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If you are dealing with salty water, then “yes,” either one of the residential reverse osmosis systems, or a distillation system, is needed. But, if like most of us, you get your water from a chlorinated system with no salt problems, you have simpler and far less expensive options. We will cover one these options in this article called selective filtration.

You may be reading this article because you have been hearing more and more about the importance of reducing our body’s exposure to toxins. Something often referred to as reducing the “body burden.”

Toxic contaminants in the water we drinks and bathe in has long been a concern to us all, and we should be concerned, but more and more the guys in the white coats are telling us the air quality in our homes is imposing even greater burdens on our bodies. The worst toxic contaminants in the air come from chlorine byproducts such as chloroform.

The EPA said, “Every home in America has an elevated level of chloroform gas (in the air) due to the vaporization of chlorine from tap and shower water.” (Also, while the shower produces the most chloroform in the air, the dishwasher and the washing machine aren’t far behind).

Since whole house units remove chlorine and other toxins from the water, at the point of entry into your home, they greatly improve both the air quality and the water quality.

And, there is a compelling reason to look at RO and SF technologies before you buy, because they differ significantly in initial costs and the cost to operate.

Good quality residential reverse osmosis systems are around $10,000. Good quality residential selective filtration systems come in at about $800. For most of us that difference might determine whether or not we can even get a whole house unit.

Why the big difference in price?

There are areas of our country where the ground water has been infiltrated with salt water and RO was developed to solve that problem years ago, when both water and electricity were cheap. But, this is a very expensive technology today and here’s why.

RO systems use the home’s water pressure to force water through a membrane having pores so small only molecules the size of water molecules, or smaller, can pass through, leaving contaminants with larger molecules behind.

Chemicals having a molecular size smaller than water’s, such as chlorine and its byproducts, will pass right through the membrane. For that reason, and in order to protect the membrane, RO systems must add a carbon filter to the system.

Smaller RO systems are very slow producers and typically take two to three hours to deliver one gallon of water. Whole house units are much faster, producing in the area of 1,800 gallons per day. Both large and small units require pressurized storage tanks to provide any quantity of filtered water.

The smaller RO units need the home’s water pressure to be at least 40 psi (pounds per square inch) to operate efficiently. Older homes, or well water systems, may require booster pumps. Whole house systems typically come with booster pumps.

Even with adequate pressure, a large quantity of water will not pass through the membrane and is wasted; often it is just dumped along with the filtered contaminants. These systems discharge anywhere from 2 to 5 gallons of wasted water for every gallon filtered.

While there are systems that do recycle the waste water, it is the cost of the recycling, extra pumps (if needed), electricity, and storage tanks that lead to the higher initial costs, and higher operating costs. Also, the more parts in the system, the more Murphy’s Law is likely to influence required maintenance and further increase operating costs.

About 95 percent of us are on a chlorinated water system, and that means a good option to consider is selective filtration.

In these systems, redox (reduction/oxidation), mechanical filtration and activated charcoal are integrated into a multistage filtering process that will quickly process the water at the whole house level.

Redox, which is a chemical exchange process, is a new kind of filter media that was developed to remove dissolved lead and other toxic metals from water. Prior to this simple filtration process, only RO or distillation was capable of taking toxic metals from water.

Over 99 percent of the chlorine, chlorine byproducts and other organic chemicals are removed by the adsorptive power of the activated charcoal. The overall process of selective filtration removes bad tastes, odors and sediment from the water and acts somewhat like a water softener, but there is no unhealthy sodium added to the water.

Selective filtration units are simple to install, and work quickly to filter over 7 gallons of water per minute with no waste, and no electricity, storage tanks, or booster pumps required.

For anyone looking to install a whole house water filter to improve the quality of the air in water in their home, selective filtration systems have a lot to offer.