The SeaPod has a smart desalination system that will take saltwater from the sea and turn it into usable freshwater for the home. This system will operate with a holding tank for saltwater in the engineering room and Omer is here to give a demo of how everything will work.

The saltwater tank will be where the water comes from before it goes through the desalination system to be used in the kitchen, bathroom, and shower. This tank uses a pressure differential sensor similar to what is found in the bilge pump system to monitor the water level in the saltwater tank.

The pressure differential sensor communicates to the controller through waterproof connectors to relay the message of how much water is in the tank. The controller is set to maintain a water level of 80% capacity in the tank. When the water level drops below 60%, it will trigger the pump to turn on and begin refilling the tank. Once the sensor reads that the tank is 80% full, then it will stop the pump. The water level in the tank will always be between 60% and 80% by using this method.

This entire system operates automatically and doesn’t require any input from people. Through the home automation app, we can see a live graph showing how much water is currently in the tank. The app also allows the user to manually turn the pump on or off if it is ever needed.

This demo replicates the height that the saltwater tank will be above sea level. The pumps will have to overcome gravity to pump the water from sea level up about six meters to the tank in the engineering room. While it doesn’t seem like a big deal, it is important to have the proper pumps in place to be able to handle the workload.

You can see in the demo that Omer opens a valve on the bottom of the tank to allow the water level to drop to 60%. At the point when the water level drops below that 60% threshold, the pump automatically turns on to begin refilling the tank. The pump runs until the sensor reads that the tank is 80% full and it automatically stops pumping the water.

This system is working perfectly and that is a great sign as we move closer to installing the system onboard a SeaPod. Stay tuned for more updates as we ease closer and closer to getting these incredible homes in the water!