Playa Paul has a long and prosperous relationship with the organizers of Burning Man. We have had the most successful camps on playa and our clientèle is growing with every year. To show our appreciation to the event and it’s participants for what we have received, we want to gift some of the technology we have created back to the community. We are gifting the best, most efficient, most effective and most luxurious grey water evaporation system plans the playa has ever seen. Of course, you can always ORDER ONLINE a custom, ready-made evaporator directly from us if you desire. But if not, these pages should help get you up and running. It is our gift to you. All we ask is that you put a “Gifted by Playa Paul” label on your completed evaporator in a prominent location and tell everybody where the idea came from.
The Playa Paul Revolutionary® Greywater Evaporator System represents a whole new methodology in on-playa greywater management. The system utilizes the concepts that have proven effective over the years and incorporates a whole new technology that reduces size, increases efficiency and promotes the greenest of methods to disposing of greywater on playa. The days of messy, moopy ponds are over. The days of inefficient kiddy pool systems has come to an end. The square footage of playa you will save will allow you to sell more of your valuable themecmp space to paying customers – a WIN-WIN for you.
You will see the obvious genius our scientists and engineers have put into this system. You should also see that it is fully scalable for any camp but for most small camps of 50 or less, one or two evaporators may be all you need. Your production team should be able to adjust these plans to meet any camp size.
The Playa Paul Revolutionary® evaporator consists of a greywater storage tank, a small positive displacement water pump, canister filter system, a PWM motor speed controller, a 25 watt photovoltaic and battery power system, a siphon tank and an evaporator pad with an associated framework. All the components store neatly in the greywater storage tank at the end of use making the unit compact and portable. This unit takes only a short time to assemble and stow away on site. Lets discuss each component in greater detail. Links to suggested components can be found in the component descriptions. Your production team should have no problems sourcing components for this system.
HERE’S WHAT YOU’LL NEED
Graywater Storage: This is simple 54 gallon plastic storage bin available at most hardware stores. The bin comes with a lid allowing for all of the components to be stored when not in use. When in service, the evaporator itself sets within the bin and operates there allowing any water dripping to be contained. This completely eliminates any MOOP issues associated with greywater evaporation.
https://thd.co/2xK22Jx
Positive Displacement Water Pump: This will be a small 12 Volt D.C. pump similar in style to what is used in an R.V. but of lower capacity. The pump can be driven at a low speed to allow for lower power requirements. This pump can be run continuously wet or dry. When choosing your pump, try to pick one that is completely sealed. Otherwise, you will have to mount the pump in a container to keep dust out of the motor.
http://ebay.to/2xK6uIe
Canister Filter System: This is optional and is used to filter out sediment and other materials prior to the pump suction. This allows for a longer pump life and cleaner evaporator media. When no longer evaporating water, the filter may be discarded.
https://thd.co/2xJxNSW
PWM Motor Speed Controller: This controller will control the speed of the pump and lower the overall power requirements of the evaporator. This type of speed controller is frequently used in cordless drills and deliver torque even at lower speeds. It will also allow the pump to run continuously at a low temperature which promotes a longer pump life. There are many styles of controller. Choose one that is already completely assembled and, if possible, mounted in a housing to keep dust out. Otherwise, you will have to mount it in a dust free environment to prevent the potentiometer from failing.
http://ebay.to/2xJykUW
25 Watt Photovoltaic/Battery Power: Power is supplied by a combination of a budget hardware store photovoltaic solar panel and a standard deep cycle battery or auto battery of just about any capacity. Playa Paul does not endorse any product or company but the solar panels at Harbor Freight Tools may be better suited for the type of camp that does not have the abundant funding abilities that a Playa Paul camp would have. In some cases a 15 watt panel may be all that you need. However, the 100 watt kit has vastly more charging capability and will allow you to light your evaporator as well charge your cell phone so that you can send texts, update your social network and send emails all event long.
http://bit.ly/2xK7H29
Siphon Tank: This is a standard 5 gallon bucket with a modified bell siphon mounted inside. The bell siphon is a standard design with an air break vent used in many aquaponic systems. The siphon tank is the key to the efficient operation of the evaporator system. The bucket will slowly fill with water from the pump and when it has reached a predetermined level, it will automatically dump it’s contents out a hose to the evaporator media. This will completely saturate it allowing the entire surface area to be utilized. This eliminates dry spots and unused evaporator padding associated with most other evaporator designs. The siphon tank also eliminates wasteful recirculating of water. The bucket size and adjustments for the siphon will determine how much water is dumped each time allowing the dump to be tuned to the size and efficiency. The timing and frequency of the dumps is controlled by adjustments to the bell siphon and varying the output of the water pump. In normal operation, a dump every 10 or 20 minutes may be effective enough to evaporate a very sizable volume of water.
This informative video will show you the basics of how an aquaponics bell siphon works.
Evaporator: A semi-rigid evaporative pad is suspended on a simple PVC pipe framework and light gauge chicken wire. At the top of the evaporation media is a distribution pipe to wet the pads. The bottom of the pad hangs just under the lip of the 54 Gallon tote, containing any water that might drip from the pads during use. The media is standard, easily obtainable, kraft paper style evaporative cooler pad that comes in a continuous roll. Playa Paul does not endorse any particular product or company but we find Research Products Evaporative Cooler Media, Roll 7130 to be a superior evaporative media. If additional cooling is needed, a second row of this pad can be added to the first increasing the capacity of the evaporator. Adjust your pump speed/volume to handle the additional padding.
http://bit.ly/2xKAfss
Of course, you will need various other parts such as PVC tubing and fittings, wiring parts and pieces and other items for the construction. This will be looked at in greater detail as we look at the construction of the evaporator in greater detail.