Commercial and residential water treatment eliminates a variety of harmful bacteria, protozoans, and viruses from water sources, including those causing gastroenteritis, typhoid fever, and salmonellosis. Here, learn about UV disinfection systems, or water treatment options that do not use chemical means to purify water for drinking, cooking, and bathing.

What Are They?

A UV disinfection system removes harmful microbes from water by exposing the liquid to UV-C light. UV wavelengths between 200 and 300 billionths of a meter, or nanometers, are capable of rendering bacteria and other harmful organisms inactive.

Viral strains and microbes additionally cannot reproduce once they are exposed to UV rays. UV wavelengths between 250 and 270 nanometers provide the optimal intensity for eradicating microorganisms, according to the EPA.

How Do They Work?

The system uses electromagnetic energy generated by a mercury arc lamp to create UV radiation that destroys each organism’s DNA and RNA. Low-pressure mercury lamps typically provide enough UV power for residences, while medium-pressure lamps offer medium- and high-intensity powers that are ideal for commercial settings.

UV disinfection systems come in contact and non-contact reactor options. Both allow wastewater to flow parallel or perpendicular to mercury lamps and include control boxes, or ballasts, that initiate and monitor the lamp voltage.

Contact reactors feature mercury lamps within quartz casings to reduce wastewater cooling and use flap gates to regulate water levels. Non-contact reactors feature lamps outside of the wastewater carrier.

What Are the Benefits?

The water treatment system offers a natural, environmentally friendly way to purify the essential liquid. Sunlight naturally disinfects a variety of substances without creating carcinogenic byproducts that are harmful to humans and animals, unlike chemical water treatment systems.

There is no need to handle dangerous chemicals when you opt for UV treatment, making it a user-friendly system that does not risk overdosing during the disinfection process. A UV disinfection system also reduces toxic or corrosive chemical storage in homes and businesses.

Additional benefits include near-instant purification upon contact, as low-pressure lamps take no more than 30 seconds to destroy microbes. The system also eradicates mold spores and can be used by itself or with hydrogen peroxide to remove toxic chemicals from water supplies. 

If a UV disinfection system is right for your residential needs, contact Hewitt-Messenger Well Drilling & Pump Service. Licensed by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, this company provides residents throughout Springfield, Republic, Ozark, Rogersville, and Branson with geothermal drilling, well pump, sump pump, and water treatment services. Call (417) 725-8816 today to schedule an installation or learn more about services online. Get additional water quality tips on Twitter.