.al
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                19 hours ago

                You really don’t know what you’re talking about unfortunately. Desalination is hugely energy intensive compared to simple filtration, which uses no energy, just a filter. This is why desalination is only used in places where there’s no fresh water, only seawater, and lots of cheap energy like in the Middle East.