Filter for health and profit !
By
Rory Macnamara
With our water standards dropping due to a multitude of reasons like dysfunctional municipalities , unqualified people in these places and unqualified people doing plumbing , we see opportunities .
FEATURE 25
Photos by SYR
Bottled water is making a profit for other companies – not plumbers – and our customers are the ones paying through the neck to make these bottling companies rich ! So why not look to making profit for yourselves and at the same time live up to the saying that plumbers are the Protectors of the Nation ’ s Health . This is done to protect taps , pipes and appliances as well as drinkers of water .
The national standard for drinking water is found in SANS 241 .
As our water infrastructure crumbles and Water and Sanitation and the Water Boards seem oblivious to the problem , plumbers are the best qualified to install such systems from a simple ‘ tap filter ’ to a whole building system . The plumber also knows what goes on in piping systems like debris which is unhealthy and damages pipes and brassware .
A plumber knows the ins and outs of the water system because he / she is trained extensively in these matters and a filtration system for a whole building or even partial is not a DIY job or for an unqualified person doing plumbing work .
The water line in a building is complex and pressure , hydraulics and pipe sizing are critical considerations that a plumber is trained in . Even manufacturers and suppliers of filtration systems should use a plumber to install or have someone trained in the water process line .
Example of the deterioration of water in a three-month period .
Only qualified plumbers may work on the water line in a building , no matter the size and this is in SANS 10252 and the National Water Act .
For a plumber , installation of filtration systems is an add-on to one ’ s current work and adds value to the service one offers and to the top line . This broadens the scope of a maintenance plumber , with the current thinking that this is only there for emergencies . A Plumber can enter a building where few are able to and offer add-ons such as filtration .
Essentially there are five types of filters :
• Mechanical
• Absorption
• Sequestration
• Ion Exchange
• Reverse Osmosis
Establish contact with a reputable manufacturer and work with them . Obviously , there are benefits to the plumber in that they can negotiate a discount on the price of the unit / s as well as the installation fee . As we are talking plumber here , we are not entering the field of water treatment plants and such but homes , commercial and industrial where the quality of drinking water is essential for drinking , cooking and cleaning . 1 . A mechanical filter is a type of filter that is primarily designed to remove suspended solid particles . It can be used to maintain the cleanliness of a system , protecting it from abrasive wear or corrosion . A mechanical filter can be extremely useful in industrial settings such as in cooling systems where the environment can be extremely corrosive .
2 . Absorption filters are the most widely utilised type of filter in fluorescence and other modes of optical microscopy , especially yellow and orange sharp cut-off filters and black glasses that transmit ultraviolet and block most of the visible wavelengths .
3 . Sequestration is the action of chemically isolating a substance . Food grade polyphosphate is commonly used in scale inhibiting filters to sequester the calcium and magnesium minerals which cause limescale and corrosion .
4 . The ion exchange filtration is one of the most common water filtration methods . Ion exchange process percolates water through bead-like spherical resin materials ( ion-exchange resins ). Ions in the water are exchanged for other ions fixed to the beads .
5 . Reverse osmosis is a water purification process that uses a partially permeable membrane to separate ions , unwanted molecules , and larger particles from drinking water .
January 2023 Volume 28 I Number 11 www . plumbingafrica . co . za