rptrxub t1_ir5xx8o wrote on October 5, 2022 at 4:03 PM

Reply to comment by snoandsk88 in Renewables met 100% of the rise in global electricity demand in the first half of 2022 by Straight_Ad2258

There is a guy supplying some areas like flint michigan with condensers that pull humidity out of the air and turn it into drinking water. It's cheaper than desalination but I don't know if it'd have negative effects on the surrounding environment at a large scale.

SwankySozhak t1_ir6w5zi wrote on October 5, 2022 at 7:41 PM

Dehumidifier water is incredibly energy inefficient and unsafe for human consumption, not to mention they don't work well when the air isn't humid.

As far as energy cost and environmental impact is concerned, you are legitimately far better off shipping freshwater to Flint than trying to use dehumidifiers.

Edit: I should clarify that I am in no ways anti-technology, but it needs to actually work and I dislike how many times snake-oil startups have peddled this idea. Please, instead of pulling water from air, ideas towards purifying already existing water will benefit us much more.

rptrxub t1_iragt6m wrote on October 6, 2022 at 3:18 PM

what makes then unsafe for human consumption? I'm all for abandoning half baked ideas if they're impractical.

SwankySozhak t1_irakpnt wrote on October 6, 2022 at 3:43 PM

Short answer: Condensation, unlike evaporation or distillation, does not remove contaminants.

snoandsk88 t1_ir5ykss wrote on October 5, 2022 at 4:07 PM

Isn’t that basically what mountains and rain water do?

Glad to hear there are alternatives!

rptrxub t1_ir5z71z wrote on October 5, 2022 at 4:11 PM

Here's a small clip of it from 2019, don't know how much traction it's gotten now, but he's not trying to make a massive profit off of it seemingly as the core motivation, which is nice to see.

DooDooSlinger t1_ir66xix wrote on October 5, 2022 at 5:00 PM

Yes but it's a bit harder to build mountains ;)