How UV Pure added to the success of 2018 Solar Decathlon participant

Sole Canadian team in Chinese sustainable house competition adds UV Pure system to provide safe water.

A team of students, known as Team MTL, from McGill University and Concordia University recently participated in the 2018 Solar Decathlon, a competition that challenged participants to build a sustainable house using cutting-edge technologies.

The group, known as Team MTL, designed a house that uses a point-of-entry (POE) treatment UV disinfection system to treat the main water supply and protect residents from waterborne pathogens.

To ensure that they would never have to worry about water quality, the students wanted a UV disinfection system that provides a high level of safety for the water that is supplied throughout the house.

UV Pure donated a Upstream NC 15-50 disinfection system to support the experiential learning opportunities provided by the competition and improve the water quality of the main water supply.

The Upstream NC 15-50 system incorporates dual smart UV sensors that continually monitor UV lamp output and water quality, ensuring the highest level of treatment and public health protection. If either of these parameters does not meet the set specifications, the system will sound an alarm, notify the unit owner, and automatically shut down.

“We are grateful to UV Pure for supplying us with an Upstream NC 15-50 system for our home,” says Ben Wareing, Architecture Lead of Team MTL. “The system consistently provides a clean water supply to the house, ensuring the wellbeing of the inhabitants.”

Once treated with UV Pure’s disinfection system, the water is supplied to low-flow plumbing fixtures and appliances throughout the house such as the dishwater and washing machine.

This approach supports Team MTL’s water management strategy, which prioritizes conservation and reuse to help homeowners reduce potable water demand.

The 2018 Solar Decathlon took place in Dezhou, China from August 2 to August 19. A total of 48 universities from 10 countries around the world were represented in the 20 teams that competed in the Solar Decathlon.

At the end of the competition, teams were ranked in a number of categories, including: innovation, engineering, architecture, market appeal and communications.

Congratulations to Team MTL for placing first in the architecture, market appeal and communications competitions, and third in the innovation and engineering competitions!

How to earn LEED points with rainwater harvesting

Are you considering LEED certification for a new building?

If so, a rainwater harvesting system with UV Pure disinfection can help you earn points across several categories for your green building project.

Disinfection before distribution is an important part of a rainwater harvesting system as it inactivates harmful microbial pathogens that can contaminate rainwater as its collected and conveyed to storage. UV Pure’s products are validated to provide an effective UV disinfection dose in water with UVT as low as 50%. This level of treatment assures public health protection under challenging conditions and significantly outperforms many conventional UV systems, which are often rated to be effective for cleaner water at UVT above 75%.

UV Pure systems can achieve this level of treatment because Crossfire Technology® incorporates:

a dual-lamp, reflective disinfection process that provides 2.4 times the dose of conventional light-in-a-pipe systems, and
targets pathogens from 360 degrees to eliminate shadowing.
Each unit is also equipped with a self-cleaning system that prevents fouling of the quartz sleeve from minerals and enables it to be effective in water 10 times harder than conventional systems.
The self-cleaning system eliminates the need for unit owners to shut down, disassemble and manually clean the quartz sleeve and avoids the use of potentially hazardous acid.

A rainwater harvesting system equipped with UV Pure disinfection can help you gain LEED points across several categories, including:

Indoor water use reduction (up to 6 points):

New buildings can earn points for reducing potable water demand indoors with alternative sources of water, including treated rainwater.

Outdoor water use reduction (up to 2 points):

New green building projects earn a point by installing an efficient landscape irrigation system that reduces the site’s potable water demand by 50% from the calculated baseline for a site’s peak watering month. New sites can also obtain an additional point by reducing the site’s water requirements by an additional 30% using alternative water sources such as rainwater.

Rainwater management (up to 3 points):

New buildings can receive points for reducing runoff and improving water quality with low impact development (LID) and green infrastructure (GI). By adding a rainwater harvesting system, building owners can treat and reuse rainwater onsite, which helps the site reduce its potable water demand.

To learn more about water credits for obtaining LEED certification, click here.

We look forward to having you contact us to discuss your challenging UV disinfection needs.

New amalgam lamps improve UV treatment and performance

Effective treatment and reliable performance are two of the top factors operators consider when evaluating the effectiveness of UV lamps, since they often provide the final step, and sometimes the only step, in water disinfection.

That’s why UV Pure’s new high-capacity Hallett systems are equipped with high-output, long-life amalgam lamps that ensure they can consistently and reliably achieve their performance goals under the toughest conditions.

Longer lamp life

Each of UV Pure’s amalgam lamps are powered by a UL-certified pre-heat ballast, which provides a soft start to the amalgam lamps. It also increases their operating life by 65% to provide maximum UV output for up to 12,000 hours, or approximately 16 months.

Wider range of operation

UV output may decline when conventional light-in-a-pipe systems are exposed to cooler temperatures or extreme heat.

Compared to conventional systems, the new amalgam lamps provide greater thermal resistance, which enables them to produce the highest dose of germicidal UV-C light in a wider range of temperatures.

Proven reliability through third-party testing

UV Pure amalgam lamps are verified to meet stringent performance specifications. This validation assures operators that each UV Pure amalgam lamp will achieve the National Water Reuse Institute (NWRI) UV disinfection guidelines for wastewater treatment and reuse to provide the highest level of public health protection.

The units are also being validated to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) standards to treat various pathogenic microbes, including adenovirus.

System treats tough water conditions

The Hallett system, with Crossfire® technology, mounts UV lamps in air rather than inside the quartz sleeve and employs elliptical reflectors to reuse and reflect UV light energy.

This design targets pathogens from 360 degrees and intensifies the UV dose – enabling the Hallett systems to handle treated effluent that is 10X worse than conventional light-in-a-pipe UV systems.

Advantages of UV Pure’s Crossfire technology over conventional UV systems:

The benefits of genuine UV Pure lamps

A UV lamp is a UV lamp… right? Perhaps it’s not as simple as that, especially when it comes to protecting public health from harmful waterborne pathogens.

UV lamps often provide the final step (and sometimes the only step) in water disinfection, so it’s critical that they are tested and certified to operate properly within your UV Pure system and to consistently deliver the required UV dose.

We’ve learned that there are non-genuine UV Pure lamps available, but installing these lamps can adversely affect treated water quality and system operation.

Major risks that you and your UV Pure system can encounter when attempting to use non-genuine lamps:

Non-genuine UV lamps are not tested by UV Pure, or verified by third-party certifiers, to meet stringent performance specifications or water quality certification such as NSF/ANSI 55—putting the health and trust of those that depend on safe, clean water at risk.
UV Pure lamps are designed and validated to provide maximum UV output for 9,000 hours, or about a year. Non-genuine lamps may not provide the same assurance.
UV Pure smart controls and sensors may not perform as designed. These systems monitor and alert operators when lamps are approaching end of life and when lamp output drops below optimum performance.
System water quality certifications will become invalid as UV Pure can’t assure system performance when non-genuine lamps are in use, or even after they have been removed.
Sensitive electronic components such as control boards and ballasts may be adversely affected by non-genuine UV lamps, causing poor system performance, reduced component life or sudden component failure.
Damage to UV Pure systems caused by non-genuine lamps cannot be claimed as a warranty repair and any remaining warranty will be void.
Non-genuine lamps are not covered by UV Pure’s industry-leading one-year warranty.

How can you tell if a UV lamp is genuine?

Genuine UV Pure lamps are marked with the UV Pure logo and the UV Pure web URL at the base.

To learn more about the risks of non-genuine UV lamps and how to identify them:

To order replacement UV Pure lamps and to arrange for installation services, please contact your local UV Pure dealer.