Day 207 - Soft Water

The mechanical room is starting to fill up

The water softener & hot water heater were installed yesterday.  For the water softener (on the right in the picture), we went thru Ecowater out of Long Prairie.  Duane from Ecowater installed the system.  The small tank on the floor & the 3 white cylinders on the wall are a reverse osmosis system for the drinking water/ice machine in the fridge.  We have the 2 outside faucets bypassing the water softener.  Apparently softened water is bad for plants due to the sodium in it.  Who knew?  Maybe that's why I keep killing all of the plants in my house.  Oh wait, that's because I don't water the plants at all!

The 2 tanks on the left are the hot water system.  The bigger, 80 gallon tank on the left is the actual hot water tank.  The small, 50 gallon water heater is a buffer tank that will preheat the water using energy from the geothermal system before it goes into the actual hot water heater.  I haven't researched the water heater, but it's the standard heater that our plumber offered.  The Energy Star sticker says it costs the most to operate compared to other hot water heaters.  Oh well, just one more thing to replace when it eventually wears out.

Overall, water will flow from the municiple water supply into the water softener.  From there the cold water goes directly to the Manabloc and out to the rest of the house.  The hot water goes from the water softener to the buffer tank (a.k.a. the desuper heater) where it gets preheated during the summer months using heat fromt he geothermal unit.  From there it goes to the hot water heater, the Manabloc & finally to the rest of the house.