Standing in entrance of me was an enormous piece of metallic, the largest factor within the room right here at a press occasion at CES 2024, the biggest tech convention of the 12 months. It stands greater than 3 toes tall and weighs 800 kilos — and it is designed to extract water from the air, even right here within the arid Las Vegas desert. Meet the WC-100 WaterCube.
The purpose of this huge piece of apparatus? To do on your water invoice what photo voltaic panels can do on your electrical invoice — cut back it and even eliminate it fully.
However that “water independence” will value you: $20,000 on preorder, to be precise. “This can be a complete new mind-set. It is shifting the paradigm of how issues are going with water,” Genesis System’s CEO Sharon Stuckenberg informed CNET.
Water from the air
The idea is acquainted to anybody who’s seen the unique Star Wars and thought for a minute about what it meant that Luke Skywalker’s aunt and uncle had been “moisture farmers.” There’s humidity within the air, even when just a bit, and if you happen to condense it with the appropriate expertise, you possibly can create potable water actually out of skinny air.
Genesis Methods has made greater water techniques that may produce hundreds of gallons of water a day, however the home-scale mannequin is ready to supply about 100 gallons per day. That determine relies upon lots on the humidity — the 100 gallons was benchmarked at 80 levels Fahrenheit and 50% humidity.
If it is much less humid, the machine will nonetheless make water (Stuckenberg stated it is going to produce down into the only digits of humidity), but it surely will not make as a lot. If it is extra humid, it will make much more.
The WC-100 mannequin comes with a 50-gallon tank, however Stuckenberg and Genesis Methods EVP Kevin Barton prompt that combining the WaterCube with a bigger storage tank system may assist a family successfully handle its water wants.
Ditch the water invoice?
Eliminating the water invoice could sound tempting, however there’s that price ticket to think about. Out there financing would appear like a month-to-month cost of $200 to $250 for a number of years, Barton stated. Family water payments are variable and may vary from $30 to $300 a month, for instance.
Genesis Methods stated the worth tag will seemingly come down sooner or later. Proper now, the most effective you are able to do is reserve a mannequin for $500.
With the rise of wild climate and local weather change, expertise like photo voltaic panels, a dwelling battery on wheels and, sure, possibly even water harvesting, are prone to achieve momentum. Or no less than — within the case of an 800-pound, $20,000 water harvester — consideration.
