water problem, is there a plumber in the house?
 

new issue: WATER! its ok as long as I am on hand to water it....and I like to hand water.....but I want to travel some this summer!!!

my leanto gh is about 8 x 16'...attached to the house on two walls....I built a kneewall, about 2' tall....now, its not the most ideal situation, the one long side faces kind of north east, and the entrance side is more to the south...it is good in some ways as the house protects it from the brutal winds here....

the water here is god-awful, and is instant poison death to orchids....so, I called culligan and put one of those jug RO systems on my workbench...the discharge goes on to a really tough boston fern and the floor, which helps humidity....I have a jaybird 700 humidity machine, which must run off the RO water (it clogs up with tap water)...and I plan on running an evaporative cooler off the tap water...

I split the tubing that runs to the jaybird with a tube and shutoff for me to hand water with.

I want to put up a mist/water system to run down the long side of the gh, over top of my cattleyas. they are most all hanging to get the most light possible. hanging about 18" from the ceiling off 3 copper pipes that run the length of the gh. so, it will need to run enough to hit the hanging cattleyas and drip down to the plants on the benches.

I need to be able to run this once or twice a day in the horribly hot texas summer while I am gone.

what equipment do I need to pump the water up to the ceiling mist system and keep the jaybird running too? I am confused on this....do I need to get a larger RO system? do I need to have a big fill barrel and pump from that? we have an old sprinkler control box (we dug up the sprinklers a couple years ago in the drought)...

I am confused....normal state of events, lol....any help out there?

I think this could be modified for you (scroll down to figure 4):

http://angraecums.blogspot.com/2014/...sing-semi.html

http://firstrays.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=294

I am going to start by getting a barrel to fill with my ro water. at the bottom I will put a pump that draws from the tank (barrel) by timer to push the water up to the mist system. also from the bottom, I will put tubes that feed into my mister and the evap cooler...all I need to figure out, I think, will be making sure that the ro system I have can keep up with everything....

Most of the time, the controlling factor in RO supply is the size of the storage tank, rather than the RO system. If the average RO consumption is less than the average production, you'll be OK once you allow enough time to build up a surplus in the tank.

well that's good to hear, ray! I have been scratching my head for months with the problem, and I just didn't want to use all my space in a spaghetti noodle mess of equipment.....I swear, the only problem in having a gh is that it is NEVER big enough! I am going to try to fill a 55 gallon drum using a float valve at the top. ...I think that the water pressure will keep the jaybird and the evap cooler operational...those water lines will be under the gravel and pavers...(inside pvc for protection)..

I seriously doubt that gravity would be sufficient to keep the fogger and cooler working.

so, those machines wont 'suck' up the water as they need it, because of the 'pressure' of the water in the drum? I thought just to have an open valve to the evap cooler and the jaybird.....

evap coolers have a float valve...and we always just kept the spigot that fed our old one turned on...and the cooler was like 10 feet above the faucet....I was hoping the jaybird would operate the same....but that one doesn't have a tank with float valve....

ok, back to the think tank....thanks for your input, ray...

If your reservoir were above the intake to the devices water would flow downhill to them. You would need to be sure connections were secure.

well, I bought a hi-powered whole house RO system from ray's....and DANG, it puts culligan to shame! loads of pressure, LOADS OF WATER, and a ton of worry off my mind!
we hung the filter unit over my bench on the wall, and then, rather than taking up space on my table, we put the tank (3.2 gallon)on a shelf also....about 4' off the gh floor....

the water pressure is fantastic, and the mister is running much better, and I can take a gallon of water from it for tea! I think I can also run a small line of tubing up over the hanging plants to mist a bit while I go off for a week or two!

AND A BIG THANKS TO RAY FOR HELPING SET ME UP!

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I’m not sure I’m answering your question correctly, but RO systems operate on line water pressure. If the system has a bladder tank, the line pressure fills the tank in opposition to the air pressure behind the bladder. When the valve is opened, that air pressure delivers the water to your point of use.

If, on the other hand, if the system is configured with an open air tank with a float valve to control the fill level, THEN you need a pump to deliver the water.