peebee
Out of Control
(Again! Oh lordie, lordie, can there be no end? ... )
Links below (in my "signature") all updated. The "Defuddler" is my attempt at making "Water Chemistry" accessible to all: By removing the drivel in water reports so you're left with what you need to know, not what someone tries to dictate what they think you need to know. Gone is all that arcane "Water Hardness" ... shame, because if you know what you're doing with it it's very fast at estimating what you might need in brewing water. Test! Do you know what "CaCO3" means in a water report? If you said, "Calcium Carbonate", you need the "Defuddler"!
Updated to replace many manual entries with calculation so you don't need enter so much (4 or 5 entries will do, up to 7 or 8 - max. - to provide more information than you'd ever need).
Updated "Sodium" handling so you're never left with doubtful final values (because the water companies mis-handle their "Hardness" data).
Updated calculation engine to more accurately pin-point the "Alkalinity" value (you won't need a documented "Alkalinity" value, so you don't have to worry if you haven't been given one).
Plus, other minor changes. The "Defuddler" was created in Microsoft Excel 365 (and some Excel 13) and tested in Google Sheets (online) (free!) and LibreOffice Calc (14.2.4.2) (free!).
The spreadsheet (doesn't look like one but that's what it is) is full of documentation, the actual sheet a bit tongue-in-cheek, but a separate, more "serious", document sheet. A preview of the document sheet follows:
(I can't recommend the "Defuddler" on a mobile ... I haven't tried it. But if you want to download from the forum, my "signature" is only visible in landscape mode).
Links below (in my "signature") all updated. The "Defuddler" is my attempt at making "Water Chemistry" accessible to all: By removing the drivel in water reports so you're left with what you need to know, not what someone tries to dictate what they think you need to know. Gone is all that arcane "Water Hardness" ... shame, because if you know what you're doing with it it's very fast at estimating what you might need in brewing water. Test! Do you know what "CaCO3" means in a water report? If you said, "Calcium Carbonate", you need the "Defuddler"!
Updated to replace many manual entries with calculation so you don't need enter so much (4 or 5 entries will do, up to 7 or 8 - max. - to provide more information than you'd ever need).
Updated "Sodium" handling so you're never left with doubtful final values (because the water companies mis-handle their "Hardness" data).
Updated calculation engine to more accurately pin-point the "Alkalinity" value (you won't need a documented "Alkalinity" value, so you don't have to worry if you haven't been given one).
Plus, other minor changes. The "Defuddler" was created in Microsoft Excel 365 (and some Excel 13) and tested in Google Sheets (online) (free!) and LibreOffice Calc (14.2.4.2) (free!).
The spreadsheet (doesn't look like one but that's what it is) is full of documentation, the actual sheet a bit tongue-in-cheek, but a separate, more "serious", document sheet. A preview of the document sheet follows:
The "Defuddler" predictably underwent modifications; some have been added to the earlier documentation, such as the alterations to the "Hardness" inner workings to resolve some types of information, and the move to a simpler model for driving the calculations. Giving over to a more thoroughly calculated approach greatly simplify operation, and better supported high sodium waters.
"Alkalinity" is now calculated (as is "Hardness" within the depths of the calculator) making "balance" the driving force behind calculations rather than rely on a string of hopefully positive consequences. Ion mass balancing is now central to many of the calculations being performed. "Sodium" gets much better recognition for its role in water chemistry, often ignored because ... well, it has no role in "Hardness". So, starting with Sodium (and Potassium, but other candidates from that family are found in too low a quantity to worry about) ...
There is no obvious way to properly predict which anions in a solution are associated with which cations, but based on assuming unbiased probabilities and the billions of subjects (ions) it isn't so difficult:
"Water Hardness" is a "science" that pre-dates the idea of "ions" and chemical salts in the water. It's updated to comply with "modern" science but still muddies the water about water science. The first figure illustrates the uncertain division of "Hardness" into component parts, the omission of single-valence Cations (like "Sodium") and the omition of the subject of "Alkalinity" other than vague reference to "Temporary Hardness", or "Carbonate Hardness", which does overlap "Alkalinity". "Hardness" makes a particularily good alternative to the likes of "Alkalinity" when covering subjects like pipe scaling, boiler scaling, and the like, with an easy to learn rational methodology to deal with those situations. The "modern" understanding (second figure ... but it's 200+ years old "modern"!) covers individual cations and anions and "Alkalinity"; so much cleaner and simpler, but a bit more theory to learn. Added to this is a very simple formula:
Total Alkalinity = ∑conservative-cations - ∑conservative-anions
"Total Alkalinity" means just that; Alkalinity in all it's forms. Though in this environment (treated drinking water) it will generally mean "bicarbonate". "Conservative Ions" are those generally unaffected by pH, temperature and pressure ... the opposite of "alkalinity"? It is advisable to have the different components in the calculations expressed as "equivalents" before attempting to solve them (it's easier!).
Together this adds up being able to calculate aspects of water chemistry from other aspects that didn't appear to have any connection to the subject. ... Pah, I'm waffling. It's not what this "Defuddler" is about! Removing the dross so you can properly see what you want and no more. If you need to understand "conservative ions", "nonconservative ions" and "alkalinity" some more I'd recommend starting with the Wikipedia article on "Alkalinity": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alkalinity.
This is quite a common situation: The "Water Report" has values for Sodium, Chloride and Sulphate, but not for Calcium and Magnesium. Which is a major headache because Calcium is the most important Cation for beer brewing. In the screenshot above the spreadsheet attempts to help by suggesting the value for Calcium that returns zero Alkalinity, and the "source" selected is "Foetid Mire" (for the sake of record keeping only).
(I can't recommend the "Defuddler" on a mobile ... I haven't tried it. But if you want to download from the forum, my "signature" is only visible in landscape mode).
