Does Your Apartment Complex Have A Commercial Water Treatment Plan

Many people living in apartment complexes and condos don’t normally think about what water treatment plans their buildings have or why it is important to have one in the first place. Commercial water treatment is a system designed to treat hundreds and thousands of gallons of water at high-flow rates to make it cleaner, healthier, and taste better.

While most people think that treatment of water from the municipal system is enough, it actually isn’t. The water treated by the municipal system travels along miles of pipelines, picking up harmful chemicals, bacteria and contaminants along the way. These contaminants can be detrimental to health, like chlorine, or cause blocking of pipes due to “hard water.”

At Art Plumbing, Air Conditioning & Electric, we value quality water, and want to supply your apartment block or condo with the same luxury. These are some of the services you can expect from a commercial water treatment plan and why we think they’re important.

• Water Softening

  As water flows through the pipelines, it picks up minerals along the way. Minerals like calcium and magnesium dissolve in water and make it “hard.” While this is not bad for your health, it is bad for the plumbing inside the home. Water hardness can deposit in the pipes and cause build-up and blockage. Water softening treatments typically use salt in a process to remove the minerals and make the water softer.

• Ultraviolet Disinfection

  In order to clean water from bacteria and other microorganisms, the water is typically treated with chlorine to kill these bugs off. The problem with this is that chlorine itself is also harmful. In commercial water treatment plans, you have to weigh up the removal of chlorine versus the incomplete elimination of these microorganisms. The benefit of getting a water treatment plan with ultraviolet (UV) disinfection is that you can get rid of both the chlorine and the microorganisms. Exposing bacteria to UV light kills them and makes the water healthier.

• Reverse Osmosis And Nanofiltration

  The process of nanofiltration and reverse osmosis are almost similar. The major difference is that reverse osmosis removes more contaminants than nanofiltration. The purpose of reverse osmosis is to demineralize and deionize water. This is achieved by pushing the water through a semi-permeable membrane under very high pressures. The result is water that is 98% free of contaminants with a low salt content.

• Dealkalization

  Alkalinity is the ability of water to neutralize acid. While this may sound like a good thing, water with excessive alkalinity can affect boiler performance. Product from the production of steam can mix with the compounds in water and make it alkaline. These compounds are highly corrosive to boilers and pipelines and can result in frequent maintenance. Boilers can be protected from these corrosive materials by amine compounds, but these are very expensive and need to be replaced often. The solution to this is to dealkalize your water supply. Most reverse osmosis and chlorine water treatment devices also dealkalize water.

In order to ensure greater water quality, it’s important to enquire from the governing body of the apartment complex where you live whether there is a commercial water treatment plan set up for you building. Give our water treatment professionals at Art Plumbing, Air Conditioning & Electric a call for more information on the commercial water treatment services we offer.