Water-Electricity-Light System: Technology Innovations

• Main Authors: Cabacungan, Paul M., Tangonan, Gregory L, Cabacungan, Nerissa G.
• Format: text
• Published: Archīum Ateneo 2020
• Subjects: Clean Water System; Community Level Disaster Resilience; Potable Water During Disaster; Technology Innovation; Water Disinfection; Water Filtering; Environmental Sciences
• Online Access: https://archium.ateneo.edu/es-faculty-pubs/101; https://archium.ateneo.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1101&context=es-faculty-pubs
• Institution: Ateneo De Manila University

This paper presents the design of the Water-Electricity-Light System (WELS) that is an integration of technologies composed of rain catcher, mechanical filter and UV irradiation, solar panel, charge converter, LED light, inverter and car battery. We traced back its development from a bulky and expensive system that was meant to generate drinking water into a more innovative water cleaning system that integrated lighting and cellphone charging. We tracked the improvements applied to the system to make the design more efficient yet simple enough to be replicated and customized in order to address varied needs. We shared the alterations made to the system components based on installation experiences in different contexts. We also explored ways to lower its cost and to make its power storage more durable. Initial results are shared in this paper. Having seen its usefulness and realized its successful implementation on the ground, we are proposing the pre-positioning of WELS to promote disaster resilience in a community level. We based this assertion on the review of all documentations done and feedback gathered from our ten-year experience of more than 140 WELS installations all over the Philippines.