HomeSpring water purifier at Hunter Valley vineyard
In the dry times plaguing farmers across Australia, one Hunter Valley Vineyard has taken a new approach to maximising their available water by installing a Homespring central water purification system.
The new GE HomeSpring water purifier has been successfully used by De Iuliis Winery to upgrade on-site water used in irrigation to a safe drinking water standard. A bonus for their multi-use tourist facility, this innovative move has effectively stopped the need to truck in some 400,000l of costly drinking water and created an annual saving of $2,500 + GST per annum.
CEO of Nubian, John Huggart says, “The success of the GE HomeSpring in the Hunter is a great demonstration of how the system can be used with rural water supplies to create drinking quality water.”
“The system was designed to be used in domestic homes but has found applications in dairy farms, mining industries, and many residential applications with alternative water supplies.” Homespring water purifiers played critical roles in the Asian Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina humanitarian crises.
Commenting on the vineyard water program, Chief Winemaker, Mike De Iuliis says, “Essentially, the water from the irrigation water supplier is useful for only watering the vines. It isn’t fit for human consumption due to the level of e-coli and algae it contains, hence our need to bring in town water.”
Manufactured by GE Water using technology developed by Zenon Environmental, GE HomeSpring water purifier is imported into Australia by Nubian Water Systems . The unit can accept water with turbidity levels within 0-5 NTU (Nephelometric Turbidity Units – or measurement of cloudiness).
In De Iuliis’ case, a water analysis showed that the turbidity level was 5 NTU – just within the specifications. Turbidity levels in dam water are known to vary through the course of the year, so a sand filter (a simple swimming pool filter) was installed to eliminate much of the turbidity before the water goes into the Homespring. A further carbon filter was added to remove an algal taste that was evident in the water.
“With the Homespring, we are now able to utilize all of the water that we actually own without having to spend additional money trucking water in,” Mike De Iuliis comments. “This has represented a significant cost saving to us.”
About the Homespring central water purification system:
The HomeSpring central water purifier is a compact, chemical-free, point of entry system, providing purified water from every tap.
Homespring central water purifier complies with Australian Standards AS/NZS 4348, and is certified to remove harmful substances such as bacteria, viruses, cysts and parasites such as giardia and cryptosporidium and for chlorine and turbidity reduction.
19-Feb-2007