The present invention relates generally to a drinking water purification system, and more particularly to a monitoring process and device for a drinking water purification system, which can monitor the system to make purified drinking water having a quality of purity in conformity with the standard of public health. The present invention is adapted for notifying maintenance personnel of when is the right time to replace the filtration elements or backwash a reverse osmosis filtration element included in the purification system.
The main culprits of the water pollution today include industrial waste, household waste, farm pesticide, and the animal waste produced by hog and poultry farms. As the pollution problems of the source of our drinking water, such as the river, become increasingly worrisome, people lose their confidence in the quality of their drinking water provided by the water company. Furthermore, people's anxiety about the quality of their drinking water is further aggravated by the fact that the conditions of the water supplying pipes and reservoirs are often found to be unsatisfactory. Accordingly, a variety of water-treating devices, such as water-filtering devices, water purifying devices, water softening devices, etc., have become ubiquitous in offices, homes, factories, schools, churches, and so forth. The conventional activated carbon filtration system of drinking water is effective in improving the quality of the drinking water. Nevertheless, the conventional activated carbon filtration system for drinking water is defective in design. The shortcomings inherent in the conventional drinking machines are described explicitly hereinafter.
In the conventional art technology, one of the conventional drinking water purification systems is the water filter device constituted by various water purifying elements, such as cotton filters, P.P. filters, CUNO type filters, for absorbing or removing various impurities and invisible particles in water.
Referring to FIG. 1, a filter device A2 comprises a housing A21 and a filter A22 such as a cotton filter, P.P filter or CUNO type filter. The housing A21 enables water flowing through the filter A22 therein. The filter A22 blocks off various impurities, including suspended solids and organic particles. After operating for a period of time, the fine pores of the filter A22 are gradually clogged by such suspended solids and organic particles. Therefore, ordinary pressurized water fails to penetrate the plugged pores and only water under increased pressure can pass through the clogged filter A22. At that moment, the filter is not only ineffective for purifying water but also provides an excellent environment for bacteria and fungi to grow. Such overused and clogged purifying elements would contaminate the water passing through the purification systems instead of purifying it.
Another common drinking water purifying device is constituted by activated carbon filter B4, as shown in FIG. 2, for removing the poison contents in the water, such as the pesticide pollution of water sources near agricultural areas.
However, the activated carbon filter has a service life, i.e. the activated carbon filter will become ineffective after filtering a certain volume of water, such as 1500 gallons. The service life is usually indicated by the manufacturer in its operation menu. Therefore, the activated carbon filter 4 would gradually become ineffective after a certain period of operation time. Finally, the ineffective activated carbon filter may form an excellent environment for bacteria, fungi and germs.
Accordingly, purifying elements are generally replaced (or backwashed) after a predetermined period of time of use without knowing the actual condition of the purifying elements. In many cases, overused purifying elements are not replaced or backwashed in time, so a consumer may unknowingly drink the poor quality water produced by such an ineffective water purification system.
Nowadays, the most popular and effective drinking water purifying element is the reverse osmosis membrane, which is so arranged as to form a parallel tangent plane with the flowing direction of the water. As the water is forced under pressure against the reverse osmosis filtration membrane, by means of a manual operation, a switch valve is used to increase the speed and the flow of the water passing through the reverse osmosis filtration element. Some water may pass through the reverse osmosis filtration element in a vertical angle instead of a parallel manner in order to filter out salts and other micro impurities.
Referring to FIG. 3, a most common reverse osmosis purification system is illustrated, which comprises a water pressure pump C1, an impurity filter device C2, a reverse osmosis filtration element C3, and an activated carbon filter C4. The impurity filter device C2 is used to pre-purify the water from tap or other water sources before feeding to the reverse osmosis filtration element C3 in order to prolong the service life of the relatively expensive reverse osmosis filtration element C3. The best number and style of the impurity filter device C2 to be installed depends on the water quality and the amount of suspended impurities and organic particles in water. The activated carbon filter C4 can be installed before or after the reverse osmosis filtration element C3 for removing any poison content in water.
The mesh of the reverse osmosis membrane of the reverse osmosis filtration element C3 are very tiny that the diameter of each reverse osmosis membrane mesh is very small, ex. 0.00000001 cm. The water pressure pump C1 is used to provide pressurized water (80 psi to 100 psi) in order to penetrate the reverse osmosis membrane. When the pre-purified water is pumped from the impurity filter device C2 through the reverse osmosis filtration element C3, the reverse osmosis membrane can isolate clean water molecules to obtain purified drinking water, wherein the highly concentrated waste water is drained off or collected for other cleaning purposes.
However, as mentioned above, purifying elements of the filter device and the activated carbon of the activated carbon filter are generally replaced after a predetermined period of time of use without one knowing the actual conditions of the purifying elements. Besides, the reverse osmosis filtration element must also be washed and cleaned periodically according to a specific cleaning schedule suggested by the manufacturer. In order to prolong the service life of the reverse osmosis filtration element, the impurities deposited in the reverse osmosis filtration element must be removed so as to prevent them from becoming hardened and clogging the reverse osmosis filtration element. It happens from time to time that the cleaning schedule of the reverse osmosis filtration element of the reverse osmosis purification system is unintentionally disregarded or overlooked. Furthermore, the chore of cleaning the reverse osmosis filtration element is not a task that people enjoy to do. It is an irresistible trend of the modem age that the consumers prefer an automated appliance rather than a manually operated appliance.
The reverse osmosis filtration element of the reverse osmosis purification system of drinking water mentioned above is capable of filtering out the impurities, such as unwanted suspended particles, the chlorine molecules, the pesticides, various organic matters, heavy metals, and the organic compound such as chloroform which is a carcinogen. In addition, the reverse osmosis filtration element is capable of deodorizing the water. If such impurities as mentioned above are allowed to accumulate in the reverse osmosis filtration element, its filtering effect will become seriously undetermined. Bacteria and fungi can grow and flourish on the accumulated impurities. Thereby, a potential health hazard is brought about to the users of the reverse osmosis purification system.
Moreover, if the drinking water purification system is used less often, the service life of the reverse osmosis membrane will be prolonged accordingly. Therefore, the scheduled maintenance work of the drinking water purification system is likely to be delayed or even skipped. The quality of operating performance of the drinking water purification system is often compromised by the lack of routine maintenance work of the drinking water purification system.